All year I’ve been promising myself that I will have a period of focusing on writing from the Caribbean but I keep being distracted by other projects.
But as the wet British autumn starts to approach I feel the need to read about places in the sun. I have a work by Jamaica Kincaid on my shelf. And I’ve recently read Breath, Eyes and Memory by Edwidge Danticat, which I loved. Her style reminded me of Toni Morrison – strong and unflinching.
Anyway, I’m looking for recommendations of other women writers from the Caribbean, both fiction and non-fiction. I’m not so keen on poetry but if there’s a poet that I absolutely must try, I’m open to persuasion!
I’ll be keeping track of my reading on the blog so you can see where it takes me.
September 28th, 2010 on 2:38 pm
I can think of two that I read a few years ago:
Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys), which is set in Jamaica and Dominica, and
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julie Alvarez, which is set in the Dominican Republic (and the United States).
And here I thought from your title that you were physically going on a cruise. Sigh, me neither!
September 30th, 2010 on 1:38 pm
I haven’t read Wide Sargasso Sea for ages – this will be a good excuse to go back to it. I love Jean Rhys’s writing.
Julie Alvarez is a new author to me. Thanks for the suggestion!