Caribbean Books

I am a true lover of the work of Pablo Neruda and have perused many
translated works of the famous Chilean poet.
Stephen Mitchell's translations are by far the most eloquent I have found. I feel they best convey the many moods of Pablo Neruda. The writer is able to capture the most intense feelings in the poet's writing better than any I have read. Thank you Stephen Mitchell.

This is a lovely translation, but then I think of them all as good. There is no comparison for me to any other poet. Keep this or any of his books near your bed to understand the earth, sea, mountains, love, stones, earth, grace, redemption, cats, neighbors, friends, etc. The depth and breadth is expansive and this is a "sweet" book.

Having been interested in Neruda since seeing the movie "Il Postino," I've glanced at several collections for over 3 years, but never took a book home for my own. Looking for a collection that contained "Ode to Laziness" (one of my favorite subjects), I found and purchased Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon. I sat down in a big chair on a Sunday afternoon and opened it to the first page and the love affair started there. Usually, I read a book of poems randomly, just flipping here and there, looking for whatever surprizes me. For some unknown reason, I started this book from the beginning with Mitchell's introduction, then read the first poem. I couldn't help myself as I read one poem and then another till I had carefully read almost every one. Pure spirit, pure soul. Each poem is a love poem to the most simple, everyday, ordinary things of this world--his suit, his socks, his watch--engaging us to see a sheer web of grace that runs through out our lives. Put another way, Neruda sees and shows us a world that shimmers and loves us as fully as we love it.

Many thanks to S. Mitchell for creating this collection.

Stephen Mitchell translates an assortment of Neruda's lesser known poems that rank among his personal favorites. You can tell Mitchell truly loves these works as Neruda's voice almost literally sings off the page in English. The book itself is beautifully constructed with a painting by Gaugin adorning the cover. When you hold it in your hands, you will know you have discovered something truly special. You may also be interested in Mitchell's lovely translations of Rilke.

Anthony Winkler is a really gifted author and he has a talent for clearly reproducing the essence of raw Jamaica, even if it is a Jamaica that existed before I was born. He also wrote "The Lunatic" which I need to find and re-read again as well. He is a white Jamaican who currently lives in Atlanta, GA.

This book "Going Home To Teach" recounts his experiences when he returned home to Jamaica to teach back in the 1970s. Those were tumultuous times for Jamaica, when Michael Manley was in power and socialism was the philosophy du jour. Many people left, while Winkler was coming back. The book has a lot of pathos, humour, and drama; but what really makes it impressive and relevant to me are the observations on Jamaican, American and English culture. Here are some samples. I don't necessarily agree with all his observations, but I think they are worth noting.

On being white in Jamaica, specifically referring to his American wife's experience:
"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 own country; the expectation of being treated with indifference in a public place. When you are white in a black land like Jamaica, you are no longer merely a man, or a woman, or a child. For good or ill, you are also immediately transmogrified into a living symbol of a detested colonial past."

On Jamaican and American attitudes towards economic roles:
"The American nation is essentially a confederation of economic tribes known as businesses and corporations, each with its own totemic history, identity...when you work for an American corporation it defines you, moulds you...and eventually changes your values and perceptions...Americans are reared with the expectation that a large part of their personal identity will eventually be defined in adulthood by an economic role. One becomes what one does...Jamaicans DO their careers, their occupational pursuits; Americans BECOME them...This wedding of personality and occupation is a most peculiar trait for Jamaicans to comprehend mainly because they have inherited from their own cultural experience a deep-seated dislike for ready-made economic roles. Jamaicans revel in the expression of an idiosyncratic self, and reject any occupational role that brings with it blanket expectations of the self. Why this is so no doubt goes back to our experience with slavery when we waged and endless war of passive resistance against the slave master's desires and struggled hard to repudiate what he wanted us to become."

On "getting on bad"
"This expression has a peculiar meaning to the Jamaican, and no known equivalent in America. To `go on bad' is to employ the behaviour of the lower class in a sphere of life where it is outlandishly inappropriate. One cannot `go on bad' in a true democracy like America, but only in a society that separates people into classes by a strictly prescribed code of manners. Under the Englishman's colonial blueprint, the ragged brute in the streets is expected to rant and rave over grievances and raise his voice in profanity, but not the tuxedoed gentleman at a formal dinner. And should the gentleman so behave for whatever reason other than rare excusable drunkenness, he is said to have `gone on bad.' His sin is not so much bad behaviour as it is a degenerate hybridisation of manners-bringing the lower-class brute into the drawing room- and the penalty is social expulsion. He simply will never be invited back."
The unfortunate thing is that many times, getting on bad is the only way to get anything done! He notes this in the anecdote that follows this quote, which I won't replay here.

It's a great autobiographical novel told from a point of view that I haven't even considered too much; that of the person who is born in Jamaica and is just as Jamaican as I am, except that he is white. It is an accurate snapshot of Jamaica in the 1970s as well. Well, I assume that, since I wasn't born then :D At any rate, I highly recommend it. Also read the rest of his books: "The Lunatic" "The Painted Canoe" "The Great Yacht Race" and "The Duppy". I have read them all except for the last one, those I have read have been very good also.

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 was a schoolgirl in Jamaica, during the 70s, the period Mr. Winkler writes about and I can attest that all the things he says are true. The book is hilarious and poignant at the same time, capturing all the things that make Jamaica a difficult place to live in, yet an impossible one to stay away from. He captures the crazy drama of everyday life there, with humor and beauty and sadness. The scene in the patty shop when he asked by two people behind him in line to judge which is the blacker one, is one of the funniest things I've ever read.

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.

"... the most useful guidebook... a great reference." The Traveling Golfer

A guide written by golfers for golfers. Hundreds of resorts are described in this book, with details including fees, course profile (par, hazards, yardage), resident pro information, accommodations (with prices), dining options and equipment rentals. All establishments are open to the public.

"If you love golf, Golf Resorts is for you." Relax Magazine

Northwest Airlines WorldTraveler Magazine: " Make sure you have a copy on hand. This tome is the only pre-trip guide you'll need to research not only golf courses, but nearby lodging, restaurants, and additional recreation - for after-golf or non-golfing spouses. The book covers more than 600 courses. The authors have rated the top 50, breaking those down into 38 large and 12 small resorts."

This excellent anthology explores Colonial Subject Peoples abandoning civilization and creating tribal units with American Indians, creating vital, nonimperial creole cultures. The book is crucial in uncovering intercultural contact that was decisively against the colonialist directions of American history. This book is part of a general movement to create and discover anarcho-tribal connections across cultures. By exploring "Tri-Racial Communities" of disenfranchized Europeans, runaway Africans, and displaced American Indians, it shows the reality of human community outside of imperialist, nationalist dogma, and opens the possibility for fomenting an anti-imperial, polyethnic primal revival in the present.

"America" was founded as a land of drop-outs. Almost at once it began to produce its own dissidents - visionairies, utopians, Maroons (escaped slaves), white and black "Indians," sailors and bucaneers, tax rebels, angry women, crank reformers, "tri-racial isolate" communities - all on the lam from Babylon, from control. Their self-liberation was carried out under the sign of Wild(er)ness and its guardians, the "Natives." Having disappeared from "History," they have ever since been ignored by the Concensus and its guardians, the academics.

Now Here they are again, coming back at you, claiming to have been the real "America" all along. They speak from the past, through the mediumship of radical historians, and in the present, in their own voices. They are speaking of other possibilities - speaking for a romantic becoming - for an insurrectionary moment - for a restoration of the unknown. -- from book's back cover.

... and informative to boot!

Students of divergent historical, political, & sociological subjects will all find something of interest in this collection; from the African diaspora in America to the seeds of U.S. Outlaw culture to forgotten social experiments that may have been hundreds of years ahead of their time- all are interwoven and flesh out lost details long ignored by establishment accounts of history.

If you're at all interested in American history, this study of "Dropout Culture" is an amazing read. I had NO idea that there was such a vivid and thriving counterculture back 100 or 200 years or more: Americans who walked away from all the norms and mores of early American capitalism and sought a different reality. This sometimes reads like a William S Burroughs fantasy of anarchist utopia-- "Cities of the Red Night" or "The Western Lands" or "The Place of Dead Roads"-- where "pirates" make their own compacts and live without laws and governments.

I loved this odd and compelling look at an alternate past I had never imagined existed.

i read this book almost 8 years ago while travelling in central america. i forgot its title then but never forgot its message. i have only just tracked it down - it was worth the wait and what it has to say is every bit as important as i remembered it. perhaps now (post 11th september) it is even more poignant, illustrating the inability of the 'west' to learn from mistakes in its foreign policy, how the lives of others are affected by this and how our complicity in this debases our own humanity. with this book, i understood so much more than i could otherwise have done, the feelings of the people i met in C.Am, particularly in nicaragua. i love the people there, the lack of malice and bitterness they are entitled to, that i felt on their behalf.
it is an essential read, for anyone interested in global politics, for anyone thinking of going travelling there, for anyone...well, for anyone.

This book was required reading for a history course I took at university. It is one of the most memorable books I read while at university; in fact I actually re-read it cover-to-cover while in law school. The writing is entertaining and it has a very clever layout with interesting historical photos and illustrations. The author describes the historical events covered by the book in a fresh and persuasive style which is rarely seen in books about history or politics. I wish Black or other authors would produce more works like this on other periods of history or political topics.

The history of U.S. involvment south of its border is an ugly and painful one, full of rapacious corporations, support for torture and dictatorships, and dripping in racism. Bringing this sordid history to light is Black, who makes the history both entertaining and powerful. In a fast-reading book, loaded with photos, political cartoons, and illustrations, Black manages to swiftly educate Americanos of all kinds about this amazing history. Highly recommended!

It is a crime that George Black's Good Neighbor has been out of print. Written with a wry style and a British detachment from the assumptions of U.S. culture, Black explores the history of what he regards as a neurotic United States romping though Central America from the Spanish American war onward. While I disagree with his premise that there is an irrationality to U.S. behavior in Latin America, my students love this book. Beautifully and intelligently illustrated.

I happen to have been one of the medical students taken hostage in the Grenada war. I am writing a book myself about our incredible, untold story and look forward to reading this one.

I happen to have been one of the medical students taken hostage in the Grenada war. I am writing a book myself about our incredible, untold story and look forward to reading this one.

I liked this book because it is fairly objective in its account of the US invasion in 1983 in Grenada. Though the book justifies the American invasion it does not cast Maurice Bishop in a totally negative light. It also shows the Cubans as reluctant adversaries: they were backers of Bishop but were forced into supporting the Junta that overthrew and assassinated him. Also, the US intervention is shown as not all that well executed: there were many fiascos and unecessary casualties in a relatively small war. The photos of the book are clear and the colour plates are also nicely done.

If you need a quick review of the U.S. lead invasion of Soviet communist-troubled Grenada in 1983, this is your book! Until Major Mark Adkin's book came out (Urgent Fury: the invasion of Grenada), this was THE best reference on a short battle that was the turning point in the Cold War. While the U.S. military likes to take its time going to war to set up neat, Clausewitzian set-piece battles, the world was being engulfed by wars of "revolution" backed by Soviet/Cuban communist advisors, funds and armaments--when Grenada began to collapse into anarchy, Presiden Reagen decided to go as we are and "jump and take our lumps". This fine little book depicts the hasty preparations needed to fight modern no-notice wars and the fantastic flexibility and resolve inherent in America's elite Airborne/Rangers to change from airlanding to parachute airdrop while in flight en route when the runway was discovered to be blocked. The USAF Combat Talon pilot in charge also thought quickly, saw that Cuban anti-aircraft guns could not depress far enough and led the other C-130 Hercules down to 500 feet or below so the Rangers and two 82d Airborne Combat Engineers could jump and secure the Point Salines runway/airfield. Its too bad Hollywood didn't pick up this book and READ before making such atrocious depictions like "Heartbreak Ridge" when U.S. Army Rangers lead the way, fighting, dying and rescuing the hostages not any marines who up north landed unopposed. Maybe someday a REAL film depiction of Urgent Fury will be produced, the men who performed the mission certainly deserve it.

The "center of gravity" was the 10,000 foot runway under construction at Point Salines which would be used to land Soviet transport planes loaded with armaments as a way station to latin America to arm the "revolution" there. The Cubans in charge of the defenses miscalculated as the authors showed and dug-in on the beaches awaiting a seaborne assault by marines, which never came as we wisely avoided a public confidence-defeating frontal attack bloodbath and dropped in from the sky by parachutes using Airborne forces. American audacity carried the day, as the runway was cleared and began to accept C-141B Starlifter transports full of ragtop-helmet camouflaged Paratroopers of the 82d Airborne who together with the Rangers rescued the American medical students, captured the Soviet arms and ammunition and swept north to link up with the marines, securing the island. The victory on Grenada signaled that the "Reagen doctrine" of rolling back communism had teeth and America had the will to put men on the ground to stop evil from over-running the planet. The victory we enjoy in the Cold War began those dark days of October in 1983.

The authors of this fine book have illustrated these events with numerous pictures and color plates by Paul Hannon showing the equipment and uniforms of the combatants. What's good for the military professional is that each illustration is scrutinized for important details--from the beret-clad Paratrooper scout who used tape patterns to camouflage his M16 rifle to the STABO extraction harness worm as load bearing gear on the SFOD-Delta trooper. You can pick up insights on how to bind prisoners all the way to gain an appreciation of tactics--don't attack gun positions with helicopters using TOW missiles that require steady guidance or else you might get shot down like the two marine Cobras were, always carry anti-tank weapons to incinerate not just deflate the tires of enemy armored cars (Rangers brought 90mm Recoilless rifles for this, SEAL Tm 6 didn't for the Sir Paul Scoon recovery mission).

This is a must-have reference book for the student of modern warfare.

Airborne!

I'd like to see the original version ( in French?) I know it is by Editions Arthaud. Please inform me about this version. Is it on a website?

both versions of the book, in english and french, are excellent. however, there are some 'minor' differences, for example the cover. there is also a spanish version that shares the french version cover design.

I purchased this book for my husband, he was forced to flee Cuba at the age of 5. He has a vast collection of books on Cuba and Cuban-American issues, and this is a very welcomed addition. The photographs are lovely, and when viewed by our Cuban relatives, it brought back lots of memories. Lovely as an art or historical book.

This is a fabulous book with exquisite pictures. The photography is marvelous and it gives the reader an opportunity to see the nice range of architectural styles that can be found in Cuba.

My almost 4 year old son LOVES this book and even my 2 year old will sit through it. We are trying to get our boys to use more Spanish (mixed heritage) and this is a great way to do that.

Every page is full of brilliant Latin colors; we could stare at the pages and be happy. The language is rich and poetic- it breathes magic (or magica). It is mostly in English, but the Spanish words and phrases are put in a way that reader and child can understand them. There's even a glossary in the back so you can know for sure what the words mean and how to pronounce them correctly. It's even forcing me to remember that high school Spanish.

Beautiful book.

I love reading this to my 3-year old daughter. The pictures are so colorful and full of detail.

The language and tone is so fine. The author slips in and out of the two languages, Spanish and English so easily. It is the best way to read a story. It is fantastic for my daughter's imagination. She is flying just like Rosalba, just like we all did when we were young.

We also love her other book "Abuela".

This book is wonderful. As I read this book to my second graders. They feel like they are flying and actually doing what the characters are doing. They really get into the book

I read this book and the author's other children's book (Abuela) with my daughters (ages 2 and 4) who both enjoyed them immensely. Dorros does a great job of mixing the Spanish phrases in and repeating words in both English and Spanish that the story flows nicely and children can pick up some Spanish very naturally along the way. The pictures are very fun as well. I highly recommend it, in fact I came here to look for more books by the same author but unfortunately, didn't find any. I hope he has more in the works, we love them!

Jack's New Power is great. The best chapter is at the end when he goes to the cock fight and loses a piece of money. Even though his sister is annoying, she ends up being right. I felt bad for Jack, kind of, at the end. He's off to Florida and he doesn't know what that is going to be like.
The funniest part was when he is totally purple and is trying to hide that fact by running around the neighborhood at night when it is dark. Even though he doesn't want to see anyone, someone else is running at night too. He ends up being his friend.

I loved this Book about Jack and his Memoirs. I read it in One week!!!!

i know this is a kids book, and i read it a few years ago, but every once in a while i get it out and read it from cover to cover again. every time i read this book i get inspired about life. does that seem a little drastic? i love this book. it's like my security blanket. read this book!

What a truly great book. I read this when I was in 4th grade.It has a beautiful mix of comedy and just plain interesting writing.It's the best book that I've ever read in my entire life. I also own my own copy of it. I would automatically recommend this book to anyone who wants a good laugh. This is a great book for all ages. I would also like to recommend "Heads Or Tails" which is also in the same series. I am also currently reading the third book in the series, "Jack's Black Book". It's great. Everyone should go out and buy copies of all three books and read them.

In a world in which everyone is thinking about knowing the most hidden secrets of the life, Borges, when is asked to give some advice to the younger generation, only says:

I don't think I can give advice to other people. I've hardly been able to manage my own life. pp 75.

what a man.

He lived in Literature and Literature lived in him. Books were for him his truest friends and the secret intimates of his soul. When he spoke to another he spoke always to himself and to the books within him. But because he knew books so well and loved them so much all his speaking too became a book .And in the end even his final words there were books talking to books and talking to more books.
So for those of us who also love books , his particular love of books taught us so so much - but only in books.

Borges is great in in his writings, and almost as good in conversation. Witty, urbane, stylish, Borges shows that conversation can be as exciting as literature. Buy now!

This offers a series of interviews in chronlogical order (from 1966 until shortly before his death in '85) While he is good humored and self effacing he never lets you know more than he wants you to. There are also certain repetitons of ideas that occur, but anyone that has read Borges before will be used to that. To some extent it happans with most of the better writers in varying degrees anyways. Even with the repetitions it never comes across like he is doing memorized routines (which sometimes happans with William burroughs interviews)all in all important insight into the mind of an important writer.