Customer Reviews

Tide Running: A Novel

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This novel about a poor young Tobagon man and his encounter with a wealthy couple who draw him into their lives, blithely, without considering the consequences, is one of the best portrayals of contemporary Caribbean life I've ever read. Brilliant, sensual, and ultimately disturbing, Tide Running is, like Kempadoo's first novel, Buxton Spice, an exploration of the effects of class and wealth on a young nation trying to come into its own in the shadow of its wealthy neighbor to the north.

Tide Running was recommended to me by a friend last spring. At the end of my semester, I eagerly purchased a copy for a leisurely summer read, but found myself tearing through it at break-neck speed. In retrospect, I sense that part of what kept me reading was its wonderful sense of rhythm, both in its sentences, and in the narrative. I enjoyed the different perspectives gained in reading this book about a place I know little to nothing about, and enjoyed this introduction to a very talented writer. The story has stayed with me, and I sense I will be returning to this writer to dip into the lives of her other characters.

With the realism of a documentary film maker,
Oonya Kempadoo chronicles the lives of two
economically challenged Tobagonian brothers ,
Cliff and Ossi. Fascination with a well off
couple living on the island , soon reels the
older of the two brothers , Cliff , into a
maze of sex , deceit and chaos.

The accurate dialect and vivid descriptions
used by the author , mentally transport the
reader to the tiny island of Tobago.