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• This is a wonderful book. One of the first published by a Caribbean immigrant about life in London, it features Moses, one of the first-wave Empire Windrush generation and his life in London. Lyrical writing and a plot that doesn't ignore the realities of life in a country that didn't really want them, but a lovely, light and joyful account nonetheless.

  5.00 out of 5

  curlygirl

• Once I grew used to the dialect, I amazed myself by loving this book.

  4.50 out of 5

  maboeln

• Picked this up on the recommendation of a friend after discussing 1950’s calypso music, it’s a modern classic I hadn’t heard of telling the tale of a small group of (mainly) Trinidadian immigrants in London in the fifties.Sam Selvon eschews ‘Standard’ English and fuses the patois of the main characters into the language of the book – it is an interesting concept and challenges the reader to hear the characters much more clearly.As the stories develop, the book exposes the pathos of an immigrants life in London, the colour bar, austerity Britain and a lack of jobs are in conflict with the natural indomitable spirit of Moses, Sir Galahad and Cap – the standout scene being a dance attended by all the key characters and hosted by a ‘lahdedah’ friend who tries to impress the white guests he has bought. Priceless images of calypso dances and ‘slackness’ ensue.This is a marvellous book, that shows how cold and unforgiving London can be, and how the diversity of the city can also shine through.

  4.50 out of 5

  rutherford

• This is a quick read once you get used to the language of the narration. After rereading the first paragraph a few times to get started, I ended up finishing off the book in one sitting. Driven by character studies and a cynical humor, the narrative works on various levels to illustrate and critique the state of a divided 1950s London society. Exploring the admirable and the questionable among a group of immigrants/exiles/explorers from the Caribbean, Selvon creates a journey through daily passions and humors. It is fast, engaging, humorous, and ultimately mysterious in where lines can be drawn for fiction and documentation, character and stereotype, narrator and author and character, and ironic illustration and objective tale. In short, the tale is hard to pin down, becoming more complicated with each moment the reader spends questioning, for theapparent simplicity here is deceptive. Selvon's created a smart careful book here---one worth reading for pleasure and rereading for fuller thought.

  4.00 out of 5

  whitewavedarling

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