#15. A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid

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A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid
1988.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux

I am a fan of Jamaica Kincaid.  In the last year or so I have read her books At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, and Lucy, and got a lot out of each of them.  I was looking forward to reading A Small Place because I was looking forward to learning more about Antigua, the Caribbean island she comes from.  (Both Annie John and At the Bottom of the River are set on Antigua, but since they are pretty much in the mind of a first-person narrator, who is usually a child, there is not the kind of distance that you'd need to be _told about_ Antigua -- the kind of political, historical, or sociological things about it that might be interesting to a grown-up North American reader.)

I am disappointed in A Small Place, partly because... I'm not sure what the book wants to be.  I've seen it described as a "travelogue," and also as a "jeremiad."  The first section, or chapter (like many of Kincaid's books, it is very short: 80 pages of large, clear print), starts off in second-person: it is telling "you," the traveller, what to expect when you arrive in Antigua.  The next two sections are in first person, with many recollections of Kincaid's early life in Antigua, which move out and away to analysis of what the problems of the island are (the second section considers mostly colonialism and slavery, the third the island's desperate political corruption.)  There is also a very short fourth section, which feels sort of tacked on for closure. 

I guess I feel as if the book is not very tight or well-held together, in spite of its size -- and a small book needs that even more, doesn't it?  Although her fiction is also full of digressions, I feel as if they work and shape to a larger whole.  A Small Place is strangely imbalanced, though: analysis, personal recollection, anger carrying the writer away.. Part of the issue, maybe, is that she seems to sort of be writing around or even trying to get at certain ideas and concepts which have, I think, been formulated more concisely and forcefully by various other post-colonialist theorists and writers.   But Kincaid does not want to seem to avail herself of any of that language or intellectual discourse, and so it feels as if she is lurching at things and coming up short.  (It feels odd and audacious to level this criticism at Jamaica Kincaid, whose intellect is profound and formidable and whose writing sometimes borders on genius.  But nonetheless, that is how the book made me feel.)

( Despite that, there were entire passages I want to copy out to think about and remember. )

Sexy/Dangerous, by Beverly Jenkins

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Dr. Adam Gary is the sexy African-American inventor of a fuel cell that will revolutionize the world by producing its own energy. (Is that even physically possible?) But when South African white racists attack him and try to steal his prototype, he needs protection. Enter Maxine “Max” Blake, tall and gorgeous, ex-cop, ex-Marine, current bodyguard, accompanied by her beloved rottweilers. Too bad Adam has a post-traumatic dog phobia!

This plot description is so completely up my alley that I’m sad that I didn’t actually like the book. Jenkins’ prose wavers between flat and terrible, the characters are more collections of attractive traits than believable people (and at times hilariously Mary Sue/Marty Stu), and the pacing is uneven.

I tried a different book by Jenkins, Wild Sweet Love, a while back. It also had a great premise – an African-American former outlaw starts a new life in the Wild West— but though the prose was significantly better, the story failed to grab me after a killer prologue.

Click to see on Amazon: Sexy/Dangerous

Wild Sweet Love

Jenkins seems to be not for me, but does anyone have recommendations for other African-American romance writers? I know there are many out there and I’ve looked at some websites, but the websites haven’t been that useful in terms of helping me find writers I like.

My romance likes: Tough women. Nice men. Action and adventure. A sense of humor. Totally insane elements, like mermen, time-travelers, shapeshifters, angels, psychic detective agencies, etc. Anything that could remotely be considered out of the sexual mainstream. If the main characters are of color, I’m interested in historicals; if the main characters are white, this is a neutral rather than a plus.

My romance dislikes: Anything that could conceivably be marketed as chick lit. Passive women. Domineering men. Babies.

20: "10 things I hate about me" Randa Abdel-fattah

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I enjoyed this but didn't LOVE it, but I'm not a huge fan of YA. I reviewed it a bit more at my lj.

#18 - Meeting Faith, by Faith Adiele

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Someone recommended this book here (couldn't find the rec by searching the tags and today is a busy one), so I got it, and I'm really glad I did.

This is a memoir of a biracial (Finnish/Igbo) American woman, the daughter of immigrants, who, depressed and failing at Harvard, decides to go to Thailand, where she had gone as an exchange student in high school. While studying women's issues in Thailand, she decides (on the urging of her Thai advisor) to become a maichi, a Buddhist nun.

The thing about Thailand is that you can become a monk or a nun for a time, then leave whenever you like. Faith spends one Lenten season with the maichis, and although she went more as an anthropologist than anything else, you get the impression that she left the temple profoundly changed.

This is a fantastic book, one that I'm going to be rereading a lot. Highly recommended.

18. Minister Faust, The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad

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18. Minister Faust, The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad

This was a wickedly fun book. Hamza and Yehat are best friends living in Edmonton, Canada, who get involved in a insanely complicated plot involving drug dealers, mystical relics, magical powers, cannibalism, Ancient Egypt, and the forces of good and evil themselves. Of course. Every character in this book is a geek of one sort or another, and the writing is full of references to Star Wars, Star Trek, Stephen King, Watchmen, D + D, and so on. The characters also often mention music, and the descriptions were so good as to make me want to go and and find the stuff mentioned. One of the things I really liked about this book was that most of the characters were politically aware, without the plot necessarily focusing on that aspect. The way it made it seem totally normal for people to discuss feminism, capitalism, racism, the War in Iraq, organic food, and so on without it being a Big Deal or a sign that This Character Is Special was really appreciated.

But the absolute best thing about this book is writing. The style at times approaches lyrics, with the rhythm and beat of the words almost demanding you read some passages out loud. At other times, it's all about the puns and clever wordplay. There's just an amazing use of language in this book. One of the ways it most reveals itself is in the narration: there are about eleven different narrators in this book, and although the chapters aren't labeled with who is speaking or any other obvious clue, it's always easy to tell who the current narrator is. Minister Faust manages to have eleven distinct voices, and that's really impressive.

Anyway. An incredibly fun book. Also, the author has a a blog, which is pretty interesting reading as well.

11. The God Box by Alex Sanchez

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I've already read Sanchez's Rainbow trilogy, but hesitated over getting this until I read sanguinity's review here. It basically says everything much better than I will, so you should go and read it!

I enjoyed this very much. Paul is a devout Christian, as is his girlfriend and most people in their high school. He's never met anyone openly gay before - until Manuel arrives. He's also Christian, but he doesn't believe homosexuality is a sin - and is prepared to argue with anyone who says otherwise!

I loved the developing relationship between Paul and Manuel: there were no big flashy moments of epiphany, just Paul's initial denial then slow realisation that, actually, he was gay. It was slow and sweet, and I found it very believable. Both of them were struggling with their own issues (Paul moreso than Manuel) which got in the way of them getting together.

I liked that there was no demonisation of Christianity. It was several members of the Bible club who were most supportive of Manuel (although several of them were the most hostile as well). If you know the non-homophobic interpretations of the Bible, then much of the discussion of Scripture will probably be familiar to you. It was to me, and I've not studied it in all that much depth.

It's not perfect, of course not, but it's a book that left me with a happy glow and a desire to recommend it to everybody - although it's probably most suited for LGBTQQA teens, especially those who are Christians, I think others could enjoy it too.