The Dragon Can't Dance

The dragon can't dance is set in Calvary Hill, a shantytown on the edge of Port of Spain, and it deals in a (surprisingly) humorous and lively way with the classic postcolonial dilemma of balancing the need to resist and the need to assimilate the metropolitan culture and better oneself. In a Prologue, Lovelace reminds us that slaves had had to resort to "asserting their humanness in the most wonderful acts of sabotage they could imagine and perform, making a religion of laziness and neglect and stupidity and waste: singing hosannahs for flood and hurricane and earthquake..." In the postmodern world, the men of Calvary Hill are still trapped in this tradition: they have merely advanced to hanging about on street corners looking show more threatening, or engaging in pointless traditional battles with men from other steel band clubs in other parts of the city. Meanwhile, their women either become prostitutes or look for menial employment.

The book follows a small group of characters who all have some dim idea of breaking out of this cycle, mostly frustrated by circumstances. Aldrick, the central character, is a man who has somehow managed to survive without doing anything in his life (he seems to have been trained as a signwriter at some point) except during the pre-carnival season, when he fabricates a new and spectacular dragon costume for himself each year. His dragon is meant to be a genuinely frightening one, and for the two days of the carnival, he becomes the dragon, rattling his chains, breathing fire, and rebelling against - whatever it is he is rebelling against. He sacrifices his chance of getting together with the girl he loves because he knows that it would mean changing his life, and that would take him into a realm he doesn't want to start thinking about, in fact doesn't even have the equipment to.

It is only after he gets drawn into an episode of totally pointless, unplanned rebellion and spends a few years in the prison library that he's able to clarify his thoughts and get an inkling of how to get beyond "rebelling against": we don't learn what he does with that knowledge, but the end of the book leaves us with the feeling that from now on he's going to be trying to take purposive, united action for change.

As you might expect from a book that has glowing references from CLR James on both the front and the back cover (Faber paperback edition), this is good old-fashioned postcolonial Marxism, but very down-to-earth Marxism, with a lot of jokes and put-downs and a total absence of theory. And it manages to convey a great sense of the language and culture of Trinidad. Definitely worth a look. show less

As much as surveillance is a nearly palpable force within this work, the narrative is surprisingly humorous and quickly paced. Lovelace's wonderfully written work is grounded in a shantytown of Trinidad, and rings with the dialects and carnivals of the area, but each of the colorful characters in his narrative is also personally at war with the shadows of a postcolonial reality that makes even festivals seem something of a farce at real living. As a novel and as a narrative, this is an entertaining journey full of humor, love, cynicism, and strength. And as an exploration of postcolonial worlds and feelings, this is also a necessary work of truth and individual terror, held together with themes of surveillance that preoccupy each of show more Lovelace's characters even as they enjoy their denials of reality or attempt escape. Absolutely recommended. show less

The main character in this novel is not really Aldrick, who plays the dragon, or Fish-eye the "bad-john", or anyone else, but the district of Calvary Hill itself. Earl Lovelace introduces us to a range of different characters who live in Calvary Hill, a poor district on the edge of Port-of-Spain, and we follow them through the years as the neighbourhood changes and the characters are caught between embracing the new and regretting the loss of the old.

Carnival plays a major role in the novel. I heard Earl Lovelace speak about this at Bim Literary Festival in Barbados recently and he said "Carnival is welcoming people into a space, holding up the idea of “all ah we is one” even if it’s not always the case in reality. In music show more we’re all the same, we’re all human." In this novel he does a great job of exploring this, exposing the cracks in the community for the rest of the year and showing how they are temporarily put aside for carnival. But as things change, even in carnival itself there is division, as some want to get corporate sponsorship and "clean up" carnival, while others want it to retain its traditional, untamed revelry.

Lovelace has tremendous compassion for all his characters and develops them all fully. Although he is compassionate, he is not sentimental, and shows their faults as well, such as their exclusion of the Indian character Pariag. Novels without a focus on a strong central character can sometimes feel a little disjointed, but this one doesn't. I cared about all of the characters, and cared about the fate of Calvary Hill too, as all the characters fight to preserve it in their own very different ways.

Normally there's something about a book that I don't like, but this one really is hard to find fault with. It's a tremendous literary achievement, a moving depiction of a community, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Five stars. show less

I love this author! In this story, told through different characters' viewpoints, the dynamics between them, and their own change and growth is explored. They are mostly poor people, but Carnival gives them a chance to come out of their simple existence and shine. Lovelace has a gift to make a character come to life in your mind's eye and feel, acutely, for them and their individual woes and joys.

Carnival a pre-Lenten festival of costume, music and wild abandon. It's the perfect time to come outside of yourself and enjoy life. Even if that enjoyment is fleeting.

Lovelace uses the physical masks that make up costumes, as a metaphor for the public self we create to fit in with society.

Basically after faking it for so long, do you ever really know who you are.

Great book.

I read this for a world lit class I took a few years back and wrote a paper on this book. I've read it a couple of times since and like how it brings community to life.

Just re-read. One of my favorite books ever. Man writes like a dream. Thanks Vanessa for the rec!