#readcaribbean September 2020

September means going back to school/work. It’s always synonymous with setting up a new schedule to balance all my activities, so I didn't spend much time reading. I only read 4 books, two of which were #readcaribbean. Usually, I consciously give priority to Black women authors, but for once, I’ll talk about two men authors from the Caribbean.

Let's start with the one I liked the least. "Gecko" by John Renmann. This is Volume 1 of his on-going Gwada Cops saga. The plot boils down to a detective duo investigating a series of mysterious murders in Guadeloupe. This book left me puzzled. It really did. Not so much about the story because the use of folklore in a contemporary narrative is always an interesting approach... However the execution made me uncomfortable. I felt like reading "Guadeloupe 101 for Dummies" because the explanations were so didactic. Nicolas is the archetype of the gruff policeman who has been dealing with a secret trauma for years. This kind of lead man has been seen over and over again. This cliché has proved its worth. On the other hand, the character’s hatred towards Guadeloupe seems to be dictated by the fact that he was rejected from childhood because he spent a few years in continental France. And this is a cliché specific to the Caribbean. However, the way Nicolas openly despises every element of Guadeloupe made him very unlikeable to me. And above all, his negative comments sound exactly like the one used by the colonizers. It was too much for me. My goal is not to offer negative criticism for the sake of it. Nevertheless, Karukerament is about celebrating Caribbean identity and more particularly Guadeloupean identity... To make a complete chronicle of a novel for which I cannot find enough positive sides is not part of my editorial line. I will read volume 2... If I don’t write a review, you'll know why.

Now on to a book I truly enjoyed. “The Black God's drums” by P. Djèli Clark. Officially, this short story is part of the steampunk genre (science fiction in the industrial era of the 19th century). For me, it is also Caribbean futurism. The story takes place in an alternative world in 1884, a few years after the American Civil War. Creeper is a young orphaned teenager whose dream is to leave New Orleans. She discovers a conspiracy that could destroy the city and even the world. She can count on Oya, the wind goddess, and Ann-Marie, a Haitian captain of an air ship, to stop the conspiracy... The novel is short but rich in cultural, religious and social details to draw this alternative universe based on real historical facts. The characters are predominantly female and thus offer a diverse gallery of black women. In short, I loved it.