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A review by mattmatros
Is Just a Movie by Earl Lovelace
4.0
While I usually go for character-focused narratives that favor depth over breadth, it was obvious early on in this novel that Lovelace wanted to give a panoramic view of Trinidad and introduce us to many, many characters along the way. I tried as best I could to give this book the benefit of the doubt, and to try to absorb as much as I could even knowing I'd miss many of the political and historical references, and knowing I'd misremember a few characters as I got further and further in. I'm glad I stayed with it.
There are so many great scenes in this book. I found the female characters, and the meticulously described scenes of a new marriage (husband messing up the zipper on his wife's dress; wife staying immobile in bed instead of leaning a few inches over to let husband make contact with her) particularly well rendered. And although I still consider myself woefully ill-informed about Trinidad and Tobago's history, I think I have a better sense of how that country perceives itself, and about some of its more famous traditions (especially calypso) than I had before.
A thought-provoking novel--one of those rare books that is both enjoyable to read, and enjoyable in an entirely different way after having read it.
There are so many great scenes in this book. I found the female characters, and the meticulously described scenes of a new marriage (husband messing up the zipper on his wife's dress; wife staying immobile in bed instead of leaning a few inches over to let husband make contact with her) particularly well rendered. And although I still consider myself woefully ill-informed about Trinidad and Tobago's history, I think I have a better sense of how that country perceives itself, and about some of its more famous traditions (especially calypso) than I had before.
A thought-provoking novel--one of those rare books that is both enjoyable to read, and enjoyable in an entirely different way after having read it.