Coconut trees. Carnival. Rum and Coke. To outsiders, these idyllic images represent the so-called easy life in Caribbean nations such as Trinidad and Tobago. For those who live there the reality is very different, and in Pleasantview: A Novel in Stories, Trinidadian lawyer-turned-writer Celeste Mohammed reveals a society where poverty and patriarchy savagely rule – and love and revenge often go hand in hand. Writing in a combination of English and Trinidad Creole, she sets the stories in a fictional town in Trinidad. There we meet a political candidate who sets out to slaughter endangered turtles for fun, a rival candidate who beats his “outside woman” so severely that she loses their baby, and a young boy with a gun. Moderating is Tracey Baptiste, New York Times bestselling author of Minecraft: The Crash.
Celeste Mohammed With Tracey Baptiste: A Conversation
Celeste Mohammed With Tracey Baptiste: A Conversation
Baptiste, Tracey
Tracey Baptiste is The New York Times bestselling author of Minecraft: The Crash, as well as the creepy Caribbean series The Jumbies, which includes The Jumbies, Rise of the Jumbies, and The Jumbie God’s Revenge. She is a former elementary school teacher who has also written the contemporary YA novel Angel’s Grace and nine nonfiction books for elementary through high school readers.
Mohammed, Celeste
Celeste Mohammed is a Trinidadian lawyer-turned-writer. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University. Pleasantview (Ig Publishing) is her novel-in-stories debut. Coconut trees. Carnival. Rum and Coke. To outsiders, these idyllic images represent the so-called easy life in Caribbean nations such as Trinidad and Tobago. For those who live there, the reality is far different, and Mohammed reveals a society where poverty and patriarchy savagely rule – and love and revenge often go hand in hand. It’s the dark side of the Caribbean dream. Writing in a combination of English and Trinidad Creole, she sets the stories in a fictional town in Trinidad. We meet a political candidate who sets out to slaughter endangered turtles for fun, while his rival candidate beats his “outside woman” so severely that she loses their baby. On the night of a political rally, the abused woman exacts very public revenge, the trajectory of which echoes through Pleasantview, ending with one boy introducing another boy to a gun, and an ideology that will help him aim the weapon.
