"The Guyanese Wanderer" Published by Sarabande Books

The Guyanese Wanderer
by Jan Carew

ISBN: 978-1-932511-50-5 (paper)
Price: $15.95 (paper)
Publication date: 07/2007

Sarabande Books is publishing "The Guyanese Wnderer" as the Inaugural edition of the Linda Bruckheimer Series in KY Literature.

From the Publisher:

In The Guyanese Wanderer, Jan Carew sets a fabulist eye and elegant hand to both old world and new. Combining Caribbean folklore, ghost story, adventure tale, and the literature of European exile, these narratives contain a spirited dialect and colloquial voice that startles and delights. The journey begins in Carew's homeland, among the gaudy parrots, jaguars, and six o'clock bees of Guyana, and then shifts to the boulevards of London and Paris. Carew's characters—hunters and seers, buffoons and book-people—defy convention, especially the strong-willed women.

Read More...

Publishers Weekly Review of The Guyanese Wanderer

Publishers Weekly
May 28, 2007


The Guyanese Wanderer:
Stories by Jan Carew
Sarabande, TP ISBN 9781932511505,
$14.95, Fiction


Excerpt:

The exploitation of Guyana's wry peasantry centers Guyana-born, Louisville-based Carew's lushly descriptive collection. In these 10 sharply observed tales, Carew makes a Guyanese sensibility-its wanderings home and away-palpable.


Complete Review:

The exploitation of Guyana's wry peasantry centers Guyana-born, Louisville-based Carew's lushly descriptive collection. "Chantal" proves a cautionary story of how far a husband can push his wife-and vice versa-before triggering a violent backlash. Two of the tales involve the passage to manhood of young Belfon, whose hard-luck mother gives him away in "The Visit" when she gets pregnant by a man other than Belfon's father. Brought up by his wealthy godfather, Atlassa, Belfon is the first student from his village of Biaro to win a place at the university, and in "The Initiation of Belfon," he heads to Trinidad by boat. He stops at the home of an old family friend and sensuous preacher-woman, Couvade, who teaches him more about the world than his godfather could. The last three stories pursue a West Indian man in exile, Cesar, who emigrated to Britain during WWII and remains in London as part of a "colonial old-timer" community, suffering enduring discrimination and eager to return home. In these 10 sharply observed tales, Carew makes a Guyanese sensibility-its wanderings home and away-palpable. (July)
--