Overview

A classic first novel about growing up in colonial Barbados. In the Castle of my Skin is a brilliant, sensitive record of the evolving consciousness of a poor village boy, at a time of rapid social change.

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9780582642676

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George Lamming's In the Castle of My Skin skilfully depicts the Barbadian psyche. Set against the backdrop of the 1930s riots which helped to pave the way for Independence and the modern Barbados, through the eyes of a young boy, Lamming portrays the social, racial, political and urban struggles with which Barbados continues to grapple even with some thirty-three years of Political Independence from Britain. Required reading for all Caribbean people. The novel also offers non-Barbadians and non-Caribbean people insight into the modern social history of Barbados and the Caribbean. A writer of the people one is back again in the pages of Huckleberry Finn_ the fundamental book of civilisation Mr Lamming captures the myth-making and myth-dissolving mind of childhood' NEW STATESMAN Its poetic imaginative writing has never been surpassed' TRIBUNE A striking piece of work, a rich and memorable feat of imaginative interpretation' THE SPECTATOR He produces anecdote after anecdote, rich and riotous.' THE TIMES There is not a stock figure in the story fluent, poetical, sophisticated.' THE SUNDAY TIMES

This young West Indian Negro has written an autobiographical first novel in melodious and moving prose which may rate it some comparison with Cry The Beloved Country. It reflects the problems of young Negroes, the world over, who are trying to establish themselves in a bewildering white world that for generations has rejected them as alien, primitive and fear-inspiring but in which they must earn their livelihood. The place is Barbados, Little England as the white school supervisor calls it. The background is the poverty and the almost insurmountable obstacles in the way of survival, the poetry and the laughter, and the series of anecdotes, from the bawdy to the infinitely sad, brings out the sense of the soundness, dignity and psychological well-being of the author's people. With his friends, Suck Me Toe, Trumper and Boy Blue, he examines the mystifying ways of the whites and their world, and through their watching eyes, that world is interpreted surprisingly. Against the pattern of escapades and inquiries which further the boys' education is the ground swell of folk philosophy and ancient recollection, poetically intoned by the village's oldest members, Ma and Pa , whose backward pull into the safe and understandable ways of old strongly highlight the conflicts within the growing boys. This powerhouse of a book - moving and gripping - should attract the open-minded and unsqueamish, seriously interested in an honest portrait of another culture. 'Ware bluenoses. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

George Lamming was born June 8, 1927 in Carrington's Village, Barbados. He attended Combermere High School. He left Barbados for Trinidad in 1946 to become a teacher, four years later he was to migrate to England to become a writer. In the Castle of My Skin was completed within two years of his arrival in London.

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