ROADS LESS TRAVELLED: FEBRUARY 2026 - THE ENGLISH SPEAKING CARIBBEAN

This is St. Lucia and February sees us in the English speaking countries of the Caribbean

Antigua and Barbuda
The Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Dominica
Grenada
Guyana
Jamaica
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago

Plus the British possessions and dominions in the region
The British Virgin Islands
Bermuda
and so on.

Surprising number of choices but I will start in February with:

Love Forms by Claire Adam (from Trinidad and Tobago).

Loverly pic, Paul!

I requested my book from the library in January and they told me a 2-3 week wait. However, I got it in 2-3 days and a good thing, too. It was so awful that I could only read about 20 pages per day--I forced myself! I'm just not into murders, gangs, and drugs ad nauseam! I just finished today, A Brief History of 7 Killings by Marlon James. It begins with the assassination attempt of Bob Marley, which is ok, but after that deteriorates into senseless violence. It's overly long at 688 pages. I think I'm in the minority because the average LT rating is 3.68 and it won the Man Booker Prize in 2015. But for me, it's a big fat nope! The author is Jamaican.

In January, I read one that would fit here--although not going to count it See Now Then by Jamaica Kincaid. (Antigua & Barbuda) Can't really recommend that one, either!

I don't want to keep sounding like a Debbie Downer, but I don't think I will enjoy/review/rate literature from these areas very highly. I like much more structured reading. But hey, I'll give them a try!

I've started The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon who hailed from Trinidad.

>4 Tess_W: I know what you mean about Marlon James' book, Tess, but I did see some merit in it. Structurally very interesting. Certainly not my favourite Booker winner by a long score but by no means the worst either. There is some great Caribbean writing out there - we just need to find it!

>5 avatiakh: Selvon was an interesting author who wrote shortish novels full of patois and humour.

Oops. I guess I missed on this one, as I'm reading Haitian-American author Edwidge Dondicat's Breath, Eyes, Memory. Close enough...

I'm having difficulty finding holdings in my libraries. I think I've tracked a book of poetry from a St. Lucia author.

Antigua and Barbuda: Jamaica Kincaid
The Bahamas: If I Had the Wings, Divina Trace
Barbados: How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
Belize: Beka Lamb
Grenada: The Bone Readers, Angel: A Novel by Merle Collins
Guyana: The Murderer, The Guyana Quartet
Jamaica: The Land of Look Behind
St. Kitts and Nevis: Sugar Is All
St. Lucia: Derek Walcott
St. Vincent and the Grenadines: A Different Hurricane
Trinidad and Tobago: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, Hungry Ghosts

ETA: I'd love suggestions for Dominica!

>10 ELiz_M: The problem with Kincaid is that I've read the ones our library has. I think the poetry book I found is by Walcott. I just have to make sure it is really on the shelf when we reopen tomorrow.

Finished Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack. A memoir, somewhat formless, but stylistically rich, as one would expect from Austin Clarke.

>10 ELiz_M: The classic pick for Dominica is Jean Rhys

>13 PaulCranswick: Wide Sargasso Sea is a book everyone should read.

Finished The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon. Written in the 1950s the book is about Moses Aloetta and other hopefuls who have come to Britain from Trinidad, Jamaica and other islands seeking their fortunes but not actually finding them. Moses has been in London for ten years so newbies are advised to seek him out for finding a place to live or to learn where the jobs are. What is quite enchanting is the book is written in a creolized form of English which makes the various anecdotes ring true.

>13 PaulCranswick: >14 booksaplenty1949: I started it today.

>15 avatiakh: Have ordered a copy.

>16 labfs39: Signalled a re-examination of classic English literature from new perspectives.

>13 PaulCranswick: Right, of course. I forgot she had Caribbean roots. I've read WSS and a couple of her other novels. I'll have a look to see if any of her other works have a Caribbean connection.

>19 ELiz_M: Main character in Voyage in the Dark is a Jamaican ex-pat.

I finished A House for Mr Biswas. Not a light read, I thought it painful and depressing, although there is humor there. A lot to think about in the book, like how important the family is in this society, and how that sounds more positive than it really is.

>21 EllaTim: I didn't care for A House for Mr. Biswas. I called it a "depressing tale of a weak man." I had been hoping to learn more about Trinidad too.

This one, however, had a lot of historical interest.

>21 EllaTim: I just finished my re-read of A House for Mr. Biswas too, Ella. I am glad to see that you appreciated the book, which is definitely not a light read!

>10 ELiz_M: Just out of curiosity, I checked my copy of The World Between Two Covers and for Dominica, it suggests reading The Snake King of the Kalinago, which is a children's book.

I just finished The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey for Trinidad/Tobago. It was wonderful, and I learned a lot about Trinidad from shortly before it was granted independence until about 2000. I will try to do a more detailed review shortly.
I've never been to Trinidad or Tobago, but my parents went there on their honeymoon!

>26 arubabookwoman: I thought I had read that one several years ago, but evidently had it confused with another book. I will have to see if I can locate a copy.

I started See Now Then - Jamaica Kincaid. Hope to get it done by the end of February.

I read A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid.

Link to March - Mexico: https://www.librarything.com/topic/379172#9136330

Have begun The Lonely Londoners.

>15 avatiakh: The Lonely Londoners has arrived and I have finished Susheila Nasta’s appealing introduction.

Oooh I hope you like it. That type of book appeals to me.

>33 avatiakh: Finished The Lonely Londoners. Enjoyed it a lot, although couldn’t help noticing that the narrator’s view of women was pretty one-dimensional. I would be interested to see if this continued to be a feature of Selvon’s fiction or if it evolved.

>34 booksaplenty1949: Too true about how he writes about women. I'm happy enough to place this in its time of writing and appreciate the book's other qualities. It is the first of three books so possibly worth reading the others.

>35 avatiakh: Last book in the trilogy would appear to have been written after Selvon emigrated to Calgary, of all places. My curiosity is piqued.

Finished Moses Ascending. I can attest that Selvon’s view of women did not evolve in this book. The introduction by Hari Kunzru mentions that Selvon, appearing at the Commonwealth Institute in 1986, had his face slapped by “an activist, angry at the objectification of female characters in his work.” Kunzru also points out that Selvon was a Trinidadian of Indian descent and apparently, like V. S. Naipaul, had an ambiguous relationship with Black West Indians. These things make this story about Black Power, narrated like The Lonely Londoners in the first person by Moses Aloetta but set 20 years later, an uncomfortable read. I cannot even find the third book in this trilogy in any local public library, so I assume things did not improve.

>37 booksaplenty1949: Happy that I didn't seek this one out.

>38 avatiakh: A current student was able to borrow Moses Migrating for me from local university library. It was actually a rather charming account of the hero’s trip back to Trinidad on the rather whimsical errand of rehabilitating the image of Great Britain in this former colony. This takes form in his donning of a Britannia costume (pictured on the cover here) in the competition for best Carnival ensemble. He also falls in love. Book ends rather abruptly, but I felt somewhat better about Selvon when I finished it.

>37 booksaplenty1949: >38 avatiakh: I have only read one of Selvon's books, The Housing Lark, and I do not remember it being an issue in that book, but it has been a while since I read it. I know that one of the major characters, Jean, has a lot of responsibility in the book, but of course, that does not mean that she is not denigrated because of her gender.

I think I will be passing on any other of his books. Thanks for the input on The Lonely Londoners.