Minty Alley

Minty alley is one of the first books C.L.R. James wrote, before he found his niche as a historian and cricket writer. But This isn't because of any lack of talent in fiction writing. The characters of Minty Alley are real and rounded and tell us something about ourselves as well as the people of Trinidad. The vast class differences in colonial societies even among the colonised peoples is thrown into stark relief by James's caricatures. You might be shocked at the poverty or amused by the dialogue,

An important book in the litarary history of the Caribbean. The journey of a middle class voyer into the everyday world of a working class family. The class politics and the internal revelations of the main character drive the story and the relationships he has with the other characters. On the whole this is a book with a relatively simple language and implicitly complex themes.