The Convict and the Colonel: A Story of Colonialism and Resistance in the Caribbean
"A superb callaloo of a book...Richard Price has a remarkable grasp of the literatures of the Caribbean, and draws on this resource to explore the underlying insanity of the colonial experience, as well as the bewildering complexities of the postcolonial world where memory is erased or invented according to the demands of a market modernity." George Lamming "By beautifully crafting elements as disparate as biographical data, sociological studies, literary sources, and archival documents, Richard Price 's research is more fascinating than a piece of fiction." Maryse Conde "Price does it again. Mixing eras, genres, and voices, he carries the reader through the contradictory streams of historical consciousness in the Caribbean island of Martinique. The result is as complex and as enticing as the sea it evokes." Michel-Rolph Trouillot "Filled with insights that are at once theoretical, methodological, and ethnographic, The Convict and the Colonel is required reading for anyone interested in colonialism, memory, and contemporary Caribbean societies." Jennifer Cole, American Ethnologist "Part of what makes this book so compelling are the tensions between Price's own desire to find a certain kind of memory and his keen insights into the fact that memories do not necessarily work the way one might wish... Filled with insights that are at once theoretical, methodological, and ethnographic, The Convict and the Colonel is required reading for anyone interested in colonialism, memory, and contemporary Caribbean societies."--Jennifer Cole, American Ethnologist "Price continues to expand the horizon of what's possible in ethnographic writing. This new offering is a delightful, out-of-genre book that resembles a Derek Walcott epic poem."--Charles V. Carnegie, Transforming Anthropology "A wonderfully readable fusion of anthropology and memoir about culture, colonialism, and madness in the Caribbean."--Lucy R. Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan "An engrossing and compelling book... Richard Price continues to build a body of work that in seriousness and self-revelation goes beyond even the work of Clifford Geertz. But he is more than an anthropologist and stylist; he is a moralist, one who demands to be taken seriously."--Roger D. Abrahams, editor of African American Folktales