Customer Reviews

Easy in the Islands (Contemporary American Fiction)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Diving head first into the collection of short stories that together embody the spirit and adventurous energy of the islands, I swam in the wonderfully clever landscape that Shacochis has painted for his readers. He writes with such ease, his characters seemingly existed before their stories were created. More than this, Shacochis does a dream-like job of taking the reader on an adventure, which is overall, the appeal of islands.

Each more independent than the last, the stories flow effortlesly into the reader's subconscious, relaxing the muscles, and wandering the islands in the reader's mind. It is as if the landscape itself acts as a continuously appearing character, simply asking the reader to open up to new and exciting experience.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys leaving their mind, if only for a brief while, to swallow down the purity of a presumed paradise. Don't hesitate on this one, turn off the television, and get on board for "Easy in the Islands". Who knows, you just might not want to leave once you get there. It is that easy!

I can't believe this book is out of print, it is by far the most accurate book on the culture of the Caribbean. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in St. Vincent in the Caribbean and I believe the author also served in the same area in the Peace Corps. With every short chapter, i was amazed at how he captured the essence of life in the region. I have bought this book for all my friends and family who asked me what it was like to live in the Caribbean, this book is a true treasure.

My wife and I were asked to read this book of short stories before our first trip to the Caribbean. I thought it was amusing and interesting throughout. No wonder it won the National Book Award for First Fiction. With shades of American writing from the south, these short stories convey the dilemmas, humor, and enigmas of being a whole person mutated by time, place, temperature, sea, flowers, gender, and color. Wonderful stuff. You won't go wrong.

Easy process...priced right, quick response...now all I have to do is find the time to READ!!!

After reading "How to Breathe Underwater" I was beginning to think I liked short stories, so I had hopes for this book
I'm not normally a fan of short stories, so to hold my interest the book must be engaging. This book was not - it was just a long boring book.
The first story was about getting his dead mother off the island, which actually was one of my favorite stories, but only because of the black humor of it.
Some of the stories were written in a dialect that was very hard for me to understand.
"Lord Short Shoe Wants the Monkey" was just a weird story - I couldn't really get anything out of it. It might be because I'm not familiar with the Caribbean, therefore I couldn't appreciate the stories, whatever it is, I will not be keeping this book in my library.