Here is the front cover of Sapodilla Terrace
Read the author's comment on the back cover:
I am interested in Caribbean transitions - from trace to terrace and the rot that follows the sapodilla when it moves from country to town; the transformation from peasant to middle class life styles; how mass education has changed Caribbean society; how race and class have turned everything, including Carnival, upside down. But above all, I am interested in people, male relationships in particular, and how the ‘outside child’ remains a deep-rooted West Indian constant that you can’t put out of the house.
Sapodilla Terrace is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
posted by Cynthia James @ 8:20 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Glad you like the cover, Anadene. Appreciate your comments. And yes, it was designed to give the feel of oldtime days and yet the modern urban. I tried to get the concept of the Caribbean in transition even there.
The boy is also deliberate, because it is a first-person novel with a male narrator. When last you see a sapodilla? Do you see children eating sapodilla? Or is the cover odd?
Looking forward to more comments from you as you break open the Sapodilla and eat the flesh. The Sapodilla is a grainy fruit, even when it is ripe, but I still see the juice running down your chin ...
Permilla
You make some very insightful comments. In dealing with the theme of transitions, I try to capture the loss of the Caribbean landscape that was all around me when I was growing up. I recently returned to the countryside where I was born and felt as if a great erasure of my childhood had taken place. Gone were the pois doux, the caimite, and the gru gru boeuf!
You have also commented on one of the themes in Sapodilla - that of Afro-Caribbean, father-son relationships. I tried to give as much attention to the invisible "outside" child, who many a time has the burden of his parents failed relationship to bear. However, the son that is acknowledged suffers just as much. There are so many open secrets in these small societies from which none can escape.
Thanks for sharing
Cynthia
Hi Elanda
Actually there is only one previously published part - my novel Bluejean. Bluejean is Carol's story. I am working on Benita's story now, but I'm having difficulty tracing Benita's lifeline, because she has crossed many rivers. She is now 81.
And yes, "Sapodilla" in the title Sapodilla Terrace... The sapodilla was a fruit that was so common when I was a child. But then I lived in the country. When I was looking for sapodillas during the writing of the novel, I couldn't find any. Yet the names were all around in the built-up developments. Country people like me, who had allegedly progressed, had brought the memories to grace their paved street, but that was all.
This is one of the themes in the novel - a loss? of an era in the Caribbean that is fast becoming myth as spaces are cleared away and cities and malls move in. Looking forward to continuing this discussion with you.
Cynthia
I have completed your novel which I enjoyed thoroughly. Slightly slow at the beginning but when it picks up it begins to roll and grab the attention of the reader. I love it. Disappointed not to know if Dominic Alexander was really Paul's true father. Excellent novel.
Sometimes the details could be too much, especially with the school. Want to discuss more with you to ask questions chat etc but not getting on to your site. After Dominc's visist to the jail I found the graduation just cut into the momentum that was building up.
How come the protagonist was male and not female.
What I like about this novel too was the crescendos. There were many high points. It wasnt flat.
It is also historical and cultural.
Really am proud of your book.
Hi Anonymous
It is interesting that you ask how come the protagonist was male and not female. This makes me feel that you doubt his authenticity. Perhaps his voice is not convincingly male?
I must admit that I had problems casting him. In fact Sapodilla Terrace was first in an omniscient 3rd person. But then I found that not only was Paul far too distant, but also the entire book was incredibly false. But to come back to the protagonist not being female ... I have never been male. I can only imagine what it is like to live in a male body ... and even that is a stereotype.
About whether Paul is Dominic Alexander's son? You will just have to wait to read BENITA, Part 3 of the trilogy.
As for the school details being sometimes too much ... I have had teachers say quite the opposite. I think it is because teachers are conservative and they were glad to see somone giving ear/air to the raw reality of their day-to-day life.
With regard to school, too, a Barbadian of the Caribbean Artist's Movement(CAM)said to me that I had portrayed much of what was in E.R. Brathwaite's 60s novel To Sir with Love. E.R. Brathwaite is Barbadian and his book is about teaching in lower class urban England. The person thought that I had used To Sir With Love as a model.
I found his comment interesting for more than one reason. For one, it may mean that more schooling changes for the lower classes, the more it remains the same. Also that the British colonial structure of Trinidadian schooling has remained the same after 50 years, in spite of the new buildings etc.
Personally, I think that there are just surface similarities between the books. The issues of race/class/gender/politics/society are quite different. But I was glad that the books speak to each other. I had not thought of E.R. Brathwaite's book when I was writing Sapodilla Terrace. But if it generates intertextuality that's good, because it is all about transitions ... which I am interested in. In fact I was thinking more about Naipaul's portrayals of school in his various novels while I was writing Sapodilla Terrace.
Thanks for pointing out the aspects that you liked, especially the historical and cultural.
Me again
I liked the evolution of Dominic's character. To me he was the most authentic of all the characters. He was an extremely hard and difficult man who was hurt because of his son's disappearnce off the home front. I waited in anticipation when Paul read the will and felt a sense of relief when he left the estate to Paul. Wouldnt have forgiven you if he had done other wise. I felt that he had redeemed himself and freed Paul who was in bondage because of his father's rejection. I liked Dominic because of his lack of pretence. There were aspects of his personality which reminded me of my own father, while growing up. The sense of rejection. Despite the fact that my father was alwys there, there was this keen sense of silent rejection which we all felt espcially my brothers. Like Benita, my mother would alwys cover and make excuses for him. She understood him. Despite the rejection we all love our father very much.
Hi Anonymous
Dominic is indeed a complex man. His views on race, his relationship with women, and with both his sons are born out of his own peculiar struggle to come to terms with himself. He talks a lot, but in many ways he lives in a silent world. I don't think he trusts anyone. He lives intensely but privately. His experiences have turned him inward. Perhaps we need to examine our society to find out to what extent he is a reflection of people that we know. What does this say about fatherhood and the emotional legacy passed on to sons?
What about the moral implications of Philomen's character? How do you justify the portrayal of this character with a married man? and the sexual encounters with Paul? Somehow the creation of the moral values of this character conflicted with the background from which she emerged. To me it seemed to be two extremes. To me there was a cultural clash of values and the creation of Philomen appeared to be a modern day "Young and restless personality." Was the portayal of Philomen a reflection of the women within our society?
Jean H. said
Sapodilla Terrace is an interesting book for anyone belonging to the caribbean, and more so for the Trinidad reader. It is set in Trinidad, and young and old living here will find things familiar and will be able to identify with everything written. The names of the places only have been changed. The school scenes can be any school in T@T, the family set-up with relationships depicted belongs to many families, the village life, the speech, life on the estate with its flora and fauna are all entirely realistic and true to life. The Carnival scenes, the actions of the visitor from the USA, descrptions of all the familiar things of the country, it comes to life before your eyes.
The main character Paul relates the story, and the way in which the author who is a woman handles the character, is quite remarkable. She brings out the maculine traits and characteristics. The scenes in the Staff room, the reactions and speech of the teachers, Paul at home with his mother, the strained relationship between Paul and his sister, the care that the sister takes of her daughter, dropping her to school and picking her up. There is a warmth between Cee and her grandfather in contrast to the distance that exists between Paul and his father, the old man's obstinancy in keeping his son out of his life, all these can be found in the life of T@T.
The book is not one of morality and does not pretend to be one and so Paul's divorce and his relationship with Philomena is part of Caribbean life. Dr.James is not preaching to us but letting us know that this is a fact of life in any part of the world.
The character of Paul is appealing. There is a calmness and gentleness that befits a male character. It seems that after leaving home for a while, he is back with a renewed love of family and country. His constant forgiveness of and his understanding of his father is ceratinly a quality to be emulated. Thanks to the author for this.
The dialogue is at all times in keeping with the the T@T dialect. If one ever wants to enter into the pysche of the TRini, and wants to learn something of the culture of the country then "Sapodilla Terrace" is certainly the book to read
Hello Jean H
I am thrilled at your ability to capture the nuances of Sapodilla Terrace. As a matter of fact from what you say about how past and present Trinidads are captured in the novel, I feel that you know very intimately what Trinidad was in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. I am thinking that this is important to understanding Sapodilla fully. I find that mature people have enjoyed the novel more than younger people. They have noticed and appreciated things similar to those you have pointed out, for example, your observations on the depiction of Carnival and village life. I am a child of the transition and Transition Trinidad is a big theme in my writing.
I also find it interesting that you are able to approach Paul on an even keel. It was indeed very difficult to get inside him to present him credibly, since I only know Karibean Pauls from observing them in this society. Writing the father was not so difficult, because he remained constant. But creating Paul to give him a credible longtime past, to depict him as someone who spent 18 years in the US, and also someone who would have to try to fit back into present-day Trinidad was dicey.
Paul was a challenge to create, because he had to participate in so many time periods and cultural histories and still be a unified person. I suppose that is also part of what Paul is working out, seeing that he was never satisfied with the single Trinidadian identity that his father wanted him to adopt. Coming to think of it, perhaps this may be the real source of the conflict between father and son ... the transitional - transnational identity and the static one.
During the writing about school, too, I was uneasy that the raucousness of the teachers and their insensitivity to the students would be condemned. But I am glad that you are able to hold together simultaneously in your mind fiction as a depiction of social reality and personal and societal morality.
Thanks for your introspective and insightful comments.
Cynthia
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