I have the good fortune to have some imaginative friends. One sent me a book for Christmas from an author I had never heard of before, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo. It is written in Caribbean dialect.
A true delight. ‘When we were birds’. I have not got very far into it but am enjoying it immensely.
Here is a sample for you to judge for yourself.
“He pass fruit vendors selling yellow bananas, Julie mangoes, juicy papaw and red watermelon split in half right up against fish• vendors weighing carite, snapper and kingfish on shiny scales; corner shops block up with wrought-iron burglar-proofing and customers calling out for what they want, sticking their hands in through the bars to collect goods from the shopkeeper; street preachers dress up in long white robes waving Bibles and crying hell and damnation on all city dwellers; boys hustling loose cigarettes, dinner mints and chewing gum from old glass Crix jars with vagrants sprawl out next to them, hoping somebody give them a little change before they go; two men selling pirate CDs on opposite sides of the road — ‘To God Be the Glory’ on one side and a heavy dance-hall bass booming out on the next — square off like a sound clash; women in high heels and skirt suits rushing to work while young fellas try to get their attention as they pass; schoolchildren walking slow like if they planning to miss the school bus or break buisse so they never reach at all; couples walking and holding hands, man whispering in he woman ear, woman giggling; and everything cover down in a blanket of blaring car horns from the nearly standstill traffic crawling down the road.”
I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. I hope you have as much pleasure from it as I am having. Thanks Ingrid.
