Island People

September 19, 2016
Jelly-Schapiro (co-editor of Nonstop Metropolis) investigates the Caribbean in this sweeping cultural study that covers the Greater and Lesser Antilles, including Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Cayman Islands, Barbados, Grenada, Antigua, Martinique, and Trinidad. Jelly-Schapiro introduces the region’s intellectual and artistic giants: Antigua’s Jamaica Kincaid, Dominica’s Jean Rhys, Jamaica’s Bob Marley, Martinique’s Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon, and Trinidad’s V.S. Naipaul. He also discusses historical figures, such as Christopher Columbus and Toussaint Louverture, who influenced events throughout the Caribbean, and pays special tribute to Trinidadian C.L.R. James, whose scholarship looms over the book. Though his arguments about the relationship between modernity, tourism, and branding are not always clear, Jelly-Schapiro writes joyfully about music and literature and how these arts reflect the Caribbean’s hybrid and evolving culture. Agency: Zoë Pagnamenta Agency.

September 15, 2016
A geographer's exuberant travel narrative about the nations and people of the Caribbean.Jelly-Schapiro (co-editor: Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, 2016) begins with the premise that the Caribbean, a place often overlooked by both the academic and cultural mainstream, "has been anything but 'marginal' to the making of our modern world." He examines this idea by offering an ambitious depiction of almost all the islands in that region in a narrative that merges historical, political, and geographical accounts of the Caribbean with the author's abundant experiences as a traveler with an abiding fondness for the islands in all their eccentric, sometimes-bizarre complexity. He divides the book into two sections: one that discusses the islands of the Greater Antilles (Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola) and another that considers many of the Lesser Antilles (Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Trinidad). In the first section, Jelly-Schapiro brings his passion for Caribbean music to the fore while delineating the people and places he encounters with precision, grace, and eloquence. He discusses how the music of people like Jamaican reggae master Bob Marley, Puerto Rican salsa singer Hector Lavoe, and Cuban bandleader and I Love Lucy star Desi Arnaz helped put the islands on the map of world culture. In the second section, Jelly-Schapiro focuses more on writers and thinkers--e.g., Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid, and C.L.R. James--who made the much smaller islands of the Lesser Antilles important to Western intellectual consciousness. In particular, the author examines their relationships to the places that shaped--and in some cases, came to haunt--them. While descriptive detail is one of the book's strengths, it is also the source of a possible weakness. Caribbean studies scholars will no doubt find much to appreciate in this fine academic study-cum-travelogue. However, a general audience may be somewhat daunted by the very detail that is at the heart of this fine, if at times meandering, book. An eminently well-informed narrative.

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November 1, 2016

Geographer, writer for The New Yorker, Harper's, and the Believer, and visiting scholar at New York University Jelly-Schapiro's book melds vivid travel narrative with rigorous and detailed history as he explores the Caribbean as both a place and an idea and argues for the importance of the region in the making of our modern world. The author describes his travels to nearly every island in the region, describing the people and destinations he visits with clarity and warmth. Braided into his personal account is rich historical knowledge and a focus on the Caribbean musicians, writers, and thinkers who have helped shape world culture. VERDICT Though the writing is accessible and charming, general interest readers may find the work too academic. However, Caribbean studies scholars and enthusiasts, as well as those traveling to the area who are interested in deepening their understanding of the islands, will rejoice in this lovely book.--Rachel Bridgewater, Portland Community Coll. Lib., OR

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