Abeng by Cliff

Abeng by Cliff

Ever since Abeng was first published in 1984, Michelle Cliff has steadily become a literary force. Her novels evoke both the clearly delineated hierarchies of colonial Jamaica and the subtleties of present-day island life. Nowhere is her power felt more than in Clare Savage, her Jamaican heroine, who appeared, already grown, in No Telephone to Heaven. Abeng is a kind of prequel to that highly-acclaimed novel and is a small masterpiece in its own right. Here Clare is twelve years old, the light-skinned daughter of a middle-class family, growing up among the complex contradictions of class versus color, blood versus history, harsh reality versus delusion, in a colonized country. In language that surrounds us with a richness of meaning and voices, the several strands of young Clare's heritage are explored: the Maroons, who used the conch shell--the abeng—to pass messages as they fought a guerilla struggle against their English enslavers; and the legacy of Clare's white great-great-grandfater, Judge Savage, who burned his hundred slaves on the eve of their emancipation. A lyrical, explosive coming-of-age story combined with a provocative retelling of the colonial history of Jamaica, this novel is a triumph.

Cliff, Michelle: - Michelle Cliff is the author of the novels Abeng, No Telephone to Heaven, and Free Enterprise. Her first collection of nonfiction, If I Could Write This in Fire (2008), was also published by University of Minnesota Press.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780140153149
ISBN 10	0140153144
Title	Abeng
Author	Cliff
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Random House Australia
Year published	1991-08-29
Number of pages	176
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable