From Publishers Weekly
The exploitation of Guyana's wry peasantry centers Guyana-born, Louisville-based Carew's lushly descriptive collection. Chantal proves a cautionary story of how far a husband can push his wife—and vice versa—before triggering a violent backlash. Two of the tales involve the passage to manhood of young Belfon, whose hard-luck mother gives him away in The Visit when she gets pregnant by a man other than Belfon's father. Brought up by his wealthy godfather, Atlassa, Belfon is the first student from his village of Biaro to win a place at the university, and in The Initiation of Belfon he heads to Trinidad by boat. He stops at the home of an old family friend and sensuous preacher-woman, Couvade, who teaches him more about the world than his godfather could. The last three stories pursue a West Indian man in exile, Cesar, who emigrated to Britain during WWII and remains in London as part of a colonial old-timer community, suffering enduring discrimination and eager to return home. In these 10 sharply observed tales, Carew makes a Guyanese sensibility—its wanderings home and away—palpable.
(July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Carew, born in Guyana, studied at Howard University, Western Reserve University, Charles University in Prague, and the Sorbonne in Paris. In London he was broadcaster, writer, and editor with the BBC. Author of six novels and a multitude of plays, poetry, articles, and stories, he has resided in Mexico, England, France, Spain, Ghana, Canada, and lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
