“Going Home in Chains” is a collection of short stories that transports the reader to the island of Barbados. There, one meets a wonderful cast of Bajan characters whose lives resonate of lost chances and second chances at love.
The setting of some of the stories shifts to the U.S. where the characters’ immigrant experience is portrayed. These stories achingly depict the Caribbean immigrant struggle with racism in America.
Some of my favorite characters are further developed as they reappear in other stories. It is striking to me how both the male and female characters are each so beautifully nuanced. It often seems that a female writer creates a more authentic female character and, vice versa, a male writer creates a more authentic male character. Glenville Lovell is notably able to do both.
Upon finishing this collection of short stories, the reader feels as if one has just returned from an all too short trip to Barbados, where one has had to say goodbye to new friends, and already longs to return.
I loved “Going Home in Chains” and am trying to decide which one of Glenville Lovell’s other books I will read next.