Calypso

'Sedaris is the premier observer of our world and its weirdnesses' Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt 'He's like an American Alan Bennett' Guardian A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 'Entrancing . . . This book allows us to observed not just the nimble-mouthed elf of his previous work, but a man in his seventh decade expunging his darker secrets and contemplating mortality . . . The brilliance of David Sedaris's writing is that his very essence, his aura, seeps through the pages of his books like an intoxicating cloud, mesmerising us so that his logic becomes ours' Alan Cumming, Scotsman If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong. When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself. With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny - it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's writing has never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future. This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumour joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet - and it just might be his very best.

First comes the spider, banging steel drums.

Starting from the days of slavery and following through to the first decades of the twentieth century, this book traces the evolution of Carnival and secular black music in Trinidad and the links that existed with other territories and beyond. Calypso emerged as the pre-eminent Carnival song from the end of the nineteenth century and its association with the festival is investigated, as are the first commercial recordings by Trinidad performers. These featured stringband instrumentals, 'calipsos' and stickfighting 'kalendas' (a carnival style popular from the last quarter of the nineteenth century). The emphasis of the book is on history, and great use is made of contemporary newspaper reports. colonial documents, travelogues, oral history and folklore, providing an authoritative treatment of a fascinating story in popular cultural history.

Calypso was ten years old when she fi rst fell in love. Her and Aristons love story started on a holiday in France. But circumstances are not on their side resulting in them drifting apart. Eight years have passed, will destiny let them meet again? Tamara missed Ariston. The hope of meeting him again is the only thing that keeps her going, the thing that stops her from losing her mind. Apart from him, no-one could ever understand what Tamara went through that night, not a day goes by without her recollecting her fathers death as they all called it. But does she know better? Well what if you were the one who witnessed what really happened Is everyone as they seem or is there something more than meets the eye?

First comes the spider, banging steel drums.

Arranged in four lyrical sections, this collection of poems presents colorful images with a narrative drive and the true cadences of a storyteller. Traveling from Troy and Waiheke to San Francisco and Spain, this variety of verse leads into a discussion of simple objects, making the ordinary things of the world extraordinary. Finishing with compositions based on the poet’s past, the short, intense New Zealand lyrics combine the everyday with a visionary sense of mystery and wonder.

When a rich, white American yachtsman is indicted for murder of a local black launch-tender in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent a conservative news commentator stirs up a media circus by championing the yachtsman and criticizing the weakness of the case with tactics that demean the local prosecutor. Facing worldwide embarrassment and condemnation for indicting the yachtsman without substantive evidence, the prosecutor engages an investigator to bolster his charge. That man, a retired New York City detective had been cruising the archipelago in his refurbished 32-foot sailboat. Born in the Bronx of Puerto Rican parents the 51-year-old ex-cop pugnaciously probes every avenue relative to the case in his determination to clear the case and prove he deserves accolades the deputy commissioners of the NYPD denied him. Not withstanding the lack of physical evidence, he utilizes street smarts along with natural intelligence and twenty-eight years of cop experience to connect the killing to diamond smuggling. But unable to unequivocally connect the yachtsman to the suspected diamond smugglers, the detective worries that he railroads an innocent fellow American. On the other hand, having suffered as the victim of bigotry for much of his life, as well as treated as an inferior by the affluent and influential, he is tempted to partake of the sweet taste of payback. Steadily increasing antagonism developing between the cocky ex-cop and the stuffy prosecutor (steeped in pedantic English tradition) complicates working arrangements. But that doesn’t deter the ex-cop, whose unwavering investigation leads to rooting out a shrewd but cold-hearted Armenian and his cohorts: a robust Jamaican and a shifty Frenchman. Along the way the ex-cop encounters a foxy local gal who lights all of his fi res. But all too often her self-suffi ciency and individualism, as well as oft-times cankerous attitude, culminates in a rocky, while torrid, relationship.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 1938 is a tumultuous year on the small Trinidadian island of El Caracol, which houses a leper colony and a convent. In the sultry heat of the dry season a young orphan, Theo, is sent to live with the island’s doctor, Vincent Metivier. The doctor knows little of Theo’s past, only that it has been troubled and that he now needs love and attention. As Theo settles into the rhythm of life in El Caracol, he begins to unburden himself of his demons. Every night, he sleeptalks his own strange, disturbing calypso about his childhood. Vincent listens and, gradually, learns what demons still haunt the boy’s mind. And as his friendship with the passionate, unpredictable nurse Sister Weil intensifies, Vincent finds his settled life spirally dangerously out of control, as war in Europe looms on the horizon. A richly sensual, heartfelt novel, Night Calypso is the work of one of the world’s most imaginative writers.

While visiting London, a beautiful young woman becomes homesick for the West Indies. Unfortunately, her only available chaperone for the perilous journey is her rakish hot-tempered cousin...

Steinberg Henry has composed for us this magical island adventure into song. It is made up of 14 segments and 119 chapters integrating leaps in consciousness, methods and disciplines with skill surprising. Calypso Drift passes by way of an island Parliament, Dread/Rastafari, memorable black-sand beaches, religious systems, the KwÉyòl language business, high-school learning remembrances, a touch of Kalinago sensibility and, American song selections on Caribbean radio in the 70s and 80s. The text leaps to record seven years of Dominican Calypso lyrics, contributing in the process to archiving an island's history. Calypso Drift implores us to listen again to warnings of our song-poets. This is a book for lovers of Calypso globally, one for culture enthusiasts. Those embracing entertainment education, history and the arts in general should find its methods provocative. Students in the natural and social sciences can comfortably uncover themselves herein. And most of all, musicians, song-writers, composers and performers of Calypso find space in its consuming fire. Drift, globality is inside!

What happens when teachers «relinquish the authority of truth providers»? Ninth grader Sasha Pringle, one of the student voices in Classroom Calypso, asserts that such a self-effacing posture empowers students by «releasing the writer within, » thereby fostering a critical, creative, and reflective disposition. Winthrop R. Holder re-represents students not as marginalized beings merely absorbing information but as subjects taking center stage and inscribing themselves into history. On their literary pilgrimage seeking self-knowledge, students, employing tale-telling, recast their classroom as a symposium - a place where popular culture orchestrates the discourse. This is an invaluable book for educators, parents, and anyone interested in understanding and facilitating the voices of urban youth.

It is 1922 when Jonas Knight, a seventy-year-old self-made millionaire begins an expedition to find a mysterious cave that he feels holds the secret to what he has been seeking his entire life eternal youth. Known for his energy and vitality, Knight is aware his time on earth is running out as he embarks on a relentless search for a way to cheat death. After uncovering the history of two rival kings one of whom supposedly discovered a fountain of youth Knight heads to a Greek island where he hopes to find the fountain, which was reported to have been lost forever. After he accidentally slips and plunges into an ancient cave, he is exposed to a plant that can reverse the aging process. Suddenly, his team of scientists learns both the benefits and the problems that accompany the ability to live multiple life cycles. Decades later, Mike Andros is a renowned investigative report and author who is on a fast track to self-destruction. Events beyond his control create a new destiny that leads him straight to the same Greek island, where he soon makes a discovery that has the potential to change the future of mankind.

Red Calypso tells the story of Grenada's fall to Marxist tyranny and the United States' rescue of the island from a violent and fanatical government. When Maurice Bishop took over the government of Grenada establishing a one-party state on Leninist principles, he did not know that he would one day fall victim to his own machinery. The terror, corruption, and absurdity of Bishop's regime have never been described so vividly as in this eye-witness account which analyses the brief experiment in Grenadian communism and the American invasion which ended it.