Customer Reviews

The Same Earth

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Kei Miller was born in Jamaica and now spends much of his time in the UK, teaching Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. It was interesting to learn that he is based in Scotland for I had a sense of Scotsman Alexander McCall Smith (The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency) as I was reading this wonderful story of Imelda (Jamaican) starting her new life in England. Although McCall Smith's heroine, Precious Ramotswe, doesn't leave Botswana, the same easy-going style of writing, which captures the completely different way of life in a hot climate, is shared by both authors. Almost quaint at times, it still manages to demonstrate clearly the undercurrent of those who have, and those who have not.

Like many Jamaicans in the 70s seeking an apparently better way of life, Imelda is persuaded by her father, against her wishes, to leave her warm, easy-going country for cold, unresponsive England in the hope of earning money and doing better. She finds herself completely alone in London and lost in this hugely different and uncaring culture. Luckily, she is taken under the wing of an older woman, Purletta Johnson, who is clearly one of life's survivors, but Imelda never loses her innocence, and her trusting nature soon leads her into the arms of Ozzie, a man with a never-ending, high-flalutin' vocabulary designed to impress.

With the death of her mother, Imelda returns to Jamaica. She expects to find it just the same, and it is. Instead, it is she who has changed. Somehow knowledge of difference has managed to seep into Imelda's consciousness and her old friends and neighbours sense this as well. Most of all, the wildly Pentecostal preacher whose intimate knowledge of God Knows Best, senses that he's about to be exposed and he rallies God's People to oust Imelda.

The story may sound familiar, but the style of writing is wonderfully different and leads the reader directly to the heart of Jamaica.