In the latest edition of Caribbean Beat, Robert Sandiford calls Karen Lord's Redemption in Indigo, "a very Caribbean--a very Barbadian--book in its telling, symbols, and outlook." Many other of the book's critics, including renowned writer Kamau Brathwaite, have described it as a book without boundaries. But Sandiford's words got me thinking about what may be at stake in giving a book a particular set of boundaries, be they based on gender, genre, or country.
Why the titles? What's at stake? Well for one thing, awards and prizes. Though some would describe a truly good book as one that's well-targeted (with carefully thought out assumptions about audience) that it can be read and enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible, a book nevertheless has to be considered apt or not when it comes to the selection process for many a prize or award.
Questions: Should "apt or not" mean that a book deemed Caribbean (for example) must either be set in some part of the Caribbean or contain expressly stated Caribbean characters or concerns? How important should the writer's nationality / place of birth or residence be in considering his or her book "Caribbean?"
Here's a sampling of definitions of the "Caribbean" book. Let me know what you think about them.
The preeminent literary journal of the region, The Caribbean Review of Books, prefaced their list of 2010 books of the year with the following statement:
...we’ve chosen books that should interest general readers across the Caribbean — therefore excluding specialist scholarly titles. They range from stimulating literary debuts to works by and about already-canonical figures; from illuminating new research and models for understanding Caribbean society to powerful images of a region that can seem forever surprising in its diversity. These are the CRB’s modest suggestions for the 2010 books that deserve a permanent place on our readers’ bookshelves. [more here].
What do you make of that statement? Is it broad or limiting in defining the "Caribbean" book?
And, the organizers of the most recently created Caribbean book prize (and most promising looking to date) The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature announced that to be eligible for the 2011 prize, "a book must have been published in the calendar year 2010, and written by an author born in the Caribbean or holding Caribbean citizenship. Books must also have been originally written in English." Broad or limiting? Appropriately so (one way or other) or not?
Back to Karen Lord's Redemption in Indigo....
A (then unpublished) form of the book has already been anointed with one of the Caribbean's highest literary awards--The 2008 Frank Collymore Endowment. And (among other notable achievements), last year it was listed as one of Amazon's top ten books in the Science Fiction & Fantasy category. So it would seem that Redemption in Indigo is one of those fortunate books to be embraced and lauded for its nationality, or the nationality of its writer, and for its brilliance in working within a particular genre.
So why Sandiford's reminder about nationality? Is he anticipating a cold reception of Lord's book elsewhere in the region?
I guess we'll have to wait and see which books turn up on the long and short lists for best Caribbean writing this year, and say more then.
Meanwhile, what do you think?
