Policing The Transnational
You think they could go the States and say we got oil? You mad, oh me laad,
Texas have more oil more than Trinidad, oh laad,
So why neglect your…
Paradox Of Wills
This is really two books masquerading as one. In the first part, writer and publisher Gerard Besson gives a skilful demonstration of the historian’s art in microcosm, tracing…
Acceptance Of Loss
In Possession, his sixth volume of poems, Trinidadian Cecil Gray continues his long and seemingly compulsive meditation on the fate of Caribbean island nations that flaunt a rainbow…
Secrets Of The Soul
It is fascinating to watch the progress of Neil Bissoondath’s skill as a writer of fiction.…
Fresh Attitudes And Actions
Shani Mootoo's third novel Valmiki's Daughter confirms both her growing confidence as a novelist and her projection of a distinct voice that we recognise...…
Seeing And Caribbeing
Gabrielle Hezekiah's work Phenomenology's Material Presence is situated within a relatively new sub field of both Philosophy and Film…
The Whispering Past
As its title implies, Golconda: Our Voices Our Lives is a work of oral history, a collection of comments, stories or memories from villagers in Golconda, Trinidad, in…
The Other Walcott
Last month, the University of the West Indies concluded its celebrations of Caribbean Nobel Laureates with a celebratory four-day academic conference at the St Augustine campus in honour…
The Poem That Will Not Go Away
I have no science background but I find that there are scientists who manage to convey to the ignorant but educated reader a reasonable sense of the remarkable…
A Manikin For All Seasons
Apart from the relatively small number of discerning people who actually read—the ones who keep their books on shelves, not tables— books remain, at best, mystifying to the…
My Mistake
In my review last month of Raymond Ramcharitar’s, The Island Quintet, in reference to his New York Story therein, I wrote that Ramcharitar, objecting to being asked to…
Friendship Estate, Canaan, Tobago
I drift beneath two trees in a fishing net.
I’m in danger of falling asleep.
Wind rolls me in perfumed sea.…
Three Trini Books
EVERY HALF-DECENT writer wants to write a book that will be read; every serious writer wants to write a book that will be properly adjudged important;…
The Griot’s Tale
The first few lines of The Griot’s Tale grip the reader with the childhood ritual of storytelling. A mother opening the eyes of her child to the world…
Master Of The Erotics Of Displeasure
We are in Kali Yug, the age of Kali, the worst of the four great cosmic epochs, according to ancient Hinduism.…