Dear Editor,
Recently I read a really inspiring and touching book written by a Guyanese. The story is my story and your story and that’s why it struck me hard. The Shadow of Dreams: Tears of the Diaspora by Port Mourant native Basant Raj is a book every Guyanese should know about and read.
All two hundred and sixteen pages provide literary interest as well as several shocks and surprises through and through. I was indeed surprised to know that Guyanese have such talent in putting together these literary works.
It is a social commentary, which delves primarily into the many social issues Guyanese face in their search for life in the US.
It is a pathetic chronicle of the many trials they face − their humiliation, shame, lost pride, and most of all, the loss of their identity in a degrading fight for survival. Guyanese have a morbid tendency to love everything exotic, yet the one thing that is most precious to them all, our dear native land is relegated in importance.
Guyana is most beautiful and will always be so! When will our people learn this basic fact?
Also, in a flashback to two principal eras (prior to and post-1992), the writer has compared two political dimensions − a struggling economy and a developing economy.
The many dominant features of these two systems became the pivotal instrument for discussion.
On the issue of family, the writer tried to show the simplicity of life and the virtues of clean living.
The power of family responsibility and tradition became a spark to ignite the dreams of this family.
This is more that a story .It is a social commentary. It links some of the social problems that face us as Guyanese in our venture to get to foreign shores − the lies, deceit, humiliation and final shame to acknowledge that life in the US is not a bed of roses.
The book is not only a tragedy of situations. It reflects the reality of the cultural diversity that is a hallmark of our people.
I urge all to read this excellent literary work by Mr Raj, who has made me proud as he once was my lecturer in English at Cyril Potter College of Education and now resides in New York.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Jameson Suseran
sounds like a good resource, so where can i find the book. just did an online hit and came back null
try the amazon website
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+shadow+of+dreams%3A+tears+from+the+diaspora
any local buyers can contact me through Stabroek News
I AM INDEED SURPIRSED THAT A GUYANESE COULD BE “indeed surprised to know that Guyanese have such talent in putting together these literary.”
mr hackette why u gotta be so…um.. i dont have a word to describe it…
I share the same thoughts. How can a Guyanese be surprised that we have such talents? I believe this writer is not really Guyanese but just pretending to be.
you people are so dense!! LITERARY talents im talkin about,,,lord!!!
Guyanese Literary talents:
Krishanan Persaud – books of poetry
Latchmanen Kempadoo – Guyana Boy
Edgar Mittelholzer – Corentyne Thunder and 24/25 others
Rooplall Monhar
Roy Heath
Wilson Harris
Cyril Dabydeen
David Dabydeen
Edward Braithwaite
…….
yawn
http://kykoveral.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_kykoveral_archive.html
Saturday, January 28, 2006
The Novelty of the Guyanese Novel
Preserving our literary heritage
by Petamber Persaud
IT IS still in its youthful stages – the Guyanese novel. But it has already made a name for itself, winning international recognition and chalking up a number of awards.
In this day and age, when nothing is new under the sun, Wilson Harris is labelled as an ‘original’ novelist. Jan Carew’s `BLACK MIDAS’ was translated into Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and German. E. R. Braithwaite’s first novel, `TO SIR WITH LOVE’, which is on syllabi of learning institutions, has been made into an ever popular movie of the same name. Roy Heath’s `THE SHADOW BRIDE’ was short listed for the Booker Prize. Fred D’Aguiar’s `THE LONGEST MEMORY’ won the Whitbread First Novel Award. Pauline Melville’s `VENTRILOQUIST’S TALE’ also won the Whitbread Prize. David Dabydeen was honoured with the Raja Rao Award. Sasenarine Persaud received the K. M. Hunter Foundation Emerging Artist Award for his fiction. Churaumanie Bissundyal is two books away from completing `The Kassaku Pentalogy’ of five novels. Mike Phillips won the Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction. And Roopnandan Singh’s `ROLE PLAY’ short listed for the Guyana Prize for Literature was recently translated in French.
Looking good on paper now! But the establishment of such a tradition took many decades to get off the ground. It can be credited to Edgar Mittelholzer who, for more than 11 years, bombarded the English publishers before his first novel, `CORENTYNE THUNDER’, was published in 1941. He published 23 novels running from the early 1940s to the late 1960s and succeeded in becoming the first professional novelist, living off his writing, coming out of Guyana and the Anglophone-Caribbean.
This novel writing convention gained support with the surfacing of other writers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Jan Carew published two novels, `BLACK MIDAS’ and `THE WILD COAST’ in 1958. In 1959, Christopher Nicole published `OFF WHITE’ while Braithwaite published his now famous, `TO SIR WITH LOVE’. In 1960, Wilson Harris, an already established poet and short fiction writer, surfaced as a novelist with the publication of `PALACE OF THE PEACOCK’. In that same year, Peter Kempadoo published `GUIANA BOY’ which was recently reissued as `GUYANA BOY’.
Interestingly, of the five writers mentioned in the last two paragraphs, four were born in Berbice, Guyana, while Jan Carew who was born elsewhere grew up in New Amsterdam, Berbice.
Two writers born in Georgetown later joined the novelists from Berbice. In 1963, O. R. Dathorne published `DUMPLINGS IN MY SOUP’ while Denis Williams came out with `OTHER LEOPARDS’.
After Guyana gained independence in 1966, the rank of Guyanese novelists increased by leaps and bounds even as the first wave of writers were continually adding to the bookshelf. In fact, the first wave of novelists, except Denis Williams, now deceased, and Mittelholzer while he was alive, formed a backdrop on the landscape of Guyanese Literature.
About four novelists surfaced in the 1970s. Arnold Apple in 1973 published `SON OF GUYANA’. In 1974, Sheik Sadeek self-published `SONG OF THE SUGAR CANES’ and `BUNDARIE BOY’, both books as manuscripts won the Cheddi Jagan Gold Medal for Literature; the former in 1959 and the latter in 1961. In 1975, Roy Heath surfaced with `A MAN COME HOME’. And in 1978, Frederick Cranmore published a little know novel, `THE WEST INDIAN’.
It was only in the 1980s that women novelists came on the scene. The reasons for this late advent are numerous and well documented. `FRANGIPANI HOUSE’ by Beryl Gilroy came out in 1986. `TIMEPIECE’ by Jan Lowe Shinebourne published in 1986 won the Best First Book of Fiction in the inaugural year of the Guyana Prize for Literature.
Shinebourne’s `THE LAST ENGLISH PLANTATION’ came out in 1988. Joan Cambridge’s `CLARISE CUMBERBATCH WANTS TO GO HOME’ was also published in 1988.
The male novelists in that decade were Cyril Dabydeen with `DARK SWIRL’ and `THE WIZARD SWAMI’, Arnold Itwaru with `SHANTI’, and Sasenarine Persaud with `DEAR DEATH’.
Quite a few novelists, both male and female, surfaced at the turn of the century including Jack Bayley, Betty Lewis (both deceased) Sharon Maas, Narmala Shewcharan, Denise Harris, Brenda Do-Harris, Pauline Melville, Ryhaan Shah, David Dabydeen, Fred D’Aguiar, Bernard Heydorn, Roopnandan Singh, Gokarran Sukhdeo, Harischandra Khemraj, Churaumanie Bissundyal, N. D. Williams, Moses Nagamootoo, and Andrew Jefferson-Miles, among others.
Of this contemporary crop, on the female side, Maas is the most prolific with three novels to her credit, and on the other side, David Dabydeen has so far published five. Six of those writers in this period have won the Guyana Prize for Literature.
Of the first wave, Harris, Heath and Nicole are still active novelists with Nicole, to date, producing more than 80 novels.
This brief outline of our novel heritage must take into account four novels that were published in the late 19th century and early 20th, just before the advent of the first wave of Guyanese novelists. In 1877, Edward Jenkins published `LUTCHMEE AND DILLOO’ and in 1899, James Rodway `IN GUIANA WILDS’. In 1904, W. H. Hudson published `GREEN MANSIONS’ (which was later made into a film) and in 1917, A. R. F. Webber `THOSE THAT BE IN BONDAGE’.
In summation of our young yet distinguished novel heritage, it would be useful to quote A. J. Seymour, ‘the unconscious heroine … is always’ Guyana especially now, in the year 2006, that the country is celebrating its 40th Independence Anniversary.
Sources:
* Seymour, Arthur. THE MAKING OF GUYANESE LITERATURE, Guyana 1978
* Balkaran, Lal. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GUYANA & GUYANESE WRITERS, Canada 2004
* Gilkes, Michael. THE WEST INDIAN NOVEL, 1981
* Website of Peepal Tree Press
(Guyana Chronicle)
lawd u story always prappa laang
double “yawn”
Thank you once again M, for trying to enlighten the stubborn and close-minded. Even when you meet a brick wall,you still edify the open-minded.
M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett,
Wow I am impressed, had no idea we had so many authors, We need more of this type of knowledge sharing, or we will never move forward.
Joe.
Can you please sent this very enlightening piece of Guyanese literary history, as a letter to the Editor. To share with persons who do not visit here, or have Internet access.
Another beautifully written book, entwined with Guyanese culture, that I have read by a Guyanese author, I do not recall his name, is “For whom the Kiskaddes Toll”
He describes culture and scenes in the city and other places in Guyana, with such vivid detail, I could almost taste and smell these places he spoke about, because in reality I once lived in this world he described, It was like a portal into my past life and it felt surreal. It was non stop reading, I do not know where to get the book from, someone had lent me a copy.
Joe.
I feel the same way about Roy Heath’s books particularly ‘Shadows round the moon’, even though he was decades before me.I can’t describe the feeling when I stumbled on a chapter which mentions a house I actually lived in. His sister lynette became the second wife of a neighbour of my parents.
What a coincidence Joe. I too lived in Charlestown – Ketley Street.I’d love one day to read the book you’re referring to.
Raj is from Port Mourant..
Yes, know him. Not surprised by his talents.
You can say the same thing without being so GUSHY GUSHY. Makes your writing more SUCCINT as Mr. Basant Raj would say.
thank ya!
cool, located it @ amazon; will get a copy.
Please give me his address and I will send him a copy of my book on Guyana in the PNC era. “Place without Joy.”
We have more talents than we realize. They blossom in the right environment, though.
I taught with Raj at J.C Chandisingh Secondary School in at Rose Hall Town for 10 years. He was the English Language and Eng. Lit teacher. He was good and he is real!!
Even the Berlin Wall fell one day.
“Tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev!”
But it took years of pecking away at it.
who u callin stubborn and close minded?!!!
Mme Defarge,
I know just how you felt. This book that I mentioned was based on the life of a young prostitute at a hotel in high street which I knew as the Gaumont Hotel, except that the author changed the name. I grew up in Charlestown, right near to this hotel so when the author began to describe the entire surrounding area and its life and culture at the time, I felt as though I was right there as a silent witness, instead of just a reader.
I was blown away at his vivid descriptive language, it touched my very soul.
Joe.
Same thing with Peter Kempadoo’s book Guyana Boy and its description of PM, RHT and Corentyne.
nope, is nat me story. is petamber persaud story. READ nah man.
funny, funny!
Is there anywhere online where I can find all these books listed in one place. I am a voracious reader, but sad to say apart from a book of herbs and What’s Cooking in Guyana, I do not have any other books written by Guyanese. A list or link would be appreciated
It’s in the Guyana Chronicle (of all newspapers!) of January 28, 2006.
Are you by any chance related to the Hackett from Rose hall?
Which Hackett?
Chinese?
Black?
Indian?
Amerindian?
All of them!