Orlando Patterson's Children of Sisyphus set the standard for social realism in Caribbean fiction. He does not romanticize the lives of the poor, nor does he damn them with neglect;rather, he gives their lives dignity.
This is the moral tightrope that all Third World writers face: the choice between compassion and brutal honesty. Patterson succeeds in this fine portrayal of the lives of the poor that is imbued with grace, despite their mean existence.

In the years following the first publication of Orlando Patterson's novel it has become a classic, to the extent that it is now required reading in Jamaican secondary schools. Set in the shantytown slums of Kingston in the late nineteen fifties, Patterson's charcterizations of the people at the very bottom of Jamiacan society have great power -- as reggae star Dennis Brown once sang, their story is "the half that's never been told". Following a group of Jamaica's poorest, most humble "sufferers" in their search for deliverance, the author brings to life a Jamaica that is a universe away from most American images of the Caribbean as a beautiful beach with a happy reggae soundtrack. As someone who has visited Jamaica many times, I loved this this book and highly recommend it to anyone who would enjoy an unusual novel from a different cultural perspective, and/or those who may be interested in Jamaican/Caribbean culture and the roots of the rastafarian/black identity movement.

"Frommer's Jamaica & Barbados" is an outstanding guide to the finest (and most affortable) shops, sites, hotels, and restaurants on the two islands. Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince also give us candid, in-depth "Best Of's" at the beginning of the book. If, for instance, you're an avid tennis player, the Best Tennis Facility in Barbados is at the Sandy Lane Hotel. And one of the Best Honeymoon Resorts is, ironically, Half Moon Golf, Tennis & Beach Club in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Other fine sections include: "Fast Facts: Jamaica/Barbados," "Calendar of Events," and "Planning a Trip to Jamaica/Barbados." The authors do a first-rate job of giving you the low-down on Jamaica without scarring you off ("There's no denying that it's plagued by crime and drugs...But many visitors are unaffected; they are escourted from the airport to their hotel grounds and venture out only on...organized tours"). If you're planning a trip to either of these two lovely islands, don't plan it without the aid of this top-notch guidebook.

The 2nd edition of this travel guide was useful, informative and well read when we travelled to Jamaica in 1994. We are planning on going back and will be purchasing Frommer's Guide to Jamaica and Barbados (3rd ed.). The guide was well segmented and easy to use. Reviews were right on and the extremely accurate price guides helped us plan for everything. The historical information made for interesting reading and the people and local culture were exactly as described! This is a well done and very user-friendly travel guide. It's also a bargain at Amazon.com!

This classic work has gained new significance with the release of the recommendations of the Jamaican Ganja Commission in August 2001. Rubin and Comitas give a chronology of cannabis usage and legislation, followed by a thorough study of how cannabis is used in rural communities, primarily by poorer sections of the population. They found little evidence of harmful effects as they described the informal social controls and customs that regulated its use more effectively than punitive laws ever could. A must read for everyone seeking a thorough understanding of cannabis and how best to control its use.

"Ganja in Jamaica" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy." http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy

What is most interesting is how Ms. Cook captures the relationships of the women pictured in her photographs. You get a real sense of the proximity or the distance between family members. This book is a loving tribute to the family and would be a great gift to someone in your own.

Marianna Cook renders each family so beautifully with her camera. With words and photographs, this book beautifully chronicles women and their families. No two portraits are alike, and everyone telling of the relationships shared within each.

Accompanying each portrait are interviews of the family members, some surface, but mostly poignant revelations about the relationships that they share with one another. I know that this book will touch everyone, not just those pictured within its cover.

Just seeing his name on the book spine was enough to make me pick up the book.

Over the years, Anthony C. Winkler's rollicking novels of Jamaican life have given me considerable pleasure and insight into Caribbean sensibility. He writes with a great affection for the island nation's people, reveling in their culture and contradictions, equally amused by and compassionate toward all the social strata. However, I'd been curious about the writer himself since first reading THE LUNATIC years ago, after a St. Kitts-born friend and mentor pressed the book into my hand with a smile, saying "You must read this!" The brief bio in his books mentioned he was a native Jamaican and scant else. Who was he? I wondered to myself about his background, his roots, his understanding of Jamaica.

GOING HOME TO TEACH answered my questions and delivered a lot more. At heart, it's Winkler's memoir of his mid-1970s stint, when Michael Manley's "democratic socialist" administration ruled, as an instructor at a government-sponsored rural teacher training school. His return is part altruism, part nostalgia: As the author of successful, widely used college textbooks, he's got tidy sums squirreled away in American banks, so he can afford to return home and work for a pittance. On the other hand, at the time he's thirty-something, divorced, and he's spent thirteen years away from home to study and teach in the U.S., whose society bewilders him.

The meat of the book, though, is both personal and general. Winkler is a raconteur, a griot--a natural born storyteller--and he regales you with stories about his family (particularly his eccentric grandparents and crazy aunts), his encounters with hidebound administrators and bureaucrats, striking students, madmen, and the impossibility of finding competent repairpersons. And then again, there are his observations on American society and culture, the contrasts with Jamaica, and the cultural idiosyncrasies that he attributes to the history of slavery and English colonial rule. GOING HOME TO TEACH is a dense stew of memorable people, incidents and conclusions, richly seasoned with rib-tickling anecdotes.

Indeed, what makes the book really work is Winkler's humor and humanity, his conversational tone, his equanimity whether describing the absurd or the nearly tragic. He's not shy about his foibles, his family's or his countrymen's, and completely droll even when revealing the unpleasant side of paradise. Be cautioned about reading this book in public: you risk indelicate stares for laughing out loud, as I did particularly as I was reading his account of "night life"--the panoply of insects and other critters--in the Jamaican countryside.

There's also the bittersweet. Winkler's ancestry is European and Middle Eastern--which adds up to "white"--but he's Jamaica-born and bred (patois is his "native tongue" much as any other Jamaican's), and that's the land he loves. It results in a certain "double consciousness," which I find ironically analogous to the lot of "Black Americans":

"To be white in a black country with a long English colonial history is to be a pariah, an ambiguous entity. It is to be simultaneously respected and despised, to arouse suspicion and curiosity, to evoke defiance, rudeness, envy, and condescension. It is to be separated from that inalienable birthright every white American enjoys in his country: the expectation of being treated with indifference in a public place....

"The hardest thing about growing up white in a black country is the nagging feeling of not belonging.... Jamaicans of all races who have lived abroad for any length of time also suffer it after returning home, but for the white Jamaican the feeling of not belonging is a cross he must bear even if he has never set foot out of his own country."

If you're already a fan of Winkler's writing, I believe you'll also love this book. If you're not already acquainted, this should be a fine introduction to the man and the land. A highly recommended, rewarding read.

If you live in the Caribbean you will be able to identify with all the occurrences. If you used to live in the Caribbean, this book will bring back all the memories. If you have no Caribbean connections, then you will be highly amused by the "peculiarites" of the natives as Mr. Winkler cleverly reveals the culture and personalities of the island

I have this book-got it at her exhibit a few years ago here in Chicago. Her photographic style is of a dreamlike quality, and while her exact method of producing her photos remains a secret, the results are breathtaking. If you can't get to one of her shows, then at least buy the book - it makes you want to escape to these lovely garden settings. One of the better scenic photographers I've seen in a while.

Black & white images of gardens from around the world. Some gardens well know, some not, but all captured in a style only this photographer brings to the world. A book that deserves to be placed where everyone can see and look through it. A book that you'll read many times, seeing something new in each photograph every time.

I could definitely relate to an endlessly meowing cat -- and what can be done! Ms. Shumsky's work is like a good Warner's Brothers cartoon with an adult/mature twist. The illustrations are lovely in dramatic black and white with a simple narrative for children. It's nice to see a new author/illustrator on the children's book scene. I'd like to see more of her work.

I loved the artwork.Even people who aren't cat lovers will empathize with this Feline Journey into near oblivion. But wait! A twist at the end reveals new beginnings...

This is an excellent book that chronicles the history of Jamaica with religion being the underlying theme. I could hardly put it down and look forward to other books by this author.

This is a very good book. I have enjoyed every minute of reading it. It is full of suspense, humor, and history. Although a few editing errors, overall it is an outstanding job for a first time novelist.

It would be nice if you listed the author's bio and a picture of the book on your web page.

We are told that the book is suitable for the four-to-eight age range, but I bought it, attracted by the truly wonderful, vivid, illustrations and read it to my two-year-old. It is currently her favourite book, she demands it many times a day and understands the story line. In addition she is attracted by the cadence of the language, and enjoys singing the words to different tunes, and making up additional words to go in Anansi's song. An excellent introduction to the Anansi stories--I hope that the author writes (and illustrates!) many more for young readers.

This was an excellent book. The Anansi stories are always a delight and this one did not let us down. My first graders were at the edge of their seats waiting to find out what Anansi would do next. They roared with laughter at the way Anansi tricked the monkeys.

Kwame Dawes is a brilliant poet, critic, short story writer and now add anthologist. He has put together an anthology that reveals the ethos of our generation.He has, again, pointed us in a useful direction.

A refreshing revelation of poetry that moves to the spirit of reggae. This anthology with reggae movements is another "about time" in the publication of Caribbean literature. I salute Kwame Dawes for bringing forth such a rhythmic collection of poems that give homage to so many of the founders of the reggae beat. From Marley to Patra, from the chaos of living in Babylon and beyond. I recommend WHEEL AND COME AGAIN to all lovers and listeners of REGGAE.