Customer Reviews

Prash and Ras

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

 

 

Two intriguing novellas. The first one 'Planet of Ras' hauntingly evokes a real life story I read of years after its publication of the mysterious disappearance of a young American woman.

In Williams story it's a Geraman woman on the verge of suicide who chooses to step into the Jamaican sub culture world of Rastafarianism. An unlikely trio of healer, artist-painter and master drummer lead her to love and accept a different rhythm of life. She understands what it is to marvel at the joys of nature and to know what true family means.

Williams' conveys the several levels of reality underlying the tiny ,fragile group. There is serenity sometimes challenged by tensions. There is the vision of an ideal community balanced by the realism that they can be so easily crushed by the very powrful and real forces of the orthodox society ( Babylon). In the end we are moved by both the groups strengths and their vulnerability.

There may yet come a time when we might see Williams as a prophet of a coming time when true community built on shared values will be the predominant belief of our culture.

'What Happening There, Prash', tells the story of another societal clash. This time an Indo-Guyanese couple escapes from the stultifying restrictive Socialist regime of Guyana to the dazzling materialistic lights of New York. Prash's wife Sookmoon eagerly tastes the delights of being a 'liberated' woman.Sadly Prash has to learn that behind the bright lights there are terribly dangerous deals. He may have left one society's evils to take up another.

These stories give us insights into the pain and emotional trauma that modern life brings to even the simple and innocent.