Olive Senior is a renowned Caribbean Poet and Writer. She however writes only short stories; therefore Dancing Lessons is her first official novel. This novel was launched earlier in December 2011 at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona in collaboration with the Department of Literature in English.
Thus we say congratulation Ms. Olive Senior, a Caribbean excelling in her field. Although Ms. Senior is no stranger to success as she was the recipient of a Musgrave Gold Medal in 2004 for her non-fiction book The Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage. She is also the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Winner for Summer Lightning and Other Stories.
In her first novel Dancing Lessons; Gertrude, the narrator, narrates the story of her life of as darker-skinned resident in a Kingston retirement community. She is conscious of the fact that she is poorer and of a lower class than the majority of her fellow retirees. However, she is somewhat accepted in the community because her daughter is a television presenter.
Senior utilizes the flash back technique in her novel as we got insight into Gertrude’s life as a lonely country girl who married a not so faithful man.
This novel all in all mirrors the lives of the ordinary man in our contemporary Caribbean society, with the dominant theme being rural life versus urban life, one’s position or place in society and love.
I will definitely recommend this book as a must read for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of life in the Caribbean. Although it is ultimately a work of fiction there are a lot of truths in it. It is always refreshing to see Caribbean writers telling our story in a fictional form without any influence from other cultures.
This is showing that as Caribbean people we too have stories to be told. And we are not merely sponge soaking up the norms and mores of other societies. “People in the Caribbean are only mimic men and nothing was ever created in the Caribbean”. Not true and as our artist continues to disprove this fallacy we must go out and support them!!
