At The Rainbow's Very End

ISBN-13: 9780692324134 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 220 str.

Franklyn Jones

Opis

In the community of Celadon the residents - family, friends and neighbors - helped each other, shared food, melee, and responsibilities. On weekdays they made work or found work, baking bread and pastries, taking in washing, picking cotton, cutting sugar-cane, work as fishermen, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, masons, shopkeepers; and raised their children. On weekends, they drank a little, quarreled some, cooked big meals, and attended church. Oxy lived in Celadon, which was located on a Caribbean island, where his life was stalled by the island's rapidly changing landscape, and the modernizations of the 1960's. Oxy struggled with the changing times, and with the conflict between responsibility and arithmetic - the result of an infrequent paycheck - all of which subdued a buoyant man. Oxy's curse was his appeal; he had an almost effortless ability to initiate relationships with women, relationships which had a tendency to end in calamity. He had four children by three women, twin boys with his first love Rachael, but her manner could be frosty. Oxy was tethered to the civic minded Beady, who had an uneven relationship with his woman Ruth, was a vigorous advocate of workers' rights, and a leader in the Celadon community. The community was unique on the island (the residents had, and lived by their own rules), which was experiencing the heavy hand of developers who brutalized a pristine environment, as the island made the transition from agriculture to industry - tourism industry. Oxy began courting Tricia soon after Beady began his job as a union field officer. Beady found him a position at the factory where Tricia worked, so Oxy wooed her, then wooed her some more, and just when she let him in, Rachael thawed. Tricia lived with her snappish aunt, who did not approve of her niece's relationship with Oxy. And on the day that Beady's first picket turned into a mini riot, which was one day after Tricia aunt's complaints, caused Tricia to leave her aunt's home, Oxy told Tricia of his plan to spend more time with his sons and their mother. The fall-out from Beady's aborted picket and Tricia's distress, disquieted Beady; add some disturbing information from his reclusive Godmother, and he was overwhelmed. Beady confronted Oxy, and Oxy was stunned by his passion. He mentioned Oxy's appalling treatment of Tricia, and the disturbing information from his Godmother. He began his harangue in anger then switched to a cold sneer, then to sarcasm, using words that sliced into Oxy's soul and took him to a dark uncomfortable place.