Sic Transit Wagon and Other Stories
2013
First Published
4.06
Average Rating
176
Number of Pages
The stories in this collection move from the all-seeing naïveté of a child narrator trying to make sense of the world of adults, through the consciousness of the child-become-mother, to the mature perceptions of the older woman taking stock of her life. Set over a timespan from colonial-era Trinidad to the hazards and alarms of its postcolonial present, these stories have, at their core, the experience of uncomfortable change, but seen with a developing sense of its constancy as part of life, and the need for acceptance. The stories deal with the vulnerabilities and shames of a childhood of poverty; the pain of being let down; glimpses of the secret lives of adults; betrayals in love; the temptations of possessiveness; conflicts between the desire for belonging and independence; and the devastation of loss through illness, dementia, and death. What brings each of these not uncommon situations to fresh and vivid life is the quality of the the shape of the stories, the unerring capturing of the rhythms of the voice and a way of seeing that includes a saving sense of humor and the absurd and also delights in the characters that people these stories.
Avg Rating
4.06
Number of Ratings
32
5 STARS
34%
4 STARS
44%
3 STARS
16%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
0%
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