Tweet
Just finished reading it! Let me say, that our Short Story Contest entrants are competing against a very high benchmark for my vote! 
The stories are from all parts of the Caribbean, which makes for a nice variety. As with all compilations, there are better stories and less good ones, but I was surprised that I read them all, and enjoyed 95% of them!
I think it's a must-have in everyone's library.
The order of the stories is arranged by the birthyear of the author. Starting with Frank Collymore (1893) and finishing with Edwidge Danticat (1969).
Representatives of the following countries are included:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc">[*]Barbados[*]Dominica[*]Trinidad[*]Guyana[*]Cuba[*]Jamaica[*]Haiti[*]Colombia[*]Guadelupe[*]Surinam[*]Puerto Rico[*]Montserrat[*]Antigua[*]Grenada[*]and Belize[/list]
One thing that I found surprising, is that despite some stories being translated into English from another language, they read very easily and are just as entertaining as the stories written by native English writers.
Also, seemingly different and remote countries like Surinam and Columbia, through it's proximity to the Caribean Sea, share a very similar mindset and culture in the coastal areas to that of the greater Caribbean community.
It would be very hard to say which story I liked the most. There were some where the writing style was captivating. Others had words handcrafted and selected so well.
Some had a story that kept you reading to find out how it all turned out, and others surprised you at every page. Here's a sample of a few that stick out in my mind:
One such story that is a work of art is Cuban author's Alejandro Carpentier's <span style="text-decoration: underline">"Journey to the Seed". </span>
The story is set in Old Havana where an old man watches the crumbling palace being demolished by contractors.
What transpires next is a warpspeed journey though the old man's imagination
of the things these walls must have seen... in reverse. Here are some bits of this story:
<span style="font-weight: bold">"Don Marcial, Marquis of Capellanias lay on his deathbed, his breast clad in medals, and with an escort of four candles with long beards of melted wax. The candles grew slowly and lost their beads of sweat. When they regained their full height, and nun put them out and drew away her taper" [...}
"Whilst the doctor shook his head with professional condolence, the sick man felt better. He slept for a few hours and awoke with the black beetle-browed
regard of Father Anastasio upon him. The confession changed from being frank, detailed and full of sins to being reticent, halting and full of concealments. And after all, what right had that Carmelite friar to interfere in his life?" [...]
"The cracks in the facades gradually closed. The palm trees lost some rings. The climbing plants let go of the first cornice. Crowsfeet, frowns, and double chins were erased and the flesh regained its firmness. One day the smell of fresh paint filled the house." [...]
"The furniture grew. It became more and more difficult to keep his arms on the edge of the dining-room table. The armchairs were deeper and the rocking chairs tended to go over backwards.[...]
"Cupboards, escritoires, beds, crucifixes, tables, blinds flew into the night seeking their ancient roots in the jungles. A brig anchored (heaven knows where) hurriedly took the marble of the floor tiles and the fountain back to Italy."</span>
The story detail the transformation of the palace, it's inhabitants, and the events that took place, all in reverse. It's so cleverly written, that despite knowing what will happen next, one is still in for a surprise. As we tend to life our lives forward and not in reverse, even simple things become interesting.
Some of you may have already read Naipaul's <span style="text-decoration: underline">"The Night Watchman's Occurance Book". </span>It's contained here. For those of you that never read it, the entire story is just entries by the night watchman, and daytime replies of his supervisor. Yet as the drama unfolds in the hotel, we get a clear picture of the occurences happening in the hotel, if not written, then implied.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">"The Inheritance of my Father: A Story for Listening"</span> by half Dutch and half Surinamian author Astrid Roemer describes a cassette tape that a young girl growing up in Holland records for her Dutch mother describing her trip with her father to Suriname for the first time. The innoscence and the unbiased view of a young girl, set against the very not-innoscent and very biased world is a play in contrast. It takes us through situations many of us can relate. But even for readers that don't, the story will make you hope for a happy ending.
Anybody that's ever been though a hurricane can relate to <span style="text-decoration: underline">"After the Hurricane"</span> by Edgardo Sanbria Santaliz. Although as you soon discover, as the title suggests, it's about what happened after.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">"The Waiting Room"</span> by a Belizean writer describes an ambitious and well-married young lady from country on a quest to get a visa to go farrin.
It's a hillarious story that we can all realate to. You will never sit in any waiting room again without thinking back on "The Waiting Room".
Probably the one story that I enjoyed the most is by a Jamaican author Geoffrey Philp. It combines the nice writing style, a good story, interesting characters
and makes it stick in your mind long after you've read it. <span style="text-decoration: underline">"My Brother's Keeper"</span> is a story of a Jamaican boy who's life was all in order until the arrival of his father's American outside child to live with him in Jamaica. It's written in first person perspective, and the boy a comedian. Here's a sample:
<span style="font-weight: bold">"When we get to the park, I tell him to keep him mouth shut. I never want my friend to find out that him was me brother. But as we step through the gate, Richard Chin Sang say, "Who that with you, Umpire?" Umpire is my nickname, but that is another whole long story. Before Richard could finish the question, the little idiot shout out, "I'm his brother."
"Well everybody start to laugh because him never look anything like anybody in my family and Richard say him must be a jacket. Richard did want to change my name from Umpire to 'Three Piece Suit and Thing,' 'And Thing' would be David."</span>
The stories are from all parts of the Caribbean, which makes for a nice variety. As with all compilations, there are better stories and less good ones, but I was surprised that I read them all, and enjoyed 95% of them!
I think it's a must-have in everyone's library.
The order of the stories is arranged by the birthyear of the author. Starting with Frank Collymore (1893) and finishing with Edwidge Danticat (1969).
Representatives of the following countries are included:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc">[*]Barbados[*]Dominica[*]Trinidad[*]Guyana[*]Cuba[*]Jamaica[*]Haiti[*]Colombia[*]Guadelupe[*]Surinam[*]Puerto Rico[*]Montserrat[*]Antigua[*]Grenada[*]and Belize[/list]
One thing that I found surprising, is that despite some stories being translated into English from another language, they read very easily and are just as entertaining as the stories written by native English writers.
Also, seemingly different and remote countries like Surinam and Columbia, through it's proximity to the Caribean Sea, share a very similar mindset and culture in the coastal areas to that of the greater Caribbean community.
It would be very hard to say which story I liked the most. There were some where the writing style was captivating. Others had words handcrafted and selected so well.
Some had a story that kept you reading to find out how it all turned out, and others surprised you at every page. Here's a sample of a few that stick out in my mind:
One such story that is a work of art is Cuban author's Alejandro Carpentier's <span style="text-decoration: underline">"Journey to the Seed". </span>
The story is set in Old Havana where an old man watches the crumbling palace being demolished by contractors.
What transpires next is a warpspeed journey though the old man's imagination
of the things these walls must have seen... in reverse. Here are some bits of this story:
<span style="font-weight: bold">"Don Marcial, Marquis of Capellanias lay on his deathbed, his breast clad in medals, and with an escort of four candles with long beards of melted wax. The candles grew slowly and lost their beads of sweat. When they regained their full height, and nun put them out and drew away her taper" [...}
"Whilst the doctor shook his head with professional condolence, the sick man felt better. He slept for a few hours and awoke with the black beetle-browed
regard of Father Anastasio upon him. The confession changed from being frank, detailed and full of sins to being reticent, halting and full of concealments. And after all, what right had that Carmelite friar to interfere in his life?" [...]
"The cracks in the facades gradually closed. The palm trees lost some rings. The climbing plants let go of the first cornice. Crowsfeet, frowns, and double chins were erased and the flesh regained its firmness. One day the smell of fresh paint filled the house." [...]
"The furniture grew. It became more and more difficult to keep his arms on the edge of the dining-room table. The armchairs were deeper and the rocking chairs tended to go over backwards.[...]
"Cupboards, escritoires, beds, crucifixes, tables, blinds flew into the night seeking their ancient roots in the jungles. A brig anchored (heaven knows where) hurriedly took the marble of the floor tiles and the fountain back to Italy."</span>
The story detail the transformation of the palace, it's inhabitants, and the events that took place, all in reverse. It's so cleverly written, that despite knowing what will happen next, one is still in for a surprise. As we tend to life our lives forward and not in reverse, even simple things become interesting.
Some of you may have already read Naipaul's <span style="text-decoration: underline">"The Night Watchman's Occurance Book". </span>It's contained here. For those of you that never read it, the entire story is just entries by the night watchman, and daytime replies of his supervisor. Yet as the drama unfolds in the hotel, we get a clear picture of the occurences happening in the hotel, if not written, then implied.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">"The Inheritance of my Father: A Story for Listening"</span> by half Dutch and half Surinamian author Astrid Roemer describes a cassette tape that a young girl growing up in Holland records for her Dutch mother describing her trip with her father to Suriname for the first time. The innoscence and the unbiased view of a young girl, set against the very not-innoscent and very biased world is a play in contrast. It takes us through situations many of us can relate. But even for readers that don't, the story will make you hope for a happy ending.
Anybody that's ever been though a hurricane can relate to <span style="text-decoration: underline">"After the Hurricane"</span> by Edgardo Sanbria Santaliz. Although as you soon discover, as the title suggests, it's about what happened after.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">"The Waiting Room"</span> by a Belizean writer describes an ambitious and well-married young lady from country on a quest to get a visa to go farrin.
It's a hillarious story that we can all realate to. You will never sit in any waiting room again without thinking back on "The Waiting Room".
Probably the one story that I enjoyed the most is by a Jamaican author Geoffrey Philp. It combines the nice writing style, a good story, interesting characters
and makes it stick in your mind long after you've read it. <span style="text-decoration: underline">"My Brother's Keeper"</span> is a story of a Jamaican boy who's life was all in order until the arrival of his father's American outside child to live with him in Jamaica. It's written in first person perspective, and the boy a comedian. Here's a sample:
<span style="font-weight: bold">"When we get to the park, I tell him to keep him mouth shut. I never want my friend to find out that him was me brother. But as we step through the gate, Richard Chin Sang say, "Who that with you, Umpire?" Umpire is my nickname, but that is another whole long story. Before Richard could finish the question, the little idiot shout out, "I'm his brother."
"Well everybody start to laugh because him never look anything like anybody in my family and Richard say him must be a jacket. Richard did want to change my name from Umpire to 'Three Piece Suit and Thing,' 'And Thing' would be David."</span>