This month’s reading selections from the Caribbean, with reviews of Zo and the Hidden Forest by Alake Pilgrim; Neruda in the Park by Cleyvis Natera; Drowned Forest by Angela Barry; and Emerging Issues by Kenneth Ramchand
Our Lady and the Forest of Secrets
by Alake Pilgrim (The Knights Of, 200 p., ISBN 9781913311292)
Narnia has nothing on the imaginative paths of Alake Pilgrim. In her middle grade debut, the two-time Caribbean regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition flexes her creative muscles, filling a fantasy world with all the colorful mayhem of a Trinidadian thriller for young readers. Our protagonist Zo is brave and resourceful: a blueprint for parents seeking to instill progressive ability in their children, and the progenitor of a generation that should (as the novel gently prompts) worry about a growing climate crisis. The descriptive prose swirls around the generous vibes of traditional Caribbean stories – but these are no recycled symbolism, no horned protective papercuts or river spirits. Zo and her troupe of friends, each uniquely suited to survive in a very real Trinidad & Tobago, will inspire endlessly.
Neruda in the park
by Clevis Natera (Ballantine Books, 336 pp., ISBN 9780593358481)
Can you be a good immigrant when the walls you were forced to build start to crumble? The Guerreros have made Upper Manhattan their home for many years, striving to cement their status as respected Dominican-Americans by working in the service of their community. Nothar Park has become their modest but undisputed rule – a security that is shattered as soon as the first high-priced building is advertised and the threats of moving vans roll into their streets. Luz, her mother Eusebia, and father Vladimir each react to the impending ax of gentrification with resignation and rolling revolt, creating a tapestry of intergenerational responses to the violent pillars of capitalism and racism. Natera’s debut has been 15 years in the making; Neruda in the park shows extraordinary care for the enclaves of the Caribbean diaspora so important in defining the United States.
Drowned forest
by Angela Barry (Peepal Tree Press, 272 pp., ISBN 9781845235376)
An ancient cedar root has been pulled up from the depths of the water in a place where no sea water once rose. Drawing from this real-life environmental wonder, Angela Barry animates the past and present faces of Bermudian society in a powerful novel steeped in history. Genesis Smith – a young offender caught in a cycle of systemic violence and cyclical abandonment – finds a group of diverse but well-meaning figures who make her rehabilitation their concern. In each of their voices, Barry allows a portal to open – a pathway to what it means to be Bermudian, and all the stations of class, respect, challenge and dreaming that embody. As attuned to the nation’s contradictions as it is to its stunning beauty, Barry creates a space for the novel as ecological witness, drawing critical attention to how we can collectively heal a fragmented archipelago. These narrative roots hold strong.
Issues that arise
by Kenneth Ramchand (Royards Publishing Company, 244 pp., ISBN 9789768303711)
How do you take the pulse of a nation? The key to writing about a people—our people—is determination of perspective, as the essays in Issues that arise i try Emeritus Professor of English at the University of the West Indies Kenneth Ramchand puts the life of the public intellectual to the test of the page in non-fictional observations that grab and soar – cutting in their conclusions but generous in their aspect. These newspaper columns, originally published in Guardian of Trinidad and Tobago, represent a good cross-section of Ramchand’s original thinking from 1987 to 1998. Notable contemporary essays have also been added, thinking about these Covid times and our regional place in them. Filled with wit, wit, pikong and a sly delivery of mauvaise language, these reflections do not seek to redefine us for ourselves, but to follow us faithfully.
