Colin Channer is a Jamaican writer considered as Bob Marley with a pen ,he has written a number of Novel and edited this collection ,the Calabash writers workshop ,it is a project to help promote writing in the Caribbean ,they also hold a number of festivals to celebrate the writing from the region and from africa ,they also supported budding writers ,such as some in this collection .
The collection covers the Caribbean ,also some set in new york in the ex pat community ,the two stories that touch me ,were the last a longer story called Marley’s ghost ,now any book from Jamaica with a collection of stories is bound to have at least one mention of the most well-known person from Jamaica ,so in this story we find a man on the edge of death with Marley’s exodus album playing ,as he lays there he tries to compare his own life to that of the huge star as he is doing so he seems to get some peace as he sees parallels in there ,they both have cancer and other similarities come together .This gives him some peace this story was written by Kwame Dawes ,he grew up in Jamaica and is also an actor and poet and is currently at south Carolina university. the second is Sharon leach ,a story of a hotel worker that gets tempted to the dark side after an offer to spend the night with a rich couple from texas .Now at first she is very nervous and worried about how she will be seen ,but after wards she says that was easy ,this is maybe a cautionary tale of what happens when you are faced with temptation of easy money .A clever tale by a new writer .
“Ah , my brown sugar “.Peters voice cuts into my thought like a blade striking wood ,startling me so that I jump guiltly.Peter and his blond wife are a couple from texas ,in the fairway lands of cowboys and John Wayne .Today I am on housekeeping duty ,which is why I am in their room .
A girl in a hotel gets drawn to the darker side of holiday life in a story by Sharon Leach .
Now the stories vary in this collection from the average to the stand out ,they all seem to have a flavour of the Caribbean and give you an insight into the Caribbean spirit and soul .There is a feel of how traditional in some ways the Caribbean community can be .I ve not read many books from Caribbean and just said on Kinnas post the other day I need to try to read some more from this part of the world .This collection was another good introduction to the varied voices of the region .It was published in 2006 by Akashic books here is a list of writers and stories in the book
“The Last Jamaican Lion” by Marlon James
“Parting” by Alwin Bully
“Someone to Tell” by A-dZiko Simba
“Siblings” by Rudolph Wallace
“How to Beat a Child the Right and Proper Way” by Colin Channer
“All Ah We Is One” by Elizabeth Nunez
“The Anger Meridian” by Kaylie Jones
“I Want to Disturb My Neighbor” by Geoffrey Philp
“A Little Embarassment for the Sake of Our Lord” by Konrad Kirlew
“Sugar” by Sharon Leach
“Marley’s Ghost” by Kwame Dawes
Have you read much Caribbean fiction ?
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