Circe's Dance And Other Stories

These stories capture multiple themes of parallel lives, mystery, fate, coincidence, and human relationships transcending time and space. Set on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and in small-town Maritime Canada, the stories address both the differences and similarities between divergent cultures and customs of each country. The novella CIRCE'S DANCE focuses on the lives of two girls, Nyla and Lalee, born into poverty in a small fishing village on the shores of the Atlantic coast of Trinidad in the 1950's. Growing up in similar circumstances, their lives soon diverge as Nyla departs the village to attend further schooling in the capital Port-of-Spain, leaving her friend Lalee behind. After her schooling ends, Nyla travels abroad to Canada, creating a deeper rift in the fortunes of these two friends. The novella explores the lives of these two girls, examining the differences and similarities of the parallel lives of the one who stays behind and the one who leaves Trinidad. Neither girl is aware of the mysterious 'curse' levied upon them generations before their births, introduced in the prologue. Eventually the story comes full circle with a reunion of the girls and a realization of the part Circe's curse may have had on their lives. THE BRACELETS also has a theme of parallel lives, this time over several generations. Beginning in India during the Mogul Empire, and moving through Indian indentureship, instigated by the British in India to get cheap labour on plantations in their Caribbean colonies in the 1800's, to modern day Trinidad where the heroine faces similar problems. This story of the journey of two girls wanting to establish their independence and identity in the face of conformity, prejudice, abuse, and denial of their choices and desires in life are all linked together by a tangible symbol---their bracelet collection. SYMMETRY IN DESTINY is a non-fiction family story that is poignant in its nostalgia, and in its strange element of coincidence. It tells a tale of immigrants to Canada in a small maritime community on the south shore of Nova Scotia. Also dealing with parallel lives, it was only after we left the town for a larger centre in another Province that the unbelievable story of a painting in our possession from our first house in Canada led us on a miraculous journey back to our homeland in Trinidad. EIGHT CENTS AND THE SNAKE also has an element of truth to it as its main character was a person in the village of Penal where I grew up. This story records the local flavour of the times in the 1950's in a rural, southern community where all residents lived in close contact with one other, meting out a helping hand to those unfortunates who lived on the margins of society. Sometimes comic, this is a story in which the tragic circumstances of Eight Cents' plight in life lies in an actual occurrence-- the underhanded way in which a Canadian Missionary and a man of God gained access to the oil-bearing lands of more than one landowner for his selfish gain through the sin of avarice.The reader will be right in thinking him to be the biggest snake of all that Eight Cents had to do battle with. Together, this collection of short stories is interesting, thought-provoking, entertaining, and informative as the reader is taken on a journey between the Caribbean and Canada, with a foray into the faraway land of ancient India.