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my blog: observations,
discoveries, complaints, questions, obsessions, textes
trouvés
Book reviews
[At some point in the future I’ll attempt a brief essay on the nature
of book reviewing and the importance of that art. No doubt I’ll quote
Martin Amis on the reviewer’s true ideals (“talent, and
the canon, and the body of knowledge we call literature”), and perhaps
I’ll say something wry about the common reader. This space is where
that little essay will appear.]
From The Caribbean Review of Books
Lagahoo Poems, by James Christopher Aboud, and No Traveller
Returns, by Vahni
Capildeo
November 2004
Prehistoric
Guiana, by Denis
Williams
August 2005
(A shorter version of this
review appeared in the Stabroek News, Sunday 25
September, 2005)
The Oxford Book
of Caribbean Verse, ed.
Stewart Brown and Mark McWatt
November 2005
From the Trinidad and Tobago Review
C.L.R. James:
Cricket, the Caribbean and World Revolution, by Farrukh Dhondy
April 2002
Collected
Poems, 1937–1989, by A.J. Seymour
May 2002
A Rough Climate, by E.A. Markham
June 2002
A New World
Order: Selected Essays,
by Caryl Phillips
July 2002
The Writer and
the World: Essays, by
V.S. Naipaul
October 2002
The Autograph
Man, by Zadie Smith
November 2002
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
December 2002
Sketches of
Amerindian Tribes, 1841–1843, by Edward A. Goodall
February 2003
Abandoning Dead
Metaphors: The Caribbean Phase of Derek Walcott’s Poetry, by Patricia Ismond
March 2003
Primacy of the
Eye: The Art of Stanley Greaves, by Rupert Roopnaraine
February 2006
(A shorter version of this review appeared in the February 2006 issue
of The Caribbean Review of Books)
(Mostly
short) reviews from
Caribbean Beat
Half a Life, by V.S. Naipaul
November/December 2001
Sugar and Slate, by Charlotte Williams
September/October 2002
The
Autobiography of Alfred H. Mendes
January/February 2003
Waiting for
Snow in Havana, by
Carlos Eire
May/June 2003
Bethany Bettany, by Fred D’Aguiar
July/August 2003
In the Kingdom
of Light: Collected Poems, by M.G. Smith
November/December 2003
The Mask of the
Beggar, by Wilson Harris
January/February 2004
Between Silence
and Silence, by Ian
McDonald
May/June 2004
Lagahoo Poems, by James Christopher Aboud
January/February 2005
The Prodigal, by Derek Walcott
March/April 2005
Thank God It’s
Friday, by B.C. Pires
November/December 2005
Dancing in the
Dark, by Caryl Phillips
March/April 2006
Other writing
Profiles and
essays
As we forgive
On artist Nikolai Noel’s Forgiveness
First published in The Caribbean
Review of Books, August 2007
On Lloyd Best (1934-2007): a
personal note
First published in The Caribbean
Review of Books, May 2007
Make a space
A dialogue with artist Christopher Cozier on the significance of the
2006 Galvanize contemporary arts programme
First published in the Trinidad and
Tobago Review, November 2006
Taking note
On Christopher Cozier’s Tropical
Night drawings
First published in The Caribbean Review of Books,
August 2006
Discomfort zone
On Christopher Cozier, his Tropical
Night drawings, and Richard Fung’s documentary Uncomfortable
First published in Modern Painters,
June 2006
Masman
A profile of Peter Minshall
First published in Caribbean Beat,
May/June 2006
Artists of the streets
Profiles of thirteen designers from the “Golden Age” of Trinidad
Carnival, co-written with Dylan Kerrigan
First published in Caribbean Beat,
January/February 2004
Interrupting the conversation:
Trinidad’s StudioFilmClub
Essay from the catalogue of Peter Doig’s StudioFilmClub exhibition at the
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, and the Zurich Kunsthalle, 2005, co-written
with Leon Wainwright
First published in StudioFilmClub,
2005
Talking about StudioFilmClub
A dialogue with Leon Wainwright
First published in Modern Painters,
March 2006
Undiscovered countries
A short profile of Trinidadian poet Vahni Capildeo
First published in Caribbean Beat,
March/April 2004
His way in the world
A short profile of Guyanese writer Ruel Johnson
First published in Caribbean Beat,
May/June 2003
What “Caribbean” can mean
An essay on Caribbean Beat
and a magazine’s role in shaping cultural identity
First published in the Guyana Arts
Journal, volume 2, number 2, March 2006
Still news
A short essay on Trinidad’s crônistas
First published in The Caribbean
Review of Books, February 2006
Imaginary islands
A short essay on the imaginary territories of West Indian literature
First published in The Caribbean
Review of Books, May 2006
Reportage,
commentary, travel
A fort with a view
On visiting Kyk-over-Al, the ruined Dutch fort near Bartica, Guyana
First published in Caribbean Beat,
March/April 2007
Fire next time
On the Keith Noel 136 Committee’s “death march”, Port of Spain, 22
October, 2005
First published in the Trinidad and
Tobago Review, November 2005
Looking for love on a Saturday
night:
jointpop, Saturday 5 November, 2005, Port of Spain
(A version of this piece appeared in the Trinidad and Tobago Review,
December 2005)
Jeux d’esprit
Various dangers
First published in McSweeney’s
Quarterly No. 4, 2000
The arrival of insects
First published in the Jamaica
Observer Arts Magazine, 2000
Verge
First published in Code 1
and 2, 2001
News from Rome
From my blog, 31 October, 2005
An unwritten story by Kafka
From my blog, 16 October, 2005
Formicae
From my blog, 8 October, 2005
A brief note on the music of Bach
From my blog, 23 September, 2005
No poem
From my blog, 17 September, 2005
Everything went wrong
From my blog, 30 April, 2007
Almost writing
A short essay on writer’s
block
Published in The Caribbean Review of
Books, November 2006