- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Canada (Sep 25 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0676974287
- ISBN-13: 978-0676974287
- Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13.4 x 2.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,741,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
"Cancer colonizes," writes Rachel Manley, describing her father's battle with the illness. "It subdues. It imposes an entirely foreign culture. It wins by dividing the body against itself.... We become a battlefield in which we are fighting ourselves." When the author's father, Michael Manley, three-term prime minister of Jamaica, succumbed to the disease in the late 1990s, she set out to write about his extraordinary life, and to come to terms with the particular complications of their relationship. A moving tribute emerges to the man who embraced vital yet radical social reform in the 1970s, as well as a poetic, unflinching testament to a country, and the powerful bond that she and her father shared.
Her reference to the battlefield is an apt one. As the narrative seamlessly moves between Michael Manley's final days and Rachel's recounting of their history together since her birth, it becomes clear that their relationship was fraught with both ordinary and extraordinary trials. In some ways, their story is typical: a daughter struggles to cope with a father whose attentions are often elsewhere--Manley's dedication to his political career often removed him from the immediate concerns of his family. Yet Rachel would also have to cope, as the only child of her father's first marriage, with learning to accept four stepmothers and their children. Rachel grows into adulthood as a woman in emotional exile, who must learn that her father's love endures despite shifts within her family and in Jamaica's social and political fortunes. She comes to recognize that her battles are with herself. "I knew that, deeper than all the currents his life had created in me, lay my own fate--the fate of my own genes.... I could feel his resolve pushing me forward.... I'd got far enough to start my own engines." Slipstream is honest and heartbreaking and luminously written--and eloquent proof that Rachel Manley has gracefully embraced her own fate. --Svenja Soldovieri --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“One of those rare books that remind you why we read and write in the first place.” – The Globe and Mail
“Slipstream takes its readers to Jamaica. It is a book infused with Manley’s rich, warm voice, that speaks the dialect of family, those words with secret meanings that only a few fold understand.” – Edmonton Journal
“Slipstream is an utterly beautiful book. The combination of exquisite language and raw emotion moved me deeply.” –Anita Rau Badami
“Slipstream takes its readers to Jamaica. It is a book infused with Manley’s rich, warm voice, that speaks the dialect of family, those words with secret meanings that only a few fold understand.” – Edmonton Journal
“Slipstream is an utterly beautiful book. The combination of exquisite language and raw emotion moved me deeply.” –Anita Rau Badami
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read,
By
This review is from: Slipstream (Paperback)
Ms. Manley has a delightful writing style that pulled me in and kept me riveted. A true storyteller, she has written a splendid book weaving history, politics, family and the ties that bind - with great sensitivity, honesty and humour. I'm usually a fast reader, but this one I read slowly, savouring every page. My copy is dog-eared and heavily underlined too. Highly recommended.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully and Honestly Written Memoir,
By A Customer
This review is from: Slipstream (Paperback)
I loved this book. Rachel Manley gives an honest and anecdotal account of her relationship with her famous father, who she adored and desperately wanted more from. But for all the difficulties and separations, her love for him remains a constant truth and the basis for this memoir, which switches from past to present, and beautifully entertwined with the concurrent social/political events in Jamaica. It's not only an intimate look at the father-daughter bond but a candid account of Michael Manley's personal life. Her grandmother and grandfather, Edna and Norman Manley, also play a big part in her life and upbringing.Bravo Rachel for what must have been a difficult process for you. Some passages are so beautifully written I've dogeared the pages for remembrance!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Slipstream : A Daughter Remembers,
By JB (New York United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Slipstream (Paperback)
This was a most enjoyable read, with a style that is eloquent and at the same time emotional. I am a Jamaican who grew up in the Michael Manley era and have a great deal of affection for Joshua as he was fondly referred to by the Jamaican populace. As a constituent, I knew him as a politician as well as a friend and advocate of the downtrodden masses of poor Jamaicans. Through Rachel's eyes I am able to catch a fleeting glimpse of Michael as a father, son, husband and most important, just as a man. Thank you Rachael for allowing us this rare opportunity to get closer to another side of a man who we all loved and respected so much. Your book will form an important gem in the archive of fond memories we hold of this man who was one of Jamaica's greatest sons.
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