Greenwichtown Discussion

[Pepper]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

JP,

Thanks for your candid responses. Your writing was so detailed, I can see that you had a birds eye view of what you were writing about.
(just didn't know you were so close to the story).

Is your next book about Jamaican and/or a Jamaican? Or is that top secret information?

[Tigrrr]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Pepper were you born in Jamaica? I think you weren't but I'm getting old and my memory is...
what was I saying?

Anyway, I am surprised that there were not more Jamaican readers contributing to this thread.

[Guest]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Joyce,

Have you published other books ? Anything in the works ?

[Pepper]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Originally posted by Tigrrr:
[qb]Pepper were you born in Jamaica? I think you weren't but I'm getting old and my memory is...
what was I saying?

Anyway, I am surprised that there were not more Jamaican readers contributing to this thread.[/qb]

Yes, I am Jamaican. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Pepper]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Originally posted by Jamaica dreamin:
[qb]Joyce,

Have you published other books ? Anything in the works ?[/qb]

Originally posted by joyce palmer:
[qb]
I am working on my second book which is totally unlike Greenwichtown and will be called, "The love life of senior citizen Bob Withers."
Sorry if my post is too long and Nina I went easy on the CAPS.[/qb]

[RuMnRaisN]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Hi there.
I'm now intrigued about the book that you'll are talking about and seem to love. I think I got the title as being "Greenwhich town" and it's by Joyce ? Please give me the correct details I'm going to do a check at Chapters to see if I can order it as we don't get many books by Black/caribbean authors this side.
Let me know and when I find it, if it's not too late, I hope no one minds me putting in my 2 penny worth [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Guest]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Originally posted by RuMnRaisN:
[qb]Hi there.
I'm now intrigued about the book that you'll are talking about and seem to love. I think I got the title as being "Greenwhich town" and it's by Joyce ? Please give me the correct details I'm going to do a check at Chapters to see if I can order it as we don't get many books by Black/caribbean authors this side.
Let me know and when I find it, if it's not too late, I hope no one minds me putting in my 2 penny worth [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [/qb]

The title is "Greenwich Town", the author is Joyce Palmer. I ordered it from Amazon.com. If you find the thread in this forum "Second Book Club Selection" you'll be able to click on the link there. (You'll get your book & help generate $$ for this site) [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

It was a great read. Enjoy it. And please come back & post your thoughts on it.

[sunshinegal]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

You can order the book here: Greenwichtown by Joyce Palmer

If you don't mind using Amazon.com, you will be contributing a little to Jamaicans.com if you use that link. Thanks!!!!

[mollyss]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Some may have misunderstood, I did understand all of the patois. I understood too easily I guess, meaning it was too close to English. But, as I said, if it was more authentic it would probably give some readers (esp. non-Jamaican readers) difficulty.

Books are always more powerful, it seems, when they are very close to the author's heart as this one obviously was. Joyce, do you appreciate criticism of the book? Especially when it's about your life.Was it very difficult for you to write the book (bringing up memories, etc) or was it cathartic (or both)? How did you escape this life (was it sort of "accidental" like Fay's relationship with Hans?)? What do you think the story can help us learn about life in Jamaican ghettoes? It seems rather depressing that although Fay was intelligent, attended school, and had a support system (albeit a rather shaky one) she still ended up pregnant and relying on a drug dealer for help out of her situation (and luck in finding a caring and generous soul in Curacao). So, what's the solution? (I know your not a socio-economist, but I'd like to hear your take.)

[joyce palmer]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

HELLO,
In response to.....
Books are always more powerful, it seems, when they are very close to the author's heart as this one obviously was. How did you escape this life Joyce, do you appreciate criticism of the book? Especially when it's about your life.Was it very difficult for you to write the book (bringing up memories, etc) or was it cathartic (or both)?(was it sort of "accidental" like Fay's relationship with Hans?)? What do you think the story can help us learn about life in Jamaican ghettoes? It seems rather depressing that although Fay was intelligent, attended school, and had a support system (albeit a rather shaky one) she still ended up pregnant and relying on a drug dealer for help out of her situation (and luck in finding a caring and generous soul in Curacao). So, what's the solution? (I know your not a socio-economist, but I'd like to hear your take.)

HI EVERYONE,

I sincerely appreciate criticism about my book whether good or bad. (In high school I remember I had this gracious black woman who was my French teacher. I admired her because she was very kind. She spoke to the students nicely and so on. I remember her saying to the class, "Always remember to take critism gracefully.Criticism allows us to grow")Another reason why I appreciate critism is the fact that I had no prior writing expericence, or any writing degrees when I wrote Greenwichtown.(I remember a reporter-asking me about my writing degrees and when I said that I didn't have any, her eyes opened up wide enough to let me in.)When my agent was shopping around the manuscript, some editors passed on the book because they thought it was too bleak. It bothered me because even though Greenwichtown was fiction, there are still many Jamaicans living the same way bleak way today in the year 2002.
Greenwichtown was a hard book to write. It make me realize just how horrible my life was growing up. It made me realize the fact that life just hands you a deck of card without asking you what kind of cards you want. In high school, I had many class mates who had parents, who lived in decent places, and who had textbooks and lunches and as a child I wondered, why wasn't I blessed like them?
About the solution. Truthfully, I don't have one but I will say that a person lives the perceived reality that one is presented. When I lived in Jamaica, I thought the whole world pays for books and everything needed through high school. I also thought the whole world had to take an exam to go to high school and I also thought the whole world ate chicken-back and curry chicken-foot and dumplings. Part of the solution is education and having options. As you guys have mentioned, if anyone in the U.S. decides to go to school they can do it-by working two jobs and going to night school etc. In Jamaica when you do have a job, the salary is so small that it barely covers the essentials.
Another big problem is the amount of fatherless children there. Men plant their seeds (no pun intented) and just leave them to grow on their own. (Yes! there are -they are not all bad). In 1999 when I was in Jamaica there were kids in front of KFC begging me to buy them a piece of chicken. I bought them chicken and I felt sad that kids still live like that.
Some of the points I wated to express in Greenwichtown was that the world is filled with good things wrapped in bad packages for example Cokee. Another point I wanted to express was that Fay was part of a cycle. Her mother Miss Voy lived in a shack with 4 children and no father. Fay had twins and like her mother she had no father for them. The only way to acheive change was by breaking the cycle. I remember when I was about 17 years old-a year after I had had my twins,I saw a childhood friend and I remember her saying to me, (in patois) "I thought that you would have had 4 children by now." Her statement jarred me and made me sad because that WAS my expected prognosis.My mother has had 9 children for 5 seperate fathers and I realized then that I needed to break the cycle.
OH...about my second book. It is the story about a white couple who moves to Florida to retire and my main character, Bob Withers is impotent. He blames his impotence on his wife's lack of sexual appeal and thinks that a younger woman will bring him back to his long awaited studhood. It is totally diffent from greenwichtown in every sense of the word.
OOps... Sorry if my post is too long. (Smile)

[Tigrrr]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Your post was not long enuf. LOL

Question Joyce, what you said above reminded me that early in the story one of Fay's sisters in the country promised to tell her about her dad. I realize circumstances prevented this from occurring, but I thought it was mentioned because it would at some point be revisited (just as Fay's relationship with the river had the expectation of being revisited.)

[rayna]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Joyce Palmer: I too want to thank you for joining in our discussion. Its not everyday you get to discuss a book with the author. I'm honored. Your comments are just as revealing as the book. I'm glad you touch on the realism of Jamaica. Sooooooo many people visit and care less about the people there that call it home. I guess their tourist dollars mean everything is okay. I know of so many American women who are involved with men there, and just like women here, couldn't care less that they are contributing to infidelity and not encouraging men to be providers and responsible. Maybe I'm just too sensitive.

[mollyss]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

I wanted to extend my thanks to Joyce as well. It's really interested to be involved with the author beyond liner notes.

I understand the unwillingness by some publishers to take this book on, it is bleak and American's don't often like to read or know that people are living like this (either they don't care or feel guilt about not doing anything). But, I think if more books like this get published it can only help open our eyes and that can't be a bad thing.

[Tigrrr]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Originally posted by rayna:
[qb]Joyce Palmer: I too want to thank you for joining in our discussion. Its not everyday you get to discuss a book with the author. I'm honored. Your comments are just as revealing as the book. I'm glad you touch on the realism of Jamaica. Sooooooo many people visit and care less about the people there that call it home. I guess their tourist dollars mean everything is okay. I know of so many American women who are involved with men there, and just like women here, couldn't care less that they are contributing to infidelity and not encouraging men to be providers and responsible. Maybe I'm just too sensitive.[/qb]

Rayna, maybe just a wee bit too sensitive. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

But you did say you were referring to women "you" know of. "I" don't know of any American woman who visits or dates a Jamaican man that is wittingly dating a married Jamaican man. I'm sure it happens - just not with anyone I know of.

[rayna]

Re: Greenwichtown Discussion

Yeah Tigrr, you're probably right. Not wittingly knowing the obligations (wife or children) of the other. And, I agree with Mollyss, maybe more publications describing these situations anywhere, somebody's government will step up to the plate and help. Its unconceivable to me that you have to buy school books. Its a mandated law in the USA that all children go to school and this should be the case all over the world. Ms. Palmer presented a history lesson in her book. Continuous prayer is needed for this world we live in.