Woe Shirt: Caribbean Folk Tales [Paperback]

Paule Barton (Author), Norman Laliberte (Illustrator), Howard Norman (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Creole

Product Details

• Paperback: 62 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press; 1st edition (June 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915308363
• ISBN-13: 978-0915308361
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,302,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well produced genuine Caribbean folk tales, July 14, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Woe Shirt: Caribbean Folk Tales (Paperback)

This book contains 13 short folk tales collected from Paule Barton - originally a Haitian goat herder. They are accompanied by drawings by Norman Lalibene who has captured the spirits of the stories. The stength of this book is that it has kept an oral flavor and oral structure while being sufficiently literary to make the stories easy to read and enjoyable - this is not an easy feat.

In the tales you will see a card-shark outwitted, a man unwilling to make a decision,a duck handler mistrusting a witch, bargains with ghosts ... in short, bits of Caribbean life.

If you enjoy folk tales, give this volume a chance.

5.0 out of 5 stars great surrealistic prose poems, November 3, 2002

By 

Bob Swain "Seattle" (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Woe Shirt: Caribbean Folk Tales (Paperback)

These short prose poems are completely startling and odd, unlike most faked suburban surrealism from writer's workshops, these have a rough great edge. I can't quite understand them but I have read them all a hundred times in wonder at their charm, their strangeness, and their hallucinogetic power. I wish they were still in print, as I'd like to teach them.