Lorna Goodison is an internationally recognized poet who has published eight books of poetry and two collections of short stories. In 1999 she received the Musgrave Gold Medal from Jamaica, and her work has been widely translated and anthologized in major collections of contemporary poetry. Born in Jamaica, Goodison now teaches at the University of Michigan. She divides her time between Ann Arbor and Toronto.
"Being introduced to the cast of 'From Harvey River' is like sitting down at the family dining table. You'll stay for the day then on into the evening as each new character pulls up a chair. You could not be in better company." -- New York Times Book Review"Goodison's memoir reaches back over generations to evoke the mythic power of childhood, the magnetic tug of home, and the friction between desire and duty that gives life its unexpected jolts." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"[A] loving memoir." -- New York Times Book Review Paperback Row
Goodison, an acclaimed poet who received Jamaica's Musgrave Gold Medal in 1999, makes lyrical exposition sing with dulcet island patois in this homage to her mother, Doris, who grew up in the sleepy Eden-like setting of Harvey River, but raised her own nine children in urban Kingston under less coddled conditions. Starting on a supernal note, in which Doris bequeaths this book to her daughter in a dream, the memoir draws a richly textured portrait of a sprawling, well-to-do family, including seven strong-willed siblings with deftly sketched personas. As "plump and pretty as a ripe ox-heart tomato," Doris-whose Anglo-African blood attests to Jamaica's history of interracial dalliance-joins her sisters in the clique of "fabulous Harvey girls," their surnames trumpeting the family's landed-gentry status. But it's a working-class chauffeur-the author's father-who wins Doris's hand in marriage. Borne away from her childhood idyll, she takes in her first moving picture, produces a succession of offspring and plies her domestic skills, especially sewing, gamely weathering the vicissitudes of life outside paradise. Steeped in local lore and spiced with infectious dialect and ditties, Goodison's memoir reaches back over generations to evoke the mythic power of childhood, the magnetic tug of home and the friction between desire and duty that gives life its unexpected jolts. (Mar.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
"Being introduced to the cast of 'From Harvey River' is like sitting down at the family dining table. You'll stay for the day then on into the evening as each new character pulls up a chair. You could not be in better company." -- New York Times Book Review"Goodison's memoir reaches back over generations to evoke the mythic power of childhood, the magnetic tug of home, and the friction between desire and duty that gives life its unexpected jolts." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"[A] loving memoir." -- New York Times Book Review Paperback Row
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