To All Appearances A Lady - University of British Columbia

Books in Review
developments on the phonetic particularities
of this language resort to a system which
is neither the international phonetic alphabet
nor any other convention which the
layman can read directly. As a result, the
introduction of yet another code leads to
further difficulties instead of clarifying the
issue.
Wyke's basic thesis is that Selvon's writing
can be divided up into three periods: in his
early works (those of the fifties), the novelist
is said to use "an authentic pattern of
language", while later compositions (Moses
Ascending and Moses Migrating) "show a
lessening of the original indigenous dialectal
usage", with the middle period serving
as a transition. One may regret the judgement
of value introduced in what is otherwise
a sensitive and useful study of Selvon's
work based on a close textual analysis.
Underlying all the argument is a belief that
what counts in a Caribbean novel is
"authenticity" of language, that is a faithful
rendering of the people's speech. This
rather elementary realistic tenet leads Wyke
to conclude that the experimental handling
of adapted Trinidadian English in the narration
of Moses Ascending marks a weakening
of Selvon's mastery of the idiom and an
increasing estrangement from the island
culture due to his long self-imposed exile.
One could equally argue that Selvon's playing
on a variety of registers, from parodie
"literary English" to modified West Indian
language, is a sign of the writer's sophistication.
It does not necessarily mean that he
is pandering to metropolitan tastes. A similar
objection might be raised concerning
the rather didactic use the author makes of
narrators in his early works, a feature
which can only be aimed at satisfying a foreign
implied readership.
When Wyke forgets about his explicit
"message", he can prove extremely perceptive,
especially in his study of Selvon's sense
of place. The novelist's vision is vehicled by
evocations of settings which crystallize past
and present, changes in cultural patterns
and produce sustained lyrical effects. Wyke
argues that Selvon's eye is that of an accomplished
painter. Taking up John Thieme's
notion of "carnivalization" and Maureen
Warner-Lewis's idea of a "linguistic extravaganza
reflective of the 'exuberance and
eclecticism of the Carnival pageant'" to
characterize The Lonely Londoners, Wyke
introduces an interesting parallel with the
Menippean satire, which might well be
developed into a Bakhtinian analysis of the
work. Similarly Moses Ascending is
described as "an intertext combined of
many threads". It is precisely this clash of
various codes which represents Selvon's
great originality. Far from stigmatizing the
characters' acculturation, Selvon seems to
delight in these cultural fireworks which,
though disconnected at first sight, develop
into a rich and variegated tableau. The novelist
succeeds in composing symphonies
through the interplay of what appears at
first sight as jarring musical lines.
Wyke's distaste for Selvon's use of
Caribbean language in later works reminds
one of the quarrel between artists who
advocate the writing of novels in Creole
because they supposedly appeal to the West
Indian public more directly and those who
prefer to use standard English because of
the wider potential audience. Apart from
the case of "popular fiction", which is
meant to be read fast, the novel as a genre is
basically reserved to educated people. In
the Caribbean, this category of the population
lives in a creolized world; they can
enjoy and master several registers of
English and appreciate the different class
and emotional implications of each.
Selvon's novels may be classified in the
same category as La Lézardeby Edouard
Glissant or Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau;
in these works, multiple forms of expression
are used, including the local Creole,
without language becoming a real barrier
to an outsider. While avoiding the pitfall of