Download Bivouac Kwame Dawes Books
Download As PDF : Bivouac Kwame Dawes Books
Kwame Dawes has been named a 2019 Windham-Campbell Prize Recipient in poetry
"An examination of grief and politics in a deftly written novel set in 1980s Jamaica...Astonishing prose."
--Kirkus Reviews
"With...dreamlike sequences, this is best suited for readers who enjoy character studies as well as lovers of Jamaican fiction."
--Booklist
"With expressive description and languid cadence, Dawes deftly constructs a background that serves as an amorphous setting for the complicated experience of a grieving son...With subtle yet lyrical description of internal struggles set against a foreign background, Bivouac serves as a deceptively symbolic read about the bleak and mirthless aspects of life and, subsequently, death."
--The Daily Nebraskan
"Bivouac has that kind of rich and luxurious writing that makes you believe there is a purpose to every element of the story."
--Tonstant Weader Reviews
"Dawes examines the complicated terrain of grief with uncanny insight and spare, lucid prose. What unfolds is a story about a man, a family, and a country searching for answers and new hope."
--Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion's Gaze
"Bivouac speaks in tongues so that the reader hears both the market and the courtroom, the orchestra of ancestral voices and the tone of individual conscience. Kwame Dawes's novel laughs and mourns, claps hands for the inventive communal spirit, and wrings those same hands as a result of political malfeasance. I was thrilled to see the writer channel his father's prose and summon pre-independence Jamaica. As readers we should celebrate Bivouac because of its celebration of Jamaica and, by extension, the Caribbean. The novel is replete with generational continuity and loyalty, from father to son, mother to child, the dead and the writer charged with the task of being custodian of their spirits."
--Fred D'Aguiar, author of Feeding the Ghosts
"Kwame Dawes brings the beauty and subtle rhythms of his poetic voice to this moving, dreamlike novel where the past intercedes on the present. A deep pleasure to read and savor."
--Bernardine Evaristo, author of Mr. Loverman
"Dawes's novel is a poetic patchwork of waiting, of sliding into the past, casting into the future, but mostly of slow, sensorial limbo in the present...Dawes exercises significant stylistic restraint...so that his flourishes appear like musical interludes, culminating in a final explosion of style and imagination that overwhelms the initial questions the story raises."
--Maple Tree Literary Supplement
"Bivouac is Kwame Dawes's dark novel about death, politics, family, and sex in a Jamaica that has a 'scarcely understood sense of temporariness and dislocation,' with dialogue that puts you right onto the streets of Kingston."
--New West Indian Guide
When Ferron Morgan's father dies in suspicious circumstances, his trauma is exacerbated by the conflict within his family and among his father's friends over whether the death was the result of medical negligence or if it was a political assassination. Ferron grew up in awe of his father's radical political endeavors, but in later years he watched as the resurgence of the political right in the Caribbean in the 1980s robbed the man of his faith.
Ferron's response to the death is further complicated by guilt, particularly over his failure to protect his fiancée from a brutal assault. He begins to investigate the direction of his life with great intensity, in particular his instinct to keep moving on and running from trouble.
This is a sharply focused portrayal of Jamaica at a tipping point in its recent past, in which the private grief and trauma condenses a whole society's scarcely understood sense of temporariness and dislocation.
Download Bivouac Kwame Dawes Books
"Review: <b> Bivouac</b> by Kwame Dawes.
This is an Early Reviewers book. The setting of the story is Jamaica and the author seems knowledgeable about the area, lives of many people, cultures, and the political scenes. The author seems to write with a series of narratives, stories, poems, letters, essays, and much more. Dawes writes about a specific time in Jamaica with character traits close to the people he associates with. The contents of the story are something the author has always wanted to write about which covers a specific time span of his life. Dawes states that the story is emotionally logical with how he seen the world was affecting him in the 1980’s.
In the 1980’s throughout a political mayhem in Jamaica, Ferron discovers his father’s past existence and downfall after he died. Ferron’s father George was seen as a radical who failed as a conformist dominating power to his fullest and he was seen as a danger. Ferron had many questions about his father’s death. Ferron was tormented by grief, and frustrated not knowing if his father’s death was a result of a medical negligence or a political assassination. Ferron was also traumatized by the death of his fiancée and felt guilty because he did not protect her from a brutal assault.
Ferron wasn’t sure which path he wanted to take at this time in his life. He had two choices, one was to keep going in the direction he was or running from issues. Farron was a depressing person throughout the story he always seems to be consumed by self-loathing and inactive to any change. I was entertained by the book but at times I didn’t know how to accept Ferron’s issues. The story states that Ferron was in awe with his father’s political work but he had no interest to follow in his father’s footsteps."
Product details
|
Tags : Bivouac (9781617757105) Kwame Dawes Books,Kwame Dawes,Bivouac,Akashic Books,1617757101,Fathers - Jamaica - Death,Jamaica - Politics and government,Jamaica - Social conditions,Black InterestCaribbean InterestLiterary FictionPolitics/Current Affairs1980sAfrican Poetry Book FundBivouacJamaicaKwame DawespoliticsShe's Gone,FICTION / Cultural Heritage,FICTION / Literary,FICTION / Political,Fiction,Fiction-Literary,Fiction/Cultural Heritage,Fiction/Political,GENERAL,General Adult,TRAVEL / Caribbean West Indies
Bivouac Kwame Dawes Books Reviews :
Bivouac Kwame Dawes Books Reviews
- BIVOUAC by Kwame Dawes is a new release by Akashic Books.
Kwame Dawes is the “author of 21 books of poetry and other books of fiction, criticism and essays. He is series director of the African Poetry Book Seriesâ€.
I received this ARC (Advance Reading Copy) from Akashic Books in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.
“When Ferron Morgan’s father (George Ferron Morgan) dies in suspicious circumstances, his trauma is exacerbated by the conflict within his family and among his father’s friends over whether the death was the result of medical negligence or if it was a political assassination. Ferron grew up in awe of his father’s radical political endeavors, but in later years watched as the resurgence of the political right in the Caribbean in the 1980s robbed the man of his faith.â€
“He begins to investigate the direction of his life with great intensity, in particular his instinct to keep moving on and running from trouble.†(Akashic Books Press Kit)
Many chapters are preceded by the ‘Unpublished Notes of George Ferron Morgan’. I don’t have a sense of the ‘history’ that the author (Mr. Dawes) is writing about - the politics of the Caribbean, in general, and Jamaica, in particular. I can’t form a judgement whether George Ferron Morgan was an important, respected revolutionary of sorts, or just a complaining, arrogant politico wannabe. The lack of information, the lack of background confused me and made it hard to decide if if he was, indeed, murdered, or if he simply fell down the stairs.
Our main character, Ferron Morgan - I can’t understand this guy. He seems consumed by inertia. He lives as if in a trance. He is very robotic - rarely responding to stimuli. He seems to choose his deep emotions like a kid choosing an ice cream flavor - what’s the special today?
I would describe Ferron as depressed (and depressing), fatalistic, narcissistic, furtive, selfish and cowardly. He is also grief-stricken and traumatized, I feel no relationship with him at all and I don’t like him much, either.
He is riddled with guilt, yet does not try to rise above it and is then filled with self-loathing.
I did have trouble with the patois. It was hard to understand. But, of course, it provided a sense of place and context for the story.
Mr. Dawes’ prose was lovely - insightful, flowing, descriptive. I did like ‘reading’ the book. His descriptions of the air, the heat, the sun, the dark night - I felt such a strong sense of being in the present in this place.
I am glad to have read this book by Kwame Dawes. It left me pondering many emotional questions. - Review <b> Bivouac</b> by Kwame Dawes.
This is an Early Reviewers book. The setting of the story is Jamaica and the author seems knowledgeable about the area, lives of many people, cultures, and the political scenes. The author seems to write with a series of narratives, stories, poems, letters, essays, and much more. Dawes writes about a specific time in Jamaica with character traits close to the people he associates with. The contents of the story are something the author has always wanted to write about which covers a specific time span of his life. Dawes states that the story is emotionally logical with how he seen the world was affecting him in the 1980’s.
In the 1980’s throughout a political mayhem in Jamaica, Ferron discovers his father’s past existence and downfall after he died. Ferron’s father George was seen as a radical who failed as a conformist dominating power to his fullest and he was seen as a danger. Ferron had many questions about his father’s death. Ferron was tormented by grief, and frustrated not knowing if his father’s death was a result of a medical negligence or a political assassination. Ferron was also traumatized by the death of his fiancée and felt guilty because he did not protect her from a brutal assault.
Ferron wasn’t sure which path he wanted to take at this time in his life. He had two choices, one was to keep going in the direction he was or running from issues. Farron was a depressing person throughout the story he always seems to be consumed by self-loathing and inactive to any change. I was entertained by the book but at times I didn’t know how to accept Ferron’s issues. The story states that Ferron was in awe with his father’s political work but he had no interest to follow in his father’s footsteps.
