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Winner of the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Multicultural Fiction, Bronze Medal
Inaugural edition of the Linda Bruckheimer Series in KY Literature
Visit Jan's blog at http://jancarew.blogspot.com/
"This is a stunning collection. Mesmerizing. Carew's foreshadowing is so deft, so subtle, we begin to ache before we should. We swat swamp mosquitoes as we sit around the smoke-fire with granite-faced Doorne and his sons, sensing peril. And we understand seduction before we are drawn into it. Carew's eloquence is irresistible; his ear for retrieving language so precise, so respectful, we nod comfortably at old friends. Nuh? This experience under a full Guyanese moon is exquisite; is memory recovered. As a matter of fact, Carew transcends academics or mere creativity when he does the impossible: returns to the past with us as tagalongs." —Mari Evans, author of Continuum & Clarity: (A Poet's Perspective)
“In language flowing like the Essequibo River, Jan Carew’s imagery and prose in The Guyanese Wanderer transport us from British Guiana to Paris, from Third World madams to First World aristocrats. His space- and spell-binding tales—ranging from the intimacy of the quotidian, to the fantasies of passion, to the violence of sudden deaths—demonstrate again his mastery of words and visions. We are fortunate that his literary talents increase as his wisdom extends.” —Richard Sobel, Harvard University, Associate of the Dept. of African American Studies
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.
Betina puts her husband in his place with a prospecting knife. Belfon comes of age with the help, and seduction, of Couvade, a preacher-woman. A tagalong hunter named Tonic gets in over his head in a stampede of hogs. And in London, a black man called Caesar, prefers a landlord who puts his racism up front.
Carew has lived a long life, in countries all over the world. He's comfortable taking on just about anything, whether racial prejudice or whimsical fable, the fierce natural world or city slum. These are the brilliant songs of a learned man.
Jan Rynveld Carew has led a rich and varied life as a writer, educator, philosopher, and advisor to several nation states. He was born and educated in Guyana, and studied at Howard University, Western Reserve University, Charles University in Prague, and the Sorbonne in Paris. In London he worked as broadcaster, writer, and editor with the BBC, and lectured on race. His novels and nonfiction include Black Midas, The Wild Coast, Green Winter, Ghosts in our Blood: With Malcolm X in Africa, England, and the Caribbean, The Last Barbarian, and a multitude of plays, poetry, articles, and stories. He has resided in Mexico, England, France, Spain, Ghana, Canada, and now lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
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