Thine Is The Kingdom [Paperback]

Garth Buckner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2009

When young Gavin Blake returns to his island home to claim his right to citizenship he is stonewalled. He discovers that the only way forward is through bribery. Confronted with the stark irony of having to do something illegal to become legal he finds he must make a choice. While he weighs his options, Gavin takes a job on the yacht of a wealthy young local called Jacob Thesinger who lives in an old colonial seaside home and who sees himself as the defender of the island's culture and history while crime and corruption threaten him. A local fisherman who uses the abandoned property next door as a base and moors his boat directly in the path of Thesinger's yacht becomes the focus of Thesinger's rage. Neither man respects the other, nor the other's property, and they are set headlong towards a confrontation which comes as Gavin Blake is forced to make his final choice and which leads ultimately to death. This is a novel that explores the nature of class and identity in the post-colonial world through a narrative rich in imagery and wrought in a confident, graceful prose. Both a tale of adventure and a story of conflict Thine is the Kingdom reveals the inner lives of Buckner's characters and in so doing implicates us all in one man's struggle to do the right thing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The hero of [Buckner's] new novel is forced by circumstances to make a choice he would rather not make. The novel is the story of how he comes to this juncture and how his choice changes him...the book is really about a very basic human conflict and could be set anywhere. --The Bahama Pundit

...every aspect of Buckner's earlier novel, The Origins of Solitude the immediacy of its perspective, the terseness of the prose, the universality of its subject reveal it to be a timely and thoroughly 'international' work...(a) surprising, arresting and assuredly written novel...with realistic, almost journalistic prose set again sweeping canvases of color and light...The Origins of Solitude...charts a space where two very different worlds overlap where the familiar, safe and modern world confronts the brutish, primitive and unforgiving. --Nassau Tribune Book Review

The thought behind The Origins of Solitude is reminiscent of DeLillo and the language has the feel of McCarthy, but the fiction itself is entirely original. --Michael Kimball, author of Dear Everybody

About the Author

Garth Buckner is also the author of The Origins of Solitude and several short stories published in the literary journals Tin House, New York Tyrant, andAvatar. He lives in Nassau, Bahamas, with his wife and two sons.

Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: Ravenna Press (May 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097919217X
• ISBN-13: 978-0979192173
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,114,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An adventure on a Caribbean island where old money tries to survive amidst the poor also trying to survive, February 17, 2009

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thine Is The Kingdom (Paperback)

Gavin Blake is a university graduate that has spent a few years playing the role of a transient student, backpacking around the world. In order to establish some roots, he has returned to the Caribbean island where he was born. His father was an American and his mother was native to the island, so according to the law on the island, he is not a citizen. Law is a relative term on the island, basically relative to how much money you can pay to have the law enforced.
Since he is on the island illegally, Gavin has few options so he takes a job working for Jacob Thesinger, a wealthy man whose family made their fortune bootlegging during prohibition. Thesinger is a man watching his world come apart as the island is descending into lawlessness, police stations are being closed, the government is growing more corrupt and the electric power fails on a regular basis.
While Gavin is a loyal employee, that trait is severely tested when Thesinger engages in some dangerous actions and prepares to sell his yacht and depart the island. In what is no doubt a last hurrah, Thesinger throws a party for his fellow wealthy islanders and it degenerates into a drunken morass. The local security guards hired for the event aid in theft, largely disappear and while Gavin tries to stop it, he is generally powerless. Fortunately, through bribery, Gavin is able to obtain his citizenship and a passport. The story closes with Gavin now realizing that the passport gives him his freedom.
There are several themes in this novel, the stateless, aimless person trying to establish roots, the wealthy class under siege by creeping lawlessness and the increasingly desperate poor, the hunting of seafood to the point of local extinction, a sense of powerlessness against the tide of social change and the myth of the idyllic existence on a tropical island. The story moves well, although there is no definitive resolution of the conflicts. In my opinion, this is the way it should have ended, as these problems are so complex that any resolution would have appeared artificial.

5.0 out of 5 stars A best seller in the Bahamas, February 17, 2009

By 

Neale Jones - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thine Is The Kingdom (Paperback)

"Thine is the Kingdom" is that rare novel that combines a great story with questions about what it means to be human. Set in the Bahamas - a back drop that both lives up to that island county's postcard image and shatters it at the same time - the novel follows the homecoming of the narrator Gavin Blake, born on the island but denied citizenship because his father was foreign, who has returned to sort his papers out. Blake goes through a series of adventures and misadventures with his boss, the colorful Jacob Thesinger, a questionable and larger than life individual who's world is under siege by the elements and by lawlessness. As the threats, break-ins and hold ups mount Thesinger's actions become more extreme and questionable and put Blake, on the island illegally, in a compromised position. Eventually he needs to get his papers sorted out or face the possibility of being deported from the country of his birth. But he finds the bureaucracy unresponsive and is finally forced to choose between his sense of morals and having to pay a bribe for his papers. I won't give away the ending - except to say someone is killed. This is a book that raises a lot a questions about identity and society. When it came out in the Bahamas the publisher's ad asked "Is it ever right to do something illegal to become legal?". The novel hit a nerve and sold out nationwide in 9 days. Now its been published in the United States, giving everyone a chance to read it.

4.0 out of 5 stars More than Palm Trees are swaying in little Nassau..., February 17, 2009

By 

Malcolm R. Mckay - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thine Is The Kingdom (Paperback)

Buckner's "Thine is The Kingdon" is a one day read for you will not be able to put it down! Island Life, the true reality of life in The Bahamas in the post colonial period of modern day. Old values and new ones slash with palm trees swaying and the smell of sea air waughs around the characters Buckner has created in detail. Life is not all which one imagines in these Islands off The Florida Coast...A must read for anyone whom has lived "Island Life".