Synopses & Reviews
The first Indian indentured laborers came to the Caribbean more than150 years ago, and their traditional values have had to confront a rapidly changing world in 20th century Trinidad. Highway in the Sun tells the story of Tiger and Urmillas first year of marriage away from their extended family and their struggles relating to their new Afro-Creole neighbors in the suburbs of Port of Spain. In Home Sweet India, Johnny is dismayed by his loss of culture and threatened by the emergence of Creole nationalism, and plans to return to India. In Turn Again Tiger, Tiger learns that he must not turn his back on his Indian past. These plays demonstrate the choices Indians in the Caribbean must make between tradition and creolization.
Review
" . . . The dreams and frustration of rural Trinidad are at the centre of Selvon's prose, which carries the poetry and figurative energy of the words which tumble from the poor of his island. Highway in the Sun is a vibrant text of Selvon's brilliant re-creation of his people's tongue." —Chris Searle, The Morning Star
Synopsis
The first Indian indentured labourers arrived in the Caribbean over 150 years ago. But how are the Indian characters in these plays to live in 20th century Trinidad? These plays explore their experiences as traditional values confront a rapidly changing world.
Highway in the Sun tells the story of Tiger and Urmilla's first year of marriage away from their extended family. How are they to relate to Joe and Rita, their new Afro-Creole neighbours? In Home Sweet India, Johnny, dismayed by his and his family's loss of culture, plans to return to India. But will this solve his problems? In Turn Again Tiger, Tiger learns that he cannot turn his back on the Indian past if he is to lay the ghosts of the past to rest and face the future whole. In Harvest in Wilderness, the traditional cane-cutting world of Balgobin confronts the new technology of his creolised nephew, Romesh, but the past continues to spring surprises.
These plays, originally broadcast by the BBC in the 1970s, bring together Selvon's most focused attention to the choices Indians in the Caribbean must make between tradition and creolisation.
Samuel (Sam) Selvon was born in San Fernando in 1923. He is the author of eleven novels, set both in Trinidad and London. He lived in London and Canada for many years. He died on a return visit to Trinidad in 1994.
About the Author
Samuel Selvon is the author of several novels and plays, including A Brighter Sun, An Island Is a World, The Lonely Londoners, and Moses Migrating.