Caribbean Books

Luis Camnitzer's "Conceptualism in Latin American Art: Didactics of Liberation"' is an essential book for anyone interested in understanding the differences in the currents which nourished Conceptual Art in Latin America and in mainstream Conceptual Art in the United States. In it's scope it should take it's place next to "The Dada Painters and Poets", Motherwell's magnificent introduction to early European radicalism. Both books open for us broad areas where writers, artists and poets opened new venues for expression.
Discovering for us the work of Simon Rodriguez (1769-1854) alone is worth the price of admission. By allowing Rodriguez's work to resonate with examples, Camnitzer establishes in my view the most important theme of this book. Conceptualism in Latin America arises out of the immense wealth inherent in language and literature. From Simon Rodriguez to Max Aub, Jorge Luis Borges, Vicente Huidobro to a long list of artists who have enriched this legacy, right up to Leon Ferrari working at maximum intensity in Argentina.
A meticulous analysis of North American conceptualism reveals it's inextricable relation to Capitalism. This raises the question: Up to what point can Democracy and Capitalism coexist. What possibilities are left for art when a booming market swallows anything and everything thus neutering any possibility for subversion. Thus La Monte Youg's chilling phrase: "I am not interested in good: I am interested in new- even if this includes the possibility of it's being evil." To this the author juxtaposes Superbarrio's statement: "One day I left home to go to work and I saw two flashes of lightning, one yellow, one red. I closed my eyes after I was caught in a whirlwind. When the wind passed, I opened my eyes and I was dressed like a wrestler! Exactly as you are seeing me today!"
ARTFORHUM-2008

David Jones has upgraded a work that was already distinguished as a unique contribution to the mariner's understanding of weather conditions in the tropics. It still stands as the clearest and most understandable exposition of the weather patterns that characterize the Caribbean region and the distinct ways in which they differ from those we experience in the higher latitudes. It merits close study by the southbound passage maker, who will find its contents useful on a daily basis while cruising the beautiful but potentially rough Caribbean waters. Short and to the point, it is filled with valuable tips: wind patterns on inter-island passages, barometric differences and likely wind speeds; daily wind and barometer patterns, and the hazards of tropical storms. Deserves space not just on the bookshelf, but handy at the chart desk of any boat cruising the Caribbean.

If you are a traveler who enjoys accomodations that aren't "cookie cutter"........then this guide is for you. The hotels and inns featured are unique and wonderful. Conde Nast again offers the best for travelers.

No, I did not purchase this because my last name is Johansen. This is just THE book if you are looking for THE best, most unique, boutique type loding in the USA.

A grand collection of poems written by the master technician of prose, Octavio Paz, in the late 50's and 60's. This was his first collection of writings released in the United States. The themes explored are typical Paz but two works standout and are worth the price of the book alone. The first is the epic "Piedra Del Sol/Sun Stone" where Paz explores the Aztec stone with erotic prose that illuminates as well as illustrates. The second is his reaction to the slaughter of demonstrating Mexican students in 1968 entitled "Ladera Este" which he protested by resigning as Ambassador to India. Excellent prose by Mexico's greatest poet.

I came across this book by chance when I was looking for books to share with my students (I teach Grade 2) about the West Indies where I was born and raised. It is a lovely story of friendship and community.

This book is a must-read for students of Latin American culture. It is written with panache and is very readable. At the same time, it presents a complex analysis of Peruvian narrative, TV and politics.
Recommended.

If you are captivated by Allende's novels and moved by her memoir then you will be equally enthralled with this work. Conversations with Isabel Allende is a collection of thirty-four interviews covering the life, work and assessment of Allende as a writer. The interviews are divided into three periods. The first begins in the mid-80's and is predominated by literary interviews given by academics and scholars of Latin American Literature. The second period (late 80's to 1991) consists of interviews that are biographical and focus on the relationship of her works with her life. The third set of interviews (1991-1994) deal with her relationship with her daughter, the impact of the Latin American Boom Writers on her work and how her move to the United States has impacted on her writing.

I was fascinated with this vast array of material which contains something for everyone. Allende deals with the probing questions of critics and academics regarding her style, structure and influences on her work. Her answers are most surprising in that she doesn't see herself as falling into any particular writing tradition. In fact she confesses her ignorance about those in the literary field who analyze and take apart her works for greater understanding.

Another part of the interviews that are intriguing is her sharing with us her life story, anecdotes, and challenges. You see an intimate portrait of her as a mother, journalist, feminist and novelist. Allendes warts as well as her beauty shines through. Her responses to the questions are a story unto themselves and you wonder if they are indeed true.

What is most important about this work is that you see the progression of growth of one of Latin America's most significant female writers. Allende's works are put in a particular context and you as a reader are able to engage her in viewing how she writes, why she writes and the significance it has for women and Latin America. Conversations is a "must have" text in doing any literary or biographical research on this great writer.

"A superb calaloo of a book whose ingredients of autobiography, historical narrative and the anthropologist's pursuit of the origin of folk memories reconstruct the life of a Martinique fishing village. Richard Price has a remarkable grasp of the literatures of the Caribbean, and draws on this resource to explore the underlying insanity of the colonial experience, as well as the bewildering complexities of the post-colonial world where memory is erased or invented according to the demands of a market modernity."
--George Lamming, author of In the Castle of My Skin, Natives of My Person, The Pleasures of Exile, Season of Adventure

"A wonderfully readable fusion of anthropology and memoir about culture, colonialism, and madness in the Caribbean. Price practices what a lot of postmodernists preach; the book's graceful writing and innovative form, tossing the reader back and forth in time and space, is supported by solid and original scholarship."
--Lucy R. Lippard, author of Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America

"By beautifully crafting elements as disparate as biographical data, sociological studies, literary sources, and archival documents, Richard Price's research is more fascinationg than a piece of fiction."
--Maryse Condé, author of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, Crossing the Mangrove, and The Last of the African Kings

"An engrossing and compelling book. . . . Richard Price continues to build a body of work that in seriousness and self-revelation goes beyond even the work of Clifford Geertz. But he is more than an anthropologist and stylist; he is a moralist, one who demands to be taken seriously. He enters the discussion of modern culture with Lévi-Strauss' Tristes Tropiques but he is able to carry it further than the master, because he has kept his intellectualizing anchored in the experience of cultural and social difference."
--Roger D. Abrahams, author of Singing the Master and Afro-American Folktales

"Price does it again. Mixing eras, genres and voices, he carries the reader through the contradictory streams of historical consciousness in the Caribbean island of Martinique. The result is as complex and as enticing as the sea it evokes."
--Michel-Rolph Trouillot, author of Silencing the Past

This is a wonderful book full of photographs and drawings and good explanations. I read it to my 7 year old son tonight and we both learned something about coral animals.