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BOOK REVIEW BY J. WYNNER A VEXATIOUS MASQUERADE Moses Migrating, by Samuel Selvon. © Lynne Rienner, Colorado, USA, 1992. 179 pages. ISBN 978 0 89410 715 3 Moses Aloetta is back in Trinidad, on a trip after being in Merry Old England for 25 years. But none of the merriness rubbed off on Moses while there: he’s as surly as can be. In Port of Spain he stays at the elite “upside down” Trinidad Hilton hotel, where guests enter the reception area at the top level and descend to their rooms — a top-to-bottom theme that is kept up throughout the novel. Moses waves the Union Jack as though he is a born Englishman. He, however, is certainly a born-again one in this first-person account of Moses Migrating, the final novel of the Moses trilogy by Trinidadian author Samuel Selvon. Selvon states in the preface, “The humour and entertainment that Moses provides sometimes tends to overwhelm the serious side of his nature. It is a knack that all Black people acquire to survive. In my own years in London, any hardcore material I wrote about Blacks had to have ha-ha. So laugh your guts out. But remember there is more in the mortar than the pestle.” However, it is doubtful that anyone would laugh his guts out here. Although it is Carnival time and Moses masquerades in costume for the Carnival, it’s only for the occasion; the costume is only a temporary escape — it does not hide his real self and he remains true to his character throughout the novel. Main characters don’t often get drearier than Moses Aloetta, Esq. Moses, who lives in the basement of his Shepherd’s Bush home, is accompanied on his trip by his penthouse tenants, an English couple: Bob, who wants to take the opportunity while in Trinidad to research his ancestors, and his wife, Jeannie, against whom Selvon turns his pen, writing her character with irrepressible misogyny. While Bob and Jeannie travel first class, Moses has a third class berth, thus maintaining their upstairs-downstairs habitat arrangement, another of the book’s themes. It was Jeannie who provided the brainwave for Moses’ Carnival masquerade. “She hand me a coin… It was a old penny… It had King George the Fifth head on one side, and on the other Britannia sitting down in her helmet and gown, balancing a ornamented shield with one hand and holding one of them with three prongs in it, like what masqueraders playing Devil does use at Carnival time.” At the beginning of the book, Selvon says, “The idea of depicting [in Carnival costume] Britannia on the face of a coin originated with the late Mr. Wilfred Strasser, who played the part in the 1948 Carnival celebrations in Trinidad. I have used the idea for my own purposes in this work of fiction.” Prior to the voyage to Trinidad, second thoughts about returning to his homeland assail Moses. He worries about not leaving his mark on Britain. He can’t seem to make up his mind whether he wants to return to his native land for good or just for a vacation. He worries about whether he should sell his house or not. Finally, he reluctantly decides to leave his friend Galahad — no easy customer — to take care of his home. Galahad drives Moses and his travelling companions to the docks in Plymouth, where Moses “even pretended to be sick”. He pushes his fingers down his throat and “brought up some bile in Galahad’s lap. ‘I think I got an appendix.’” Moses is a real pain, who wants those around him to share in his miserable moods. “You can’t appreciate my depression and gloom,” he tells Galahad. During the voyage the upstairs-downstairs scene is played out once more between Jeannie and Bob, and Moses, with the best time on the trip for Moses being the time spent at the bar. In Trinidad, Moses soon discovers that the place is not the same as when he left. He also discovers his Tantie Flora — to whom he had not written while he was in England — vending fruit around the savannah across the road from the Trinidad Hilton. He goes to see her at her vending stall, and promises to visit her at her home in John John. When Moses meets Doris at the home of Tantie Flora — who took in Doris and brought her up, just as she did Moses — he falls madly in love with her. When he decides on his Carnival masquerade, he ropes in Tantie and Doris to help make the costume. The more Moses sees of Doris, the more he wants to get married, buy a piece of land to farm, rear animals, and settle down, but after deflowering her on Jouvert morning his love for Doris and hopes of buying land and settling down vanish. “We touch down at Heathrow about six o’clock in the morning, and there was a cold breeze blowing, and a flake of snow brush my cheek lightly on the exact spot where Doris slap me.” Moses Aloetta is not the most appealing protagonist you’ll come across. In fact, he’s unlikable and annoying, as are a few of the other characters. But Selvon’s prose is up there with the best of writers, and more power to the author and his vexatious characters that they can so irk readers! FREE CRUISING GUIDES Dominican Republic Cayman Islands Haiti Cuba Jamaica Trinidad ABC Islands Puerto Rico Lesser Antilles in 3 volumes www.freecruisingguides.com Compliments of: Marina Zar-Par Boca Chica, Dominican Republic www.marinazarpar.com The Best Stories from <strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Compass</strong> Now available as an eBook at Amazon.com, Cruising Life: The Best Stories from <strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Compass</strong> is a collection of 49 outstanding stories selected from more than 200 issues of <strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Compass</strong>. Ann Vanderhoof, author of An Embarrassment of Mangoes and The Spice Necklace, says, “Given a new life beyond the magazine, the pieces in this collection resonate and sparkle in a very different way, offering new pleasures. Beyond its entertainment — the first piece had me hooked — the collection is sure to spark ideas in both cruising sailors and armchair dreamers.” US$8.95 Read a preview and order Cruising Life now at www.amazon.com! FEBRUARY <strong>2017</strong> CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 33