Fine Fiction

Some years ago, I wrote a column in which I listed some non-fiction books which I considered required reading for anyone who wished to be truly educated. My pardner Novack George has since been harassing me to do an equivalent list of works of fiction. In fact, I can’t do the exact same thing. The Roman poet Horace said, “Literature should delight and instruct.” Non-fiction, although best when it delights, need only instruct.

But good fiction instructs not so much our heads, but our hearts. Great fiction, of course, speaks to both heart and head. So, bearing these criteria in mind, I will today review the fiction that I consider essential reading for anyone, but especially any Caribbean person, who wishes to understand their heart, head and soul. Miguel Street, by VS Naipaul. Although set in 1940s Trinidad, Naipaul’s picaresque stories remain the most insightful portrait of our society ever written. The hustler Hat, the bigamist Bogart, the poet B Wordsworth, the mechanical genius Uncle Bhakcu — all are characters whose dress and manner of speech may have changed in the past two generations, but their values and attitudes remain with us. And it’s still funny as hell.

Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. The greatest Caribbean novel ever written, Rhys’s book is infused with a melancholy that, through precise and redolent prose and deft characterisation, achieves one of literature’s main goals: catharsis. The portrait of Antoinette Cosway, a Creole white woman whose descent into madness is the result of male oppression and her alienation from her Black spirit because of her White skin, is one of the most powerful in all literature. Othello, by William Shakespeare. Although you must read all of the Bard’s main plays, Othello is arguably the one most relevant to us. Scholars usually single out The Tempest for this dubious honour, mainly because of the slave character Caliban. But Othello is a much superior play, and the story of Othello’s jealousy, resting on the insecurity of being a stranger in a strange land, has more resonance for Caribbean men. Not to mention the matter of the attraction to fair-skinned women.

The Rainbow, by DH Lawrence. In my view, this is the greatest novel of the 20th century. Described as a poet who wrote in prose, Lawrence is one of the few literary writers whose sentences are eloquent, evocative and elegant. But his true gift was to draw the reader into the hearts of his characters, particularly their sexual sensibilities. Although he was himself childless, I have never read any novel which gives a better insight into the daughter-father relationship, as well as all the various familial interactions over three generations of a sturdy country family. Something Fresh, PG Wodehouse. This was the first mature novel by the man who still remains the greatest comic author of all time. Author of over 90 books, Wodehouse had all the gifts of a great novelist: adept characterisation, prose mastery, and gripping narrative. Apart from the literacy and unparalleled humour of his work, Wodehouse’s irrelevant portrait of British culture gives we ex-colonials, who have been shaped by that society, an insight that more serious works of literature and history and politics never could.

Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Perhaps the greatest American novel, this book is a both a good yarn and a moving tale. The issue of racism, which bedeviled American from its founding, has never been dealt with more entertainingly or more subtly than through the relationship between Huck and his surrogate father, the runaway Negro slave Jim. Unsparing in his satire of the American character, Twain through Huck also shows the essential humanity which made the US a great country. And, inasmuch as the world is shaped by America, it is worth understanding that nation through its first comedian. It, by Stephen King. The greatest story-teller among all living novelists, It is one of King’s two epic novels (the other is The Stand, his vision of apocalypse). It is a story of childhood and the power of imagination, and how even when we are grown up that power is essential for our survival. Although unmistakably American, King is a novelist who transcends national and cultural boundaries: which again gives us an insight into what America is all about.

The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger. Written in an informal conversational style, this novel captures all the rebellious impulses and angst that bedevils every young person. One of the consequences of adulthood is the loss of idealism. Catcher, without ever becoming sentimental, can help us to hold on to the better parts of our youth. White Teeth, by Zadie Smith. Written when she was 24 years old, this book captures the multi-culturalism of London and hence the modern world. Of Jamaican and British parentage, Smith’s richly fluid prose is full of energy and acute observations, and her novel peopled by colourful characters. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. The narrator in this book has Asberger’s Syndrome, which is a mild form of autism. Haddon’s skill is that he is able to create an interesting character who is obsessed with facts and has no imagination: a character, moreover, with whom the reader sympathises. Also worth remarking on is Haddon’s ability to explain philosophical and scientific concepts in a clear manner though the character and without interrupting the narrative.

The King James Bible, by Various Scribes, especially William Tyndale and the King James Translators. Arguably, the greatest single work of prose every written. Mythic storytelling, heroes and villains, the best and worst aspects of human nature: all are to be found in this motley collection of ancient documents, given form and splendour by the Translators. Notable fact: the description of the Garden of Eden was heavily influenced by one of the Translators who had travelled the Caribbean and who, judging from the diary he kept, clearly used our landscape in his work on the Bible.

Email:kbaldeosingh@hotmail.com
Website:www.caribscape.com