Ways of Sunlight

by Sam Selvon

The master-storyteller turns his pen to rural village life with Ways of Sunlight in Trinidad: gossip and rivalry between village washerwomen; toiling cane-cutters reaping their harvest; superstitious old Ma Procop protecting the fruit of her Mango tree with magic. With equal wit and sensitivity, he reflects the depression of hard times in London, where people live in cold, damp basements, hustling for survival.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, British Literature, 20th Century, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Samuel Dickson Selvon was born in San Fernando in the south of Trinidad. His parents were East Indian: his father was a first-generation Christian immigrant from Madras and his mother's father was Scottish.He was educated at Naparima College, San Fernando, before leaving at the age of fifteen to work. He was a wireless operator with the Royal Naval Reserve from 1940 to 1945. Thereafter, he moved north to Port of Spain, and from 1945 to 1950, worked for the Trinidad Guardian as a reporter and for a time on its literary page. In this period, he began writing stories and descriptive pieces, mostly under a variety of pseudonyms such as Michael Wentworth, Esses, Ack-Ack, and Big Buffer. Selvon moved to London in the 1950s, and then in the late 1970s to Alberta, Canada, where he lived until his death from a heart attack on 16 April 1994 on a return trip to Trinidad.

Selvon is known for novels such as The Lonely Londoners (1956) and Moses Ascending (1975). His novel A Brighter Sun (1952), detailing the construction of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway in Trinidad through the eyes of young Indian worker Tiger, was a popular choice on the CXC English Literature syllabus for many years. Other notable works include Ways of Sunlight (1957), Turn Again Tiger (1958) and Those Who Eat the Cascadura (1972). During the 1970s and early 1980s, Selvon converted several of his novels and stories into radio scripts, broadcast by the BBC, which were collected in Eldorado West One (Peepal Tree Press, 1988) and Highway in the Sun (Peepal Tree Press, 1991).

After moving to Canada, Selvon found a job teaching creative writing as a visiting professor at the University of Victoria. When that job ended, he took a job as a janitor at the University of Calgary in Alberta for a few months, before becoming writer-in-residence there. He was largely ignored by the Canadian literary establishment, with his works receiving no reviews during his residency.

The Lonely Londoners, as with most of his later work, focuses on the immigration of West Indians to Britain in the 1950s and tells, mostly in anecdotal form, the daily experience of settlers from the Caribbean. Selvon also illustrates the panoply of different "cities" that are lived in London, as with any major city, due to class and racial boundaries. In many ways, his books are the precursors to works such as Some Kind of Black by Diran Adebayo, White Teeth by Zadie Smith and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi. Selvon explained: "When I wrote the novel that became The Lonely Londoners, I tried to recapture a certain quality in West Indian everyday life. I had in store a number of wonderful anecdotes and could put them into focus, but I had difficulty starting the novel in straight English. The people I wanted to describe were entertaining people indeed, but I could not really move. At that stage, I had written the narrative in English and most of the dialogues in dialect. Then I started both narrative and dialogue in dialect and the novel just shot along."

Selvon's papers are now at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. These consist of holograph manuscripts, typescripts, book proofs, manuscript notebooks, and correspondence. Drafts for six of his eleven novels are present, along with supporting correspondence and items relating to his career.

Reviews

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked taking each story one at a time, having a small snapshot into an individual’s life. It was the final story ‘My Girl and the City’ that determined how much I liked this book. The concept of ‘sonder’ is so fascinating to me: the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Makes you appreciate everyone around you, and all the moments in their lives you don’t see, and all the thoughts you don’t realise they’re having.

[Willa Karr · Rating 4 out of 5]

the four stars go to the last story of the collection :"My Girl and The City". holy moly, how can 7 pages say so much about love, and poetry, and belonging, and existence?? i aspire to write how Sam Selvon writes

[Eddie Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of short stories set in post-WWII Trinidad and Britain. Sometimes left me a little unfulfilled but that could be my attitude to short stories. Good mix of urban and rural and variety of characters

“Waiting for Aunty to Cough” should be read by every Londoner

[Cecly Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another classic of Trinidad literature. Selvon is all embracing in his narrative. Quinessential Trinidadian.

[Papillon Polyglotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ways of Sunlight" by Samuel Selvon was one of the first Caribbean books I read in secondary school. I remember we also read books set in Britain or the United States and while they were good, there is an intrinsic connection with a book set in the Caribbean, with Caribbean characters and written by a Caribbean author.

So when I picked up my old copy of "Ways of Sunlight" and dusted it off after almost 20 years, I found that the characters and settings were most vivid in my mind. Reading Selvon's ballads was indeed as effortless as following the melody of a calypso. For the first part, set in Trinidad, I felt like I was listening to the older people speak about "long time". When older people start a sentence with "long time" or "long ago", you know that you're entering a different realm. Who knew that some of the most built-up areas that we live in today were once cocoa or sugar estates?  The second part, set in London, reminded me of how West Indians would get together for a lime whether in a bar or with family and narrate the greatest of misfortunes to make them seem like the funniest of stories.

The story that stood out in my mind the most was "Down the Main" which followed Frederick as he went to Venezuela in search for work because after the war, times were very difficult. He was smuggled into the oil-rich Venezuela and ended up in a village that was on the banks of the Orinoco River. When he got there, he was put into contact with a Trinidadian who arranged to have documents his falsified. Doesn't that remind us of a similar situation? I wonder how many of us share a similar link to Venezuela.

[Emīls Ozoliņš · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, thank you to Penguin Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

It's a fine book, but I couldn't get into it as much as I'd liked.
I liked the first story and the last one the most. Brackley and Obeah were also of note, but others came and went so quickly that I remember nothing of them.
Selvon's good, though. He's got something about him. Want to read The Lonely Londoners next.

[Vivek Persad · Rating 5 out of 5]

good book need summary

[charlotte, · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rep: West Indian cast

[Alex Sarll]

I read Sam Selvon's Windrush classic The Lonely Londoners long enough ago that 'Windrush' wasn't automatically followed by 'scandal', and keep meaning to read the sequels - one of which I have in an original eighties paperback whose colourful sitcom cover is fascinatingly far from the monochrome respectability which swathes modern editions of his work. Including this, a collection of his short stories, which jumps the queue on account of being from Netgalley. It's divided into two sections, Trinidad and London, and the temptation is to add 'much like Selvon's life', but one of the most noticeable things for me in the Trinidad section was the variety of voices, an overseer's resentful account in formal English followed by shorter tales in various flavours of local lingo. Which, more than the novels, is a handy reminder for the reader to guard against that temptation to treat writers who aren't well-off white guys as necessarily more autobiographical. For the most part, these stories are fine, but firmly within the expected compass of post-colonial literature, slices of life which are far livelier than short stories where a Midwestern housewife or Hampstead intellectual has a minor realisation about their life, but not necessarily any more substantial. The exception is the first and longest, Johnson And The Cascadura, which strikes the collection's most tragic note, the normal round of rural life disrupted by the arrival of a gullible European folklorist. Which, taken together with the way the London stories, even the daftest squibs among them, feel like they're operating on another level, is almost enough to make one believe that dubiously sourced line about how there are only two stories - someone goes on an adventure, and a stranger comes to town. In London, Selvon's new arrivals are often living in a shoestring in shitty apartments, but while the cold weather and early nightfall are soul-sapping, unignorable, there's seldom any sense of systemic oppression on the part of the 'Nordics' - even in a story such as Obeah In The Grove, which is explicitly about racist landlords, it's played more as chancers trying to get one over on their existing tenants, and then on the West Indian protagonists, only for the latter to turn the tables. More often, it's not even that so much as stories driven by characters with an eye to the main chance and others who either go one better or get carried along in their wake, mostly with comical consequences; that cover really doesn't do much to convey how often I found myself thinking of a forerunner to Only Fools And Horses.

Also, living out on that fringe of London myself, I was doubly amused by the consternation of Brackley in Waiting For Auntie To Cough when he sees the station names Gypsy Hill, Penge West, Forest Hill from the train window and is sure they must have left the city far behind. Not to mention learning from Working The Transport that the 196, which now stops at Elephant & Castle, used to make it all the way to Tufnel Park.

By the final piece, My Girl And The City, even an accommodation with the weather has been reached. I don't know whether the events described ever happened quite this way, but more than anything else here it feels less story than essay, and less either than the monologue from a St. Etienne album track (which, to be clear, is from me high and rare praise). It shares with that first and longest story a melancholy that's absent from most of the collection, and I wonder if I'm falling into that old, foolish privileging of tragedy over comedy by calling them the best things here. Maybe better say that they have a hard-won wisdom, and the stories in between have an enormous sense of life, and aren't those both qualities worth celebrating?

[Jacquie J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of short stories divided into two parts. Both parts set around the 1950s, the first stories take place in Trinidad and the second group in London. Each Trinidadian story rolls on into the next without pausing between anecdotes until the end of Part 1 and then Selvon tells his London stories in the same style, one unfolding into the next.
The Trinidad based stories include tales from a variety of settings in Trinidad (and one in Venezuela) but predominately they are about village life. Selvon conveys a strong sense of the poverty and isolation and often monotony of lives in these villages. Having said that, the richness of the vegetation, the juicy mangoes, the fish in the streams that he describes, creates the sense of a most beautiful place yet despite this the life of the ordinary person is clearly very tough. For me the Ways of Sunlight are the patches of amusement, pleasure or simply something different rippling across the scene of his characters.
In the London section, the world of the characters is also hard – they struggle with the cold weather, bad housing, lack of money, which are all clearly described, and racism which is touched on more often by implication than overtly. However, I came away with a picture of young men full of energy, hope and initiative, finding ways to overcome difficulties including many of their own making. This set of stories was generally amusing, more so that the first section although the outcomes were often predictable.
I felt the sense of life in Trinidad and the sense of the Trinidadian life in London was well evoked and this was enhanced by the frequent use of Trinidadian dialect in both speech and in narration. I am not usually a great lover of short stories, so as much as my interest in Trinidad was aroused and as much as the escapades of youth in London amused me, the collection did not really draw me in … until I reached the end.
The final story, “My Girl and the City” which describes the narrator’s courting of his girlfriend, his love of London and his struggles with writing, is my favourite story in the book. There I found some beautifully expressive phrases:
“I heard my words echo in caverns of thought, as if they hung about like cigarette smoke in a still room …”
“…her skirt skylarking…” (in the wind)
“…the rain falling slantways and carefree and miserable.” – to give just a few examples.
I also enjoyed his references to dating in the “old days”. Selvon writes of taking the night bus “after seeing my girl home.” On another occasion, waiting for hours for his girlfriend, trying and failing to call her on a pay phone and eventually she turns up three hours late,
“She never expected that I would still be waiting, but she came on the offchance. I never expected that she would come, but I waited on the offchance.”
So the final story turned the book from a pleasant read to one full of appreciation, and has left me wanting to read “The Lonely Londoners”.

[Kit Nevile · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lilting, hazy collection of stories and ephemeral moments, split between Trinidad and London, the two crucial locations of Selvon's life. And the disparate elements of each place clash and combine in fascinating ways throughout. The sunshine and peaceful lackadaisical edge to much of the first half is offset by the cold, grey bitterness of London, but in both halves of Ways of Sunlight emerges a fondness for community, on either sides of the sea, and a quality to both places that crystallise them in our minds. One is not considered better than the other or vice versa, and I found this approach exceedingly interesting.

I did find that the fragmented style was a little hard to follow at times, though how much this is owing to the author, and how much to the formatting of this edition, was not always clear. That each story slid so unnoticeably into the next was, then, a positive and a negative in my eyes. But overall this was a moving and engaging set of tales from an author I am only growing more and more fond of.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading this. I had heard of Sam Selvon and The Lonely Londoners but not this one. It’s a collection of stories and I really enjoyed it. Some of the stories are in Trinidad and other countries and some are in London. Some use dialect and although it took me a few pages to get the rhythm, the writing is beautiful and poetic and I read it with a lilt having no idea what Mr Selvon would sound like ~ or his characters.

The first story of love across the miles was very well done, how we can overcome many hurdles if we truly believe and want to. Then we were in Venezuela getting false documents for travel. But the stories in London were really moving. In one, we have unscrupulous landlords letting rooms to ‘the blacks’ so the ‘decent white folk’ would move out and the landlord evict the black tenants and then put the rents up. There’s a lot going on in these stories and a lot to think about. I will read more from the author.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

[Anya Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A vivid collection of short stories, full of personality, based in Trinidad and London after WWII. The stories move from one to another seamlessly, you almost miss the moment when you are suddenly transported into a new narrative, but the tone often did shift enough to make it clear. The stories are a snapshot into lives in two distinct, but crucially linked places. The blunt change in climate, and the shift from the largely rural to the heavily urban environment, create the backdrop of the cultural distinctions between the two locations where the stories are set. People move between the locations, building lives for themselves, creating community.

Selvon writes with vibrancy and humour, and while the short nature of many of the stories left them feeling unfinished, the narratives weave together for a cohesive and interesting collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this edition.

[Laura-Leigh Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic in my view, in depth and creative use of colloquial language and Trinidad culture. I've read this book of short stories since 1982 and have done so over and over. As I've gotten older and reading again, its amazing how I'm seeing it with fresh insight. Thanks Mr. Selvon RIP.

[Celly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I entertaining book of short stories. I will rate this book 3.5 / 5. It was a fun read especially being a Caribbean person who lives in Trinidad...it is nice to hear stories of the old time days. 🙏My favorite stories were Johnson and the Cascadura, the Village Washer and Brackley and the Bed.

[Sunita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life longtime in the Caribbean.

[Louella Mahabir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection. Sad, funny and so familiar, like stories you hear when relatives get together and talk way into the night.

[Ashanti Campbell]

Good one love it

[Jake Bittle]

I want to go to Trinidad, sounds fun

[Chudy]

I dont anything about this i just want to read it

[. · Rating 4 out of 5]

All good clean fun and ultimately nobody was harmed

[Joseph Wubber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice load of short stories for people with ADHD who can’t pay attention long

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable collection of short stories set in Trinidad and in London.

Observing the minutiae of life, love and superstition we meet lots of fabulous characters along the way.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book of short stories the first section is based in West Indies and the second part of the book is based in London, England I connect with the stories mostly based in London, England this reminds me of my parents and their friends when they first came to England, especially connecting with the familiar lingo that they bought with them from the West Indies.

I would highly recommend this book to read if you’re starting out reading Caribbean fiction stories as the stories are like a taster of what it’s like to read Caribbean writers.

[Gina Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely read from one of my favourite authors.

[Adanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read! My favourite stories are: Johnson and the Cascadura, Cane is Bitter, The Village Washer, Gussy and the Boss, A Drink of Water, Eraser's Dilemma, Brackley and the Bed, If Winter Comes and The Cricket Match. Each contained characters that made you smile, hurt when they hurt, roll on the floor laughing with their antics and logic. The stories themselves had heart, intrigue, moral dilemmas, lessons etc, making this group of short stories a good read for anyone.

[K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exquisite, in-depth collection of Trinidad and Tobago's cultural values. I immensely enjoyed the rich detail of landscape and rituals described. The narrative was bittersweet and poignant at times. This collection is a perfect example for understanding British colonization, and how the People of Trinidad and Tobago must cope or resist the pervasive Western homogenization and infringement on their land and occupations. Truly, reading novels is a one-way-ticket to traveling.

[Samantha Reive · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories highlight the pyschological and intellectual connection with the Caribbean that exiled writers in London felt and feel: these are ballads which capture the essence of the Trini male marooned in the metropole.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful rural village tale

[Jervon]

the book is a nice book to read for the child them to read and no how it was like went it was in the 1988