Mark Kurlansky knows the Caribbean. This is evident from his penning of the nonfiction book, A CONTINENT OF ISLANDS which efficiently and knowledgeably introduces the West Indies to those who do not know it and offers reflection to those who are from the region or to those who care about it. In THE WHITE MAN IN THE TREE, Kurlansky tries something different. He writes short stories that take place in different areas of the Caribbean: Haiti, Curacao, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic. He works well in this area of fiction, and, as short stories, his succeed. What doesn't work quite as well is that most of the stories sound as though they are inspired from the viewpoint of a journalist and transferred to fiction. Seeing that Kurlansky is a journalist, this is understandable, but there are times when his style doesn't work. The reader can easily become engaged with a story only to feel, halfway through it, that he or she is reading an article from a news magazine. Kurlansky tries to disconcert the reader by presenting misunderstandings and cultural clashes, but there are many times in the stories when one is left feeling uncomfortable as though the author may have gone too far into another's culture. There is too much - socially and politically - that is walking a fine line here. But there is nothing to say that Kurlansky should not be writing of all these different cultures and nationalities. The rule in stepping out of oneself to write as "other" is to know one's subject, and not to portray anything or anyone in an incorrect way. For the most part, Kurlansky is on level ground here; he knows his subject matter. Still, there is a slightly eerie feeling about the entire book of stories that makes the reader think that these are stories that might better have been told in a genre other than fiction. ( )

I like Kurlansky's non-fiction. This wasn't as good. ( )