From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island

From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island

Published:
2010-03-01
Categories:
ISBN:
9781843549963
Meeting:
2017-05-08 (meeting #4)
Pages:
288
File size (e-book):
542 KB
Download URL:

Description:

An irresistibly joyful memoir of mothers and daughters, and the importance of home.

When Lorna's great-grandfather, William Harvey, discovered a clearing at the end of a path cut by the feet of escaping slaves, he gives his name to what became his family's home for generations. For Lorna's mother, Doris, Jamaica's Harvey River was the place she always called home, where she was one of the 'fabulous Harvey girls' and the rich local bounty of yams, pimentos and mangoes went hand in hand with the Victorian niceties and comforts of her parents' house. Doris was a big-hearted lover of big stories and raised Lorna on tales of their family's - and Jamaica's - history. Years later, when her fortunes changed, it was a place she returned to in her dreams She and her husband relocated to 'hard life' Kingston and encountered the harsh realities of urban living at close quarters as they raised their family of nine children.

Gorgeously written with unashamed joy and peopled with a cast of wonderfully drawn characters, Lorna Goodison's memoir weaves together memory and island lore to create a vivid and universally appealing tapestry.

Author Details:

Lorna Gaye Goodison is a Jamaican poet, essayist and memoirist, a leading West Indian writer, whose career spans four decades. She is now Professor Emerita, English Language and Literature/Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, previously serving as the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afroamerican Studies. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica in 2017, serving in the role until 2020