IN CASTLE OF MY SKIN: Amazon.ca: George Lamming: Books

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant modern Caribbean masterpiece!, Jan 21 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: In the Castle of My Skin (Paperback)

George Lamming, along with other Caribbean writers such as V.S. Naipaul and V.S. Reid, broke through the Victorian box of post-World War II, pre-independence British colonial writing. Their styles are all different but their message is generally the same: trying to grapple with the major issues of politics, race, and self-worth. Lamming's description of G's life (which can be paralleled to James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man") draws the reader into the decadent colonial world of the pre-World War II Barbados. Lamming's style haunts and amuses but ultimately almost confuses; read this carefully to understand the true meaning of the book.

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4.0 out of 5 stars "a must read", Mar 31 2001

By	Andrew Bartley (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Castle of My Skin (Paperback)

The more I attempt to say about Mr Lamming's beautifully descriptive and uniquely refreshing style the more disservice I do to this marvelous work. If you have a Carribean, colonial or post colonial experience as I do, this novel is what they call "a must read". It evoked memories and thoughts in me long forgotten. You will find yourself laughing out aloud - which I did continuously on the E train to the point where I am sure my fellow riders thought me a lunatic. Above all this novel conveys a truth about the way we lived and live. It examines the march of time and the complexities and consequences of change and transition from the perspective of a Caribbean village. I am writing this as I search ... for more of Lamming's works.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Growing aware of the Castle, Feb 20 2000

By	Daniela Kahn (S�o Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Castle of My Skin (Paperback)

"In the Castle of my Skin" is a highly poetic account of growing up in the black community of Barbadoes. Lamming gives us a vivid picture of G's family, his friends, his school and village life. Interwoven with G's everyday experience is his awareness of what it means being black and being poor in a somehow secluded island community. Lamming's teatment of racism is sober and sensitive. It's the more effective because it shows how inseparable its perception is from the growing awareness a young black boy has of himself. There is much more violence in this as in many a bloody battle. In it's poetic language,the vividness of its characters and scenery,the deep psychological insight and the sober and just treatment of the growing awareness of differences in the context of Carribean history this novel is a masterpiece of universal literature.It certainly can be read as "the portrait of a young artist"; The reference of the main character's initial to Lamming's first name George seems pretty obvious. But if a portrait, its an excellent one!

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pioneering work of Caribbean and (Post) Colonial Literatur
Mr Cameroon clearly has as little sense of historical context as he has literary judgement. When this novel was written in the early 1950s there was scarcely anything which could... Read more

Published on May 26 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars How the colony looks at the metropolis
Obviously, the reader from Cameroon knows little about Caribbean literature and nothing about art, which is always about re-appropiation. Read more

Published on Dec 10 1998

2.0 out of 5 stars An exile's appologia !
A poor "Euro-mimicry". An inferior recreation of the Joycean creek(witness the parallel he draws conciously or unconciously between "G" and Stephen Dedalus). Read more

Published on Jun 30 1998