All Decent Animals: A Novel
Over the last 15 years, Kempadoo has established herself as a preeminent writer of Caribbean fiction. Her first two novels, Tide Running (1999) and Buxton Spice (2003), depict in pristine clarity Tobago and Guyana, respectively. Here she portrays Trinidad, as we follow the paths of young carnival designer Atalanta and her lover, the Frenchman Pierre, who must cope with the slow AIDS-related withering of their dear friend Fraser, a Cambridge-educated architect. During the pre-Lenten lead-up to Carnaval, Ata and Pierre struggle to balance their professional and romantic relationships in frenzied anticipation. Kempadoo’s narration alternates between the formal language of international development and a heavily dialectized slang, to create a creolized island English. Together with references to local rhythms like calypso, kaiso, and soca, the effect is of sheer saturation, as seamlessly coupled as night jasmine and passion fruit, with certain scenes nearly synesthetic in their blending of sensory impressions. Yet even a climactic and mysterious encounter between lovers grows dark, wrapped in bitter seaweed and plunged in salt water, the excitement tempered by Fraser’s impending fate. --Diego Báez