Iron Balloons

September 1, 2006
Set primarily in the Caribbean and featuring many Jamaican characters, the 11 short stories in this anthology cover a wide range of topics, including memory (real and imagined), family relationships, and religion. These very readable pieces tell of the musings of a senile old man, a father's reunion with the spirit of his dead son, an old woman's presentation on how to beat a child, and a schizophrenic who dreams he is Bob Marley. The contributors, all participants in the Calabash Writer's Workshop, which was created to help more Jamaican writers get published, include Channer, Marlon James, Alwin Bully, A-dZiko Simba, Rudolph Wallace, Elizabeth Nunez, Kaylie Jones, Geoffrey Philp, Konrad Kirlew, Sharon Leach, and Kwame Dawes. Channer (English, Medgar Evers Coll.) has written two previous novels and a collection of stories. For larger public libraries and academic libraries serving a creative writing program." - Sarah Conrad Weisman, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.