Introduction to Jamaican Memories series
I have been thinking a lot about Jamaica lately, partly because I’ve been reading Jamaican novels and interviewing various Jamaican authors, and partly because I’ve been writing about my Jamaican family. In terms of memoirs, Jamaicans have produced some of the finest I have ever read, among them Lorna Goodison’s award winning From Harvey River. Lorna is both a poet (she recently won the prestigious Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry) and a painter. In From Harvey River her unique way of seeing and saying combines to produce a work of prismatic beauty. The book prominently features her mother and aunts who came to be known as the glamorous Harvey sisters of Hanover.
Rachel Manley, also a poet and novelist, has written three exquisite memoirs devoted to the story of her extraordinary Jamaican family. Drumblair recounts life with her grandparents, Premier Norman Washington Manley and his wife Edna who raised her. Slipstream chronicles her relationship with her father, Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley. My personal favourite, Horses In Her Hair paints a breathing portrait of Rachel’s artistic grandmother Edna. I could never grow tired of speaking with Rachel Manley. Here I include a profile describing a conversation at her Toronto home the day after the launch of Slipstream, as well as a more recent interview about her sparkling first novel The Black Peacock. Published in 2017, it tells the story of a longstanding romantic tension between two Caribbean writers. This book is gorgeously meditative, haunting in the manner of Jean Rhys and Daphne Du Maurier.
If there is one Jamaican chronicle I can’t live without it is Olive Senior’s extraordinary Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage. A poet, novelist, historian and fiction writer, Olive composed this masterpiece over 20 years. Jam-packed with cultural, social and historical stories, The Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage constitutes a memoir of a nation.
I haven’t been to Jamaica for such a long time. I was hoping to return soon, to visit with my Uncle Gaston my father’s sole remaining sibling; to chat with him under the shade of his citrus trees; to walk beside him at dawn through the long, wet grass as he heads out to feed his pen of grunting hogs. But so long as this pandemic drags on, these books are as close to Jamaica as I am likely to get.
Love,
Donna
xo
