| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30th
January 2010
Saint Lucia‘s
New Novelist
 I
recall when I had been General Manager of Radio
Saint Lucia a small group of us used to meet
on Saturday afternoons at Joseph Eudovic’s
studio at Goodlands for lunch for there had
been a small restaurant, and to talk about literature
and reading and that sort of thing. Then there
was a change of government in 1979, I was given
my marching orders and I returned to Europe.
The group was disbanded.
Two members of that small gathering have become
novelists: Dr. Earl Long and Mr. Cornell Charles,
one of the sons of the late Sir J. Q. Charles.
Dr.Long’s three novels are entitled ‘Consolation,’
Voices From A Drum’ and ‘Leaves
In A River.’ Mr. Cornell Charles’s
novel is entitled ‘In Pursuit of Running
Water.’
In Mr. Charles’s novel an American entrepreneur,
Jim Gallegos, and his wife, Betty, have spent
several holidays on the fictional island of
Butterfly Island and have fallen in love with
the island. On one of their holidays on the
island Jim Gallegos sees an opportunity of what
he considers to be a viable investment. He is
thinking of owning a mountain, Goat Mountain.
Morne Cabrit, from the top of which there is
an enchanting view of the valley below and where
the fauna and flora are indeed magnificent.
The problem is that there is no running water
on Goat Mountain. Jim Gallegos is warned that
there are certain obstacles to be got out of
the way: government restrictive measures as
well having to persuade the handful of small
farmers on the mountain to sell. One such person
is an obeah man.
Those obstacles do not deter Jim Gallegos and
one day he and his wife, accompanied by a guide,
Corporal Welch, set out to explore the views
from the top of Goat Mountain.
|
|
|
|
|
Corporal
Welch is an incorrigible alcoholic and collapses
and dies on the mountain, thus creating a major
problem for the American and his wife. Betty
Gallegos injures her foot and, in great pain,
has had to rest. With the death of their guide
and the injury to his wife’s foot, Jim
Gallegos decides to make his way down the mountain
to seek assistance. Night falls and he has not
returned. Leslie, a local man who had accompanied
the party, elects to go in search of Jim Gallegos.
In the meanwhile news of the disappearance on
the mountain has reached the town and a larger
search party, led by the chief of police, now
go in search of the missing persons. By accident
a murderer who had been eluding the police for
a long time, is shot dead. He was the son of
the obeahman and the word is that he had been
transformed into various creatures so as to
avoid detection and capture.
Jim Gallegos is eventually discovered in a deep
gorge into which he had fallen and where he
had spent the past forty-eight hours.
In the penultimate and final chapters of the
novel, Jim Gallegos, before an attentive gathering,
and in language of mystical inspiration, relates
his experiences in the gorge, but his audience
remains unimpressed by his grandiloquence.
This is a simple story, well handled by the
author. There are the occasional humorous episodes,
especially when the story moves to the Bottom
of the Hill Disco and bar where the locals gather
for their drinks and gossip. This is a first
novel and we look forward to a sequel.
Discuss
Story
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
