Flickering Shadows [Hardcover]

Kwadwo Agymah Kamau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996

Political corruption, lust, and betrayal poison a Caribbean island paradise.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In his first novel, Kwadwo Agymah Kamau has written a story of the contests played out in the Carribean between the spirit of the people and the colonizing and corrupt structures that attempt to control the island paradise. With an intimate sense for the dialect of his native Barbados, Agymah Kamau tells a memorable story of exploitation, resistance, and rebellion, with a narrative point of view that extends beyond the boundaries of the living and the dead, to the life of the unnamed island and the people who live in the village known simply as the Hill.

From Publishers Weekly

The epic power of the West Indies' storytelling tradition comes alive in this skillfully imagined first novel about an unnamed Caribbean island making the transition from colonial domination to self-rule. Originally from Barbados but now a Virginia resident, Kamau sets his tale on the Hill, a tight-knit community of farmers, craftsmen and dockworkers, focusing on the effects of the governmental shift on the common people. While political and religious avarice are as old as time, the people of the Hill come to life as original and vital creations, as do the spirits of their rambunctious deceased relatives. The community is a brilliant microcosm in which ancient wisdom is juxtaposed with modern naivete, lust with love and pettiness with honor. Orchestrating the earthy narrative is the spirit of Old Cudjoe, who tells the story through the lives of his grown grandchildren, Cephus and Inez, their spouses, Doreen and Boysie, and children, Kwame and Kojo, as they react to the election of Anthony Roachford, one of the Hill's own, as prime minister. Despite his victory at the polls, Roachford's ambitions have always been suspect, and those suspicions are confirmed when the Hill discovers the extent to which the newly elected leader is willing to sell out his people for personal gain. Kamau's lean prose serves as the perfect backdrop for the richly wrought dialect of his characters' speech. Handling vernacular with the absolute minimum of visual dislocation and tortured spelling, the author injects his book with an almost audible rhythm that adds immeasurably to the depth and power of the tale. The shocking and brutal changes that wrack the Hill are offset by the elemental cohesion, elasticity, mysticism and humor of the Hill's culture and the constancy of its struggle to endure.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Coffee House Press; First Edition edition (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566890497
• ISBN-13: 978-1566890496
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #918,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different kind of ghost story, September 19, 2000

By 

Tim Lieder "Founder of Dybbuk Press" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flickering Shadows (Hardcover)

Ten pages into this book the narrator dies. From then on he's a duppy alternately watching and interfering with the actions of mortals. Plenty of ghosts join in the fun but it is largely the Narrator's perspective. Rather than being an omniscent detached narrator, this is a first person story told from someone who'd love to join in on the lives of others but can't. He's bitter, cantankerous, judgemental and altogether foolish for a dead guy. He even influences a decision and then later regrets it as nepotism. He's hilarious.

And he's gotta be funny, because the main plotline is depressing. On a small Carribean island in the worst spot of land, a missionary moves in with an agenda to buy up the land and exploit the resources. The two main characters try to oppose him but they spend most of their time betraying each other as well as getting thrown in jail by the corrupt officials. There's also precognizance that ultimately they'll both be killed as well as their children. Around them are assassinations, brutality and politicians uniformly corrupt and/or stupid.

Still, as the ghost telling the story doesn't seem to mind, you are moved along the plotline without letting yourself get too bogged down in the horrors. Akin to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabelle Allende this is in many ways a much more robust version of the Magical Realism genre.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humor and heritage C'bean style, January 14, 2001

By 

M. D. Small (VI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flickering Shadows (Hardcover)

This novel was a serendipitous gem! Who would have thought that an unknown author whose book was hidden on the sale shelf would bring so much enjoyment to those of us who are C'bean and proud of it? The author intertwined the spiritual realm with the realities of a small Caribbean nation. The results were hilarious (most of the time)and thought provoking (all of the time). The men and women that inhabit this novel are family to me. They live the life my grandparents experienced and through all the hardships maintained a dignity and love of life that was a joy to read. If you enjoy Sam Selvon and other classic C'bean writers, dig into this book. After I reluctantly finished this book, I immediately lent it to my Bajan friend, who related to it even more than I did. I hope that I am lucky enough to find somethng else by this wonderful author.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book!, December 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Flickering Shadows (Hardcover)

I have no familiarity with the Caribbean or its culture. I bought the book by chance from a mark-down table a year or two ago. Having just finished reading it, I wish I could give it more than five stars. I found it entertaining, funny, thought provoking, and poetic. Probably one of the best pieces of fiction I've read in years. I'm hoping Kamau has written more that I can read. What a talent! What an enjoyable reading experience! And yes, profoundly original in its concept. Wow.