Sections of an Orange
Thanks to CD Valere for making this book available to SASOD.
Rosamond King's review on GSPOTTT also pushed me to read it.
Anton Nimblett's stories are like stories you might hear around the place, ordinary stuff, about people you might know, and see on the minibus or in the market. Many of the stories are about men as well, a change for me since it seems a lot of stories from the Caribbean recently are about women, maybe I am not reading all of the stories which are published.
Visiting Soldiers is a moving story of a woman whose son died in the US War on Terror. There are a few Caribbean nationals in the US army and we are not too sure what is happening with the families when they are killed, this story reminds us of those families
I know of one young man whose friends think it is glamourous he is working in army bases but are nervous about when he has to go to combat.
On the Side is about a man who get in an accident with another man in that man boyfriend car, and my cynicism rose when I thought of all those who cheat and think, and those who are being cheated on.
So.. i thinking of the man who owned the car and think, good, look how they get ketch in an accident, while at the same time, Nimblett make the man who cheating look well sympathetic. so many of us have cheated at some point that you aint know who side to be on.
Into My parlour is one of my favourites, about a woman and her nosy neighbour and so many other things. Time and Tide made me think of the guys I have met from school days now, who are now 'creating their own dreams' in ways which we never imagined in school, and thinking of those too who might have stayed trying to be what other people wanted them to be and struggled. One recently committed suicide, no one sure why.
"Just now" has a a thread of Time and Tide, story, and is about a man who watching his niece grow up and made me think of uncling to my own niece and I could understand what Pedro going through. Just Now shows nice and old fashioned.
Marjory's Meal.. oh man, not many stories of old men and the women they have loved for a long time and the ways they find to love them. You could taste this meal too. So many stories are of men who cheat and leave women, that a Caribbean story like this is different and welcome because many men have stayed faithful.
How far , How long is about a man not being able to have one relationship, maybe something to talk about polyamoury among men, who knows? The title story "Sections of an Orange" is well, out of this world, and you wonder how out of the world, linked to the next story "Ring Games"... and you wonder about Brian and how we look at people who are mad. Mr Parker's Behaviour is a story of an elderly woman and her boss. The last story, the one which hit me the most, One-Two-Three - Push about a man who is managing what other people are saying about him, even changing his name. I feel like Push sometimes, sometimes it is not so serious.
Anton Nimblett links these stories - side characters in one story become main characters in another, reminds how in life, everybody has a story.
I read this and Krik? Krak! at the same time. Short stories are like that, you could read one story in one book and then another in another book, kind of eating pieces of different cake at the same time. I showed the books at a UNIFEM meeting in St Lucia recently, saying that it is important for Caribbean men to start talking their stories. The stories in Trinidad are a bit different from the stories based in Haiti, but the New York based stories sound similar, about loss even as people find ways to survive.
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