Dry Bone Memories
by Cecil Foster

Notable Bajan expatriate Cecil Foster's fiction often teems with island themes. So it's no surprise that his novel Dry Bone Memories is about a promising native son, Jeffrey Spencer, who left Barbados to get a Canadian "education."

When he returns years later, Jeffrey is lauded as "a man of vision. a leader in waiting," and his worldly business acumen ingratiates him to creepy Prime Minister Watkins and his ethically challenged government.

Watkins props Jeffrey up as the chairman of Caribbean International Airlines, but essentially he's just a glorified drug runner, bolstering the island's infrastructure--resorts, banks, a memorial community centre--with free-flowing filthy lucre.

Every saint, sinner, and fool looks to gain Jeffrey's favour, but Jeffrey only trusts Edmund, his childhood pal and the son of his father's best friend. Old Man Spencer is a gravedigger, Edmund's dad is a preacher, and both sit in measured judgment of the times.

Old Man Spencer huffs, "We better know what we're doing when we decide to hold the Devil close to our breast." But Edmund continues to pin his dreams to his old friend: "I wanted, despite the mounting evidence, to continue believing that Jeffrey would eventually deliver me."

That desperate allegiance, though, doesn't outlive the consequences of Jeffrey and Edmund's naive schemes. With a shattered Edmund narrating--as he flees Barbados for an American witness protection program-- Dry Bone Memories traces the unravelling of ties that no longer bind.

-- sigcino moyo

 

original publication: Amazon.ca : Editorial Reviews