Deb­bie Ja­cob

Dear staff, hav­ing a cur­few means that you can catch up on your read­ing and even get to know your­self bet­ter. The best way to ac­com­plish this mis­sion is to read a Caribbean book. Here's a list of some of my favourite Caribbean nov­els. There's no way I could in­clude all on one list, but this is def­i­nite­ly a good start. The books on this list are in no par­tic­u­lar or­der be­cause they're all great books. No­tice I did not in­clude au­thors from the Span­ish, Dutch or French Caribbean on this list with the ex­cep­tion of Gabriel Gar­cia Mar­quez. Yes, he is a "Caribbean" writer. Read on and see why. You should be able to find most of these books in your favourite T&T book­stores.

1. Alon­so and the Drug Baron by Evan Jones-I guar­an­tee you'll laugh at this Ja­maican nov­el about a clue­less fool blamed for a mur­der he did not com­mit. On­ly Alon­so can prove he is in­no­cent, and his quest to do so makes for one hi­lar­i­ous jour­ney.

2. Wide Sar­gas­so Sea-The pre­quel to Jane Eyre, writ­ten by Do­mini­can writer Jean Rhys, gives the first Mrs Rochester her Caribbean voice. This is one of the most pop­u­lar and im­por­tant nov­els to come out of the Caribbean.

3. Miguel Street by VS Naipaul-Fun­ny and poignant, Miguel Street has be­come the nov­el that every Caribbean writer has tried to match. It is the book that brought me to Trinidad. I ac­tu­al­ly hopped on a plane to find out if there was such a fun­ny place filled with quirky char­ac­ters like the ones in this nov­el.

4. The Wine of As­ton­ish­ment by Earl Lovelace-All of Lovelace's books are amaz­ing, but this re­mains my favourite be­cause it doc­u­ments the strug­gle of the Bap­tists when the British out­lawed their re­li­gion in T&T. It is tru­ly a book of faith and sur­vival that every­one can ap­pre­ci­ate.

5. To Sir, With Love by Ed­ward Brath­waite-Yes, the movie star­ring Sid­ney Poiti­er is based on a book writ­ten by a Guyanese writer. Brath­waite, an en­gi­neer, had to set­tle for a teach­ing job be­cause he couldn't find a job in Eng­land even though he was ed­u­cat­ed there. To Sir, With Love shows what black West In­di­an im­mi­grants in Eng­land faced when they tried to be British cit­i­zens in the "moth­er­land." You'll have to or­der this book on ama­zon.com.

6. Drum­blair by Rachel Man­ley-Michael Man­ley's daugh­ter tells the fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry of grow­ing up with her grand­par­ents, Ed­na and Nor­man Man­ley, the "first fam­i­ly" of Ja­maica.

7. Pig Tails 'n Bread­fruit by Austin Clarke-There's no Caribbean book like this culi­nary his­to­ry of Bar­ba­dos.

8. The Life and Death of Sylvia by Edgar Mit­tel­holz­er-This Caribbean clas­sic ex­plores colo­nial­ism in Guyana. All of Mit­tel­holz­er's nov­els are mas­ter­ful ex­plo­rations of lit­er­ary el­e­ments. Rich de­scrip­tions de­fine the set­ting; com­plex char­ac­ters and tense con­flicts make for riv­et­ing read­ing. You might have to or­der this on­line.

9. Broth­er Man by Roger Mais- Broth­er Man is the first nov­el writ­ten about a Rasta­far­i­an. It is a rare glimpse of Ja­maica at a time when the re­li­gion was new. Mais is one of my favourite writ­ers be­cause of the lit­er­ary lay­ers that he con­structs in his work. You must read the short sto­ry "Red Dirt Don't Wash," one of my favourite short sto­ries. You can find it in the Ox­ford Book of Caribbean sto­ries.

10. The Mys­tic Masseur by VS Naipaul-The Caribbean ver­sion of RK Narayan's nov­el The Guide is manda­to­ry read­ing so that you can watch the Ivory Mer­chant movie based on the nov­el.

11. One Hun­dred Years of Soli­tude by Gabriel Gar­cia Mar­quez-The de­fin­i­tive book of mag­i­cal re­al­ism tells the sto­ry of a Colom­bian vil­lage that lives and dies in the shad­ows of the Unit­ed Fruit Com­pa­ny. In the Fra­grance of Gua­va, Mar­quez cat­e­goris­es him­self as a Caribbean writer be­cause he is from Ar­ac­ta­ca, Colom­bia on the Caribbean coast.

12. The Amaz­ing Ab­sorb­ing Boy by Ra­bindranath Ma­haraj-This Cana­di­an-based Trinida­di­an writer has a num­ber of good nov­els, but this one is my favourite be­cause it looks at an im­mi­grant's life as a sur­re­al ex­pe­ri­ence out of a com­ic book. You'll have to or­der this on­line.

13. Sum­mer Light­ning by Olive Se­nior-This Ja­maican writer has an un­can­ny abil­i­ty to cap­ture rur­al Ja­maica. This is one of the best col­lec­tions of short sto­ries to come out of the Caribbean.

14. Halfway Down the Hill by Raul An­toni-This Trinida­di­an nov­el tells the sto­ry of a man who dis­ap­pears from his own par­ty and is lat­er found dead. Was it an ac­ci­dent or mur­der? The au­thor ex­plores the pos­si­bil­i­ties.

15. The Hum­ming-Bird Tree by Ian Mc­Don­ald-A "true-true" Caribbean man, Mc­Don­ald, a Trinida­di­an with An­tiguan roots, makes his home in Guyana. This com­ing-of-age sto­ry is beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten.

16. Be­ka Lamb by Zee Edgell-A com­ing-of-age sto­ry in Be­lize set dur­ing Be­lizean in­de­pen­dence, Be­ka Lamb tells the sto­ry of friend­ship and in­de­pen­dence, both per­son­al­ly and po­lit­i­cal­ly.

There you have it: 16 great books to read dur­ing cur­few hours.