Time Swimmer (Island Fiction) by Gerald Hausman
| Time Swimmer (Island Fiction) by Gerald Hausman | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Loralei Haylock
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| Summary: An interesting look at Caribbean culture with a nice message about the power of words and storytelling, but a slightly unsatisfying feel. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 192 | Date: November 2008 |
| Publisher: Macmillan Caribbean | |
| ISBN: 978-1405098984 | |
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Luke has just failed his Common Entrance Exam. In Jamaica that's bad news. You can't get anywhere without an education. A week ago, his friend Benji failed too. He took his own life, jumping off Tacky Falls onto the rocks below.
Luke is thinking about going out the same way, but an old man saves his life. Then Luke saves a turtle from a couple of fishermen and swims with it out into the sea. The turtle is magical, the great warrior Odysseus turned into a magical time swimmer by the God Zeus-Damballah.
Odysseus is charged to save lives through time, but to do so he needs a companion, a boy to travel with him. With Luke's help he has to save nine lives so at long last he can return to his wife and child in Ithaca. Together they face pirates, Nazis, trickster gods and volcanoes, with only their silver tongues and the occasional favour of Calypso-Erzulie to aid them.
This is a very strange book. It's part of a series called Island Fiction, each of which explores different elements of Caribbean mythology and folklore. I've never been to the Caribbean, but I know people who've lived there, and Hausman certainly seems to capture the feel of the place.
Dreamy and whimsical Time Swimmer meanders from event to event with no particular order or pattern. It's like a collection of snapshots of Caribbean life, history and folklore linked together by Odysseus' and Luke's journey.
With Pirates, sole survivors of natural disasters, Nazis, Cyclopes and a host of gods, some wrathful shapeshifters, some benevolent surfer dudes, there are loads of colourful characters scattered throughout the book. While this is a strength, sometimes I felt you were just getting to know a character when Luke and Odysseus moved on in their travels and left them behind. I suppose if the purpose of the book is to get you interested in Caribbean history and folklore, it fulfils it, as I straight away wanted to know more and read more, but it does leave Time Swimmer with a slightly unsatisfying edge.
Still, it's an interesting look at Caribbean culture with a nice message about the power of words and storytelling. Certainly worth borrowing.
If you enjoyed this and would like to read more Island Fiction, try Escape From Silk Cotton Forest by Francis C. Escayg.
My thanks to the publishers for sending a copy.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Time Swimmer (Island Fiction) by Gerald Hausman at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Time Swimmer (Island Fiction) by Gerald Hausman at Amazon.com.
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