Part autobiographical observation, part fictional narrative, In the Castle of My Skin follows the author's life in Barbados from his ninth year to his nineteenth, from a birthday marked with floods, to leaving school and home for Trinidad. The evolving consciousness of the boy is recorded with exceptional precision and sensitivity. It is a personal record, from a deliberate and carefully defended "castle."
In the story of a boy growing up on a small Caribbean island we find the story of the "undeveloped third world" - natural, primitive, unencumbered - becoming entangled with the materialism and anxiety of the twentieth century.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Growing aware of the Castle,
This review is from: In the Castle of My Skin (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) (Paperback)
"In the Castle of my Skin" is a highly poetic account of growing up in the black community of Barbadoes. Lamming gives us a vivid picture of G's family, his friends, his school and village life. Interwoven with G's everyday experience is his awareness of what it means being black and being poor in a somehow secluded island community. Lamming's teatment of racism is sober and sensitive. It's the more effective because it shows how inseparable its perception is from the growing awareness a young black boy has of himself. There is much more violence in this as in many a bloody battle. In it's poetic language,the vividness of its characters and scenery,the deep psychological insight and the sober and just treatment of the growing awareness of differences in the context of Carribean history this novel is a masterpiece of universal literature.It certainly can be read as "the portrait of a young artist"; The reference of the main character's initial to Lamming's first name George seems pretty obvious. But if a portrait, its an excellent one!
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How Barbados came of age,
By
This review is from: In the Castle of My Skin (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) (Paperback)
George Lamming's "In the Castle of My Skin" skilfully depicts the Barbadian psyche. Set against the backdrop of the 1930s riots which helped to pave the way for Independence and the modern Barbados, through the eyes of a young boy, Lamming portrays the social, racial, political and urban struggles with which Barbados continues to grapple even with some thirty-three years of Political Independence from Britain. Required reading for all Caribbean people. The novel also offers non-Barbadians and non-Caribbean people insight into the modern social history of Barbados and the Caribbean.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"a must read",
By Andrew Bartley (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In the Castle of My Skin (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) (Paperback)
The more I attempt to say about Mr Lamming's beautifully descriptive and uniquely refreshing style the more disservice I do to this marvelous work. If you have a Carribean, colonial or post colonial experience as I do, this novel is what they call "a must read". It evoked memories and thoughts in me long forgotten. You will find yourself laughing out aloud - which I did continuously on the E train to the point where I am sure my fellow riders thought me a lunatic. Above all this novel conveys a truth about the way we lived and live. It examines the march of time and the complexities and consequences of change and transition from the perspective of a Caribbean village. I am writing this as I search ... for more of Lamming's works.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
