Caribbean Books

Ms. Colli sure knows the territory. FABULOUS.

As a frequent and longtime visitor to the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, I have come to love the culture and history of its very interesting people which is slowly becoming lost to the increasing hotel, timeshare, tourist business development.
Through native island writers such as Lasana Sedou, many customs and traditions will not be forgotten and their important place in this ever evolving and lovely island will be secured. Each short story in this collection speaks to days gone by that, surprisingly, one can find in various cul de sacs and in the hearts of many St. Maartiners.
I thoroughly enjoyed and was deeply touched by Mr. Sekou's writings.

This book is an invaluable collection of Caribbean rings games, documenting traditions that are slowing fading away under the crush of North American pop culture. It is a cherished resource for my wife, who grew up in Dominica playing many of these games and now teaches them as part of her dance classes in Ohio. Anyone who buys this book must also get the companion CD from Rounder Records.

Combine detective fiction themes with Chicana/o identity discussions and a scholarly theme and you have an excellent blend of crime survey and the Latin culture in BROWN GUMSHOES: DETECTIVE FICTION AND THE SEARCH FOR CHICANA/O IDENTITY. Popular fiction can hold cultural observations which are often overlooked in the academic world: BROWN GUMSHOES examines the image and world of Latin minority groups in detective fiction and represents the first comprehensive study of Chicano/a detective fiction, considering contributions by authors and themes which reveal underlying trends and political and social sentiments.

Poised between some great Spanish poetry, in this case Noni Benegas' _Cartografia ardiente_, and its English readers who can now embrace this collection in a new way, stands a gifted translator who faces several impossible tasks at once. A poem is more than a meta-expression of symbol, image, meaning, and artistry. Devoid of prosaic explanation, successful poetry retains a culture's smell, taste, feel and rhythm. Yet it must transcend place and time to look back and observe. So a poet must be a crafty artisan and a competent cultural interpreter; and these are only some of the prerequisites for an apprenticeship. A poem's essential coherence depends on the poet's invocation of communal conventions, but novelty demands infractions of these very same conventions. If these dual feats of balance and elegance seem superhuman, consider the skills required of the translator. A translator of poetry must gracefully navigate two cultural tightropes at once. When the subject is a beloved living writer, there can be no room for slight-of-hand. Here, a translator has no place to hide. And yet, to disappear behind the poet is just what the job entails.

From the outset, with her choice of the title word "burning" for ardiente, Noel Valis, the translator--herself an accomplished author and poet--, enhances an English audience's awareness of the emotional range of this Spanish verse. Action, flame, glowing embers, smoke, the sense of these might all have been wrongfully neglected had the already well composted English adjective "ardent" been allowed to stead. This collection is not ardent; especially in translation, it burns. Other English translations have helped to create an American appetite for Benegas poetry. Some of these achieve brilliance in their efforts to adapt a sophisticated and passionate Spanish voice to an English ear. Of special note must be Herman Asarnow's 1999 translation of the poem "Passion's Map." Valis' version is entitled "Burning Cartography" (41.) Both translations are sensitive interpretations. But the pestering enigma of Benegas' poetry seems best preserved in Valis' version. Asarnow's interpretations pave some of the potholes and bridge many of the chasms. A reader is herded toward an interpretation that may well BE the author's intention. But Valis provides no guide rails, no trail markers. English readers can now experience Benegas in its unprocessed form.

Being a big fan of Oscar Hijuelo's works and having the occasion to meet him a few times while I worked at a camera store in New York, I brought my wife and mother in law (both Cuban) to a reading and book-signing at R.J. Julia in Madison,CT. As we reacquaninted one another and settled in, one of the poems was read aloud by Lori Carlson. Tears and nods of happiness came to both of their faces as Lizette Mendez's "Secretos" was read, with it's simple yet beautiful references that any Cuban can idenify with.

Mind you,Lori read this in it's hybrid english-spanish mix. The poetry that is presented in Spanish (also translated to English, except for 4) is even more profound and beautiful upon reading them.

This collection is simply wonderful,giving the reader a better sense of what incredible talent abides in that island. While you have the yearnings for one's homeland and how one deals with daily life ( "I have always lived in Cuba", for one ) there are also poems of love and passion ("Loving you is a way of being ")and other topics, all in the context of coming from a proud, glorious people that we getting a chance to better observe and understand. Kudos to Oscar Hijuelos for going to visit his family and coming back with these wonderful works and kudos plus to Lori Carlson for her wonderful and thoughtful translations of these works to English. The fact that the translations stand along as great prose in English serves notice that this work is one that every person interested in Cuba & it's arts should pick up.

Dr. Nelson's grasp of the complexities of the satiric tradition and how Infante's work reflects and builds on this tradition, make her critical monograph a classic for the study of Infante's work.

There is so much research and hard work contained in this book you can hardly believe it turns out easy to read as well as beautiful to look at. It has a fresh, original approach to an old science, describing the complete story of each culture: the environment, their beliefs, their techniques in art, construction, jewelry making, etc. It is very informative as well as compelling.

Show it off, it is THE coffetable book by excellence! This book on Calima and Malagana will immediately animate conversations and perhaps, set travel projects flowing!

Every receipe that I tried were deliciou

This book is part of the distinguished series of Cambridge Companions to Literature. It consist of 17 essays. Rather than following the anticipated chronological evolution of works, the book is presented in topics: history, heterogeneity, gender and sexuality themes. A more author specific presentation follows on the work of others such as Donoso, Fuentes, Gallegos, Cortazar, to mention a few.


A core sectiion consists of a discussion of sixs novels. The so called authors creating the "boom of the Latin American Novel. This section is perhaps of the greatest interest to the general reader. It includes the work of Machado de Assis and Clarise Lispector(Brazil, Juan Rulfo, (Mexico), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia), Isabel Allende (Chile) and Mario Vargas LLosa (Peru). And can serve as touchstone for a grand view of the new style in prose and story telling thematic innovation. Grammatically pure, these artist write crystaline prose: pleasing, docile, musical, poetic, personal. Just as direct is the fury of the violent, carnal and inevitable political ramifications of the Latin American Novel.

Spanish is in itself a docile, sweet language. Just being able to read these novelists in the original justifies learning this language.