What do you think?
Rate this book
Power Game
The filmmaker-poet of Jamaican reality, Perry Henzell, has written Power Game, the definitive insider novel of Caribbean politics. Against a background of music, sex, and gang war, the contestants of Power Game keep their eye on the bottom line: the price of oil, the price of ganja, the price of bauxite. It is by manipulating these prices that the destinies of the many are decided by a handful of players: . Mike Bernard controls the army. Winston Bernard controls the banks. Michelle controls the media. Zack controls the streets. Each believes that when push comes to shove, he, or she, will devour the others.
427 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
25 people want to read
About the author
Perry Henzell
5 booksPerry Henzell was most famous for being the director of the first Jamaican feature film, The Harder They Come (1972), starring Jimmy Cliff.
Henzell, whose ancestors included Huguenot glassblowers and an old English family who had made their fortune growing sugar on Antigua, grew up on the Caymanas sugar cane estate near Kingston. He was sent to a boarding school in the United Kingdom at fourteen and later attended McGill University in Montreal in 1953 and 1954. He then dropped out of this school, choosing instead to hitchhike around Europe. He eventually got work as a stagehand at the BBC. He returned to Jamaica in the 1950s, where he directed advertisements for some years until he began work on The Harder They Come.
Henzell also shot some footage for what was planned as his next film, No Place Like Home, in Harder's aftermath, but he went broke before he could finish the film. Fed up by this, and the lack of finance for further production, he went on to become a writer, publishing his first novel, Power Game, in 1982. Both were meant to complete a planned trilogy of films centering on Ivanhoe Martin. The footage for No Place Like Home was lost. Years later, he came across editing tapes in a lab in New York. Just to have a sense of completion, he worked on the project. When he showed it to a few friends, their response was enthusiastic. He eventually was able to retrieve the original footage. No Place Like Home was screened for the public at the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival in September 2006 at the Cumberland Theatre; it was sold out. Film leads Carl Bradshaw (The Harder They Come, Smile Orange, Countryman) and Susan O'Meara attended and answered audience questions with Henzell after the screening. The film was scheduled to be screened at the Flashpoint Film Festival at the beginning of December 2006 in Negril.
Henzell died of cancer on November 30, 2006, aged 70, and is survived by his three children: Justine, Toni-Ann and Jason.
Henzell, whose ancestors included Huguenot glassblowers and an old English family who had made their fortune growing sugar on Antigua, grew up on the Caymanas sugar cane estate near Kingston. He was sent to a boarding school in the United Kingdom at fourteen and later attended McGill University in Montreal in 1953 and 1954. He then dropped out of this school, choosing instead to hitchhike around Europe. He eventually got work as a stagehand at the BBC. He returned to Jamaica in the 1950s, where he directed advertisements for some years until he began work on The Harder They Come.
Henzell also shot some footage for what was planned as his next film, No Place Like Home, in Harder's aftermath, but he went broke before he could finish the film. Fed up by this, and the lack of finance for further production, he went on to become a writer, publishing his first novel, Power Game, in 1982. Both were meant to complete a planned trilogy of films centering on Ivanhoe Martin. The footage for No Place Like Home was lost. Years later, he came across editing tapes in a lab in New York. Just to have a sense of completion, he worked on the project. When he showed it to a few friends, their response was enthusiastic. He eventually was able to retrieve the original footage. No Place Like Home was screened for the public at the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival in September 2006 at the Cumberland Theatre; it was sold out. Film leads Carl Bradshaw (The Harder They Come, Smile Orange, Countryman) and Susan O'Meara attended and answered audience questions with Henzell after the screening. The film was scheduled to be screened at the Flashpoint Film Festival at the beginning of December 2006 in Negril.
Henzell died of cancer on November 30, 2006, aged 70, and is survived by his three children: Justine, Toni-Ann and Jason.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 28, 2010
Fairly straightforward, but epic in a way that's pretty impressive.
Displaying 1 of 1 review