Against the Grain

Overview

A work of great humor and insight, this memoir tracks an ambitious young Caribbean man with dreams of becoming a famous writer or pop singer from his native Montserrat to London in 1956. The young Archie's attempts to combine elements of Little Richard and Jim Dale fall short of gaining superstar status, but his reputation as a "nimble-footed, silver-tongued" poet, critic, and fiction writer is eventually realized. Beginning with a return to post-volcanic Montserrat to rediscover the now abandoned village where his grandmother's old house stood and his meticulous and moving reconstruction of his boyhood in that house, this tale explores a unique perspective of 1950s British and Caribbean culture. It is Markham's wryly humorous navigation between the poles of his family's confident sense of their worth and the racial bigotry they encounter that makes his account such a rewarding human document.

Reviews

"Weigel’s thoughtful essays on democracy and religion offer new insights into the meaning of Catholic social doctrines for the 21st century." —Publishers Weekly

"Markham's deadpan wit and self-protective irony never desert him. He's never less than funny, and never less than moving. The English-speaking Caribbean has bred some wonderful wanderers from his generation, but none (certainly not Walcott or Naipaul) can boast a literary voice as wryly companionable as this." —Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

Author Biography

E. A. Markham is the author of Misapprehensions and A Rough Climate, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. He is the author of three collections of stories and a memoir, A Papua New Guinea Sojourn: More Pleasures of Exile.