The Wine Of Astonishment

Charts the history of a Spiritual Baptist community from the passing of the Prohibition Ordinance in 1917 until the lifting of the ban in 1951.

Earl Lovelace writes about the survival of a small community of Spiritual Baptists with a lyricism and understanding of dialogue which has established an international reputation. 'If we clap we hands and catch the Spirit, the police could arrest us. One day we was Baptist, the next day we is criminals.' The Wine of Astonishment is a poignant and devastating tale of the discrimination the Black community of Bonasse faced during the first half of the 20th century. Told from the perspective of a religious wife, Eva retells the torment and tribulations her family and friends endure at the hands of abusive police and corrupt government officials. Hurtling towards its tragic climax, Bolo's transformation embodies the tragedy manifested when a people are pushed too far.

Excerpt from The Wine of Astonishment He was on fire to be off to his adventure. He felt himself a man, an explorer, a free lance. It was mad dening to have to thrust his head into the family living room and tell his parents that he was going over to Henry's for all night. And parents are not too easily satisfied. His father merely glanced up from the inevitable book, but his mother put down her magazine and told him to come in. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

'A landmark, not in the West Indian, but in the contemporary novel.' C. L. R. James 'First-class talent.' The Voice Trinidad, 1970s. Calvary Hill - poverty stricken and rubbish-strewn - is home to a community of people who come together during the joyful yearly town Carnival, becoming larger-than-life versions of themselves. But when it ends, and the strains of day-to-day life grow large, what happens to the peoples' hopes, and the feeling that 'all o' we is one'? With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Dragon Can't Dance is a stunning, classic novel of the desire for identity and belonging, alongside the legacies of a colonial past.

A “funny, moving, endlessly inventive” novel of life in a Trinidadian town during a time of change and revolutionary fervor (The Times). In Trinidad, in the wake of 1970’s Black Power Uprising, we follow Sonnyboy, Singer King Kala, and their town’s folk through experiments in music, politics, religion, and love—and in their day-to-day adventures. Humorous and serious, sad and uplifting, Is Just a Movie is a radiant novel about small moments of magic in ordinary life. “Earl Lovelace is arguably the Caribbean’s greatest living novelist. In Is Just a Movie, he writes at the top of his considerable literary powers, picturing the Caribbean’s poor and powerless defending their ever-embattled humanity with resourcefulness and tenacity.” —Randall Robinson, author of The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks “Lovelace is bursting with things to say about this complex, heterogeneous society in the late twentieth century . . . with a flair that at its best reaches a soaring rhapsody.” —Guardian “Is Just a Movie is not just a movie, it’s a poem, too.” —Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things “Confirms Lovelace as a master storyteller of the West Indies.” —Financial Times “Starring two hapless almost-beens in search of movie fame, Is Just A Movie takes us on wild loving absurdist journey to the heart of a contemporary Trinidad.” —Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao “Vivid prose that seems to stroll effortlessly across the page.” —The Times Literary Supplement Winner of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe’s Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature

Hilarious autobiography of an American television star who found the answer to his boyhood dream.