This will hurt me...

Private Pole. Lindisfarne, February 2021. John Crow's Devil by Marlon James This is an exceptionally dark and disturbing book. Not for the squeamish or faint-hearted, this reads like a magical realist Jamaican take on Cormac McCarthy's  Blood Meridian . Heavily religious in tone and written in thick patois, this is no easy read. Nonetheless, it will reward the patient reader. Exceptionally violent at points and brutally frank when it comes to the body. Indeed, I suspect this book has the highest ratio of bodily fluids spilt per page (not to mention the abundant and vivid examinations of various characters' genitalia). It isn't fair to say that I  loved  this book. It was difficult going at times, but given it is a raw excoriation of post-colonial withdrawal and the hypocrisies of organised religion (and prophets of a more disorganised sort), it would not be right if it were easy. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

Port Antonio, Jamaica Port Antonio can be found on the north-eastern coast, about 100 km from the capital, Kingston. The town is surrounded by some of the most rugged and beautiful scenery in all of Jamaica. It is the island's third largest port, and famous as a shipping point for bananas and coconuts. You have just got to love the idea of a tropical island featuring bananas and coconuts, don’t you? Apparently, Port Antonio was a sleepy coastal town up until the 1880s, when the banana trade took off in Jamaica and Port Antonio began to be promoted as a destination for wealthy American travellers. It is claimed that the banana trade, coupled with the tourists who came in the banana boats, was once so large that weekly sailing from Port Antonio was greater than weekly sailing from the port of Liverpool. Of that, I am somewhat sceptical, but it’s still a nice story. In the wettest, greenest parish in Jamaica, known for its many rivers and waterfalls, Port Antonio was the model of par...