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By David Dabydeen Counting House (3rd) [Paperback]
Book by Dabydeen, David
- GenresIndia
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1996
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109 people want to read
About the author
David Dabydeen
34 books22 followersDavid Dabydeen (born 9 December 1955) is a Guyanese-born critic, writer, novelist and academic. Since 2010 he has been Guyana's ambassador to China.
Dabydeen is the author of novels, collections of poetry and works of non-fiction and criticism, as editor as well as writer. His first book, Slave Song (1984), a collection of poetry, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. A further collection, Turner: New and Selected Poems, was published in 1994, and reissued in 2002; the title-poem, Turner is an extended sequence or verse novel responding to a painting by J. M. W. Turner, "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon coming on" (1840).
His first novel, The Intended (1991), the story of a young Asian student abandoned in London by his father, won the Guyana Prize for Literature. Disappearance (1993) tells the story of a young Guyanese engineer working on the south coast of England who lodges with an elderly woman. The Counting House (1996) is set at the end of the nineteenth century and narrates the experiences of an Indian couple whose hopes of a new life in colonial Guyana end in tragedy. The story explores historical tensions between indentured Indian workers and Guyanese of African descent. His 1999 novel, A Harlot's Progress, is based on a series of pictures painted in 1732 by William Hogarth (who was the subject of Dabydeen's PhD) and develops the story of Hogarth's black slave boy. Through the character of Mungo, Dabydeen challenges traditional cultural representations of the slave. His latest novel, Our Lady of Demerara, was published in 2004.
Dabydeen has been awarded the title of fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is the second West Indian writer (V.S. Naipaul was the first) and the only Guyanese writer to receive the title.
In 2001 Dabydeen wrote and presented The Forgotten Colony, a BBC Radio 4 programme exploring the history of Guyana. His one-hour documentary Painting the People was broadcast by BBC television in 2004.
The Oxford Companion to Black British History, co-edited by Dabydeen, John Gilmore and Cecily Jones, appeared in 2007.
In 2007, Dabydeen was awarded the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award for his outstanding contribution to literature and the intellectual life of the Indian diaspora.
(from Wikipedia)
Dabydeen is the author of novels, collections of poetry and works of non-fiction and criticism, as editor as well as writer. His first book, Slave Song (1984), a collection of poetry, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. A further collection, Turner: New and Selected Poems, was published in 1994, and reissued in 2002; the title-poem, Turner is an extended sequence or verse novel responding to a painting by J. M. W. Turner, "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon coming on" (1840).
His first novel, The Intended (1991), the story of a young Asian student abandoned in London by his father, won the Guyana Prize for Literature. Disappearance (1993) tells the story of a young Guyanese engineer working on the south coast of England who lodges with an elderly woman. The Counting House (1996) is set at the end of the nineteenth century and narrates the experiences of an Indian couple whose hopes of a new life in colonial Guyana end in tragedy. The story explores historical tensions between indentured Indian workers and Guyanese of African descent. His 1999 novel, A Harlot's Progress, is based on a series of pictures painted in 1732 by William Hogarth (who was the subject of Dabydeen's PhD) and develops the story of Hogarth's black slave boy. Through the character of Mungo, Dabydeen challenges traditional cultural representations of the slave. His latest novel, Our Lady of Demerara, was published in 2004.
Dabydeen has been awarded the title of fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is the second West Indian writer (V.S. Naipaul was the first) and the only Guyanese writer to receive the title.
In 2001 Dabydeen wrote and presented The Forgotten Colony, a BBC Radio 4 programme exploring the history of Guyana. His one-hour documentary Painting the People was broadcast by BBC television in 2004.
The Oxford Companion to Black British History, co-edited by Dabydeen, John Gilmore and Cecily Jones, appeared in 2007.
In 2007, Dabydeen was awarded the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award for his outstanding contribution to literature and the intellectual life of the Indian diaspora.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 11, 2020
If this wasn’t for uni i would have dnf’ed it
February 18, 2015
there is a documentary where Dabydeen searches for his grandfather's name among the far flung repositories of coolie records. they are disorganized and poorly preserved, and in one short scene, no more than three minutes maybe, Dabydeen is visibly sweating as he attempts to piece together the triangular scraps being blown around by a fan in the room. names and history crumble in his hand. this is a book about dust. about excrement. nastiness. raw blood tongues. not an ounce of love in this one.
April 26, 2018
I guess I was disappointed with how little Mariam was afforded the ability to be tender. She was tender very seldom and it was never about her, it was like she had no desire or sexuality, like she was only a body. Of course, even if she was objectified, 2 or 3 tiny moments where she is reflecting on life, aren't enough to make her believable along side her masculine and infinitely strong character traits. It was as if black women just aren't seen as being capable of victimhood.
June 16, 2017
I couldn't get past the vulgarity of the characters and stopped reading 1/3 of the way through.
January 24, 2023
Really tried to read past first few chapters.. but couldn't get head or tail of it. I gave up about 30 pages in. :(
September 19, 2023
Warning: Minor spoilers follow.
Coolie.
The racially charged equivalent of ni**er for brown people. A synopsis of the derogation that deeply influenced Mahatma Gandhi and led to the start the Satyagraha movement in South Africa. A largely forgotten scrap of human history.
David Dabydeen’s Counting House is a story of coolies. It is the story of Indians in Guiana, taken all the way across the globe to work as indentured laborers. In the first half of the 19th century, Britain decided to end its participation in slavery, freeing all slaves in her colonies by 1838. Faced with the dilemma of who will work in the empire’s plantations, indentured labor trade was begun to replace freed slaves on sugar plantations in British colonies – a de-facto form of slavery. Between 1838 and 1917 (when the practice ended), Britain shipped ~2 million Indians to her colonies in South America, Caribbean and Africa, as replacement labor. These Indians were lured by specially appointed recruiters, with false promises of quick wealth and a better life.
Rohini & Vidia, a newly-wed couple in a small Bengali village in India, are influenced by such a recruiter, and board the ship to Plantation Albion (a real place, details follow) in British Guiana in search of a better life. Vidia has the quintessential Indian attitude – work hard, and you can climb out of the shitpit you were unfortunate enough to be born in. Things don’t work out the way you think? Just work harder. Rohini is materialistic, selfish and shallow. Together, they arrive in British Guiana, full of big dreams, a 5-year plan, and hopes for a better future. Reality mercilessly wears them down.
In Guiana, they meet the former slaves, who still work at the plantation as laborers alongside the coolies, and whose situation is only marginally better after their emancipation. There ensue some interesting power struggles between the former slaves and the coolies. The condition of the coolies in Guiana, and their strained relationship with the former slaves of Plantation Albion, constitute the two themes of Dabydeen’s work. The title ‘Counting house’ refers to that elusive goal Vidia never attains – to improve his condition sufficiently so his (never born) sons can learn to read and write and obtain work as accountants in the plantation.
Dabydeen’s inspiration stems from this fragment of history (excerpt from the prologue below), and undoubtedly from his knowledge of his nation’s history & personal experiences growing up in Guiana. From the prologue:
Yes, the language of this book is crass (perhaps needlessly and overly so). Rohini & Vidia are hardly a model couple – they are suspicious of each other (not without cause) and not exactly in moon-eyed love. They don’t form the sort of stellar moral core that have you rooting for them, nor do you get reduced to tears at the inevitable collapse of their impossible dreams. They make mistakes (including some deliberate ones) and are unapologetically flawed. It all feels very raw and unforgiving, and one wonders why Dabydeen chose such an approach.
This is not a pleasant read. Nor is it uplifting or poignant. It simply is what it is, like much of human history.
Reading context: Reading around the world choice for Guiana.
Read as: Original work in English.
Book format: Physical book, borrowed from Stanford libraries.
Coolie.
The racially charged equivalent of ni**er for brown people. A synopsis of the derogation that deeply influenced Mahatma Gandhi and led to the start the Satyagraha movement in South Africa. A largely forgotten scrap of human history.
David Dabydeen’s Counting House is a story of coolies. It is the story of Indians in Guiana, taken all the way across the globe to work as indentured laborers. In the first half of the 19th century, Britain decided to end its participation in slavery, freeing all slaves in her colonies by 1838. Faced with the dilemma of who will work in the empire’s plantations, indentured labor trade was begun to replace freed slaves on sugar plantations in British colonies – a de-facto form of slavery. Between 1838 and 1917 (when the practice ended), Britain shipped ~2 million Indians to her colonies in South America, Caribbean and Africa, as replacement labor. These Indians were lured by specially appointed recruiters, with false promises of quick wealth and a better life.
Rohini & Vidia, a newly-wed couple in a small Bengali village in India, are influenced by such a recruiter, and board the ship to Plantation Albion (a real place, details follow) in British Guiana in search of a better life. Vidia has the quintessential Indian attitude – work hard, and you can climb out of the shitpit you were unfortunate enough to be born in. Things don’t work out the way you think? Just work harder. Rohini is materialistic, selfish and shallow. Together, they arrive in British Guiana, full of big dreams, a 5-year plan, and hopes for a better future. Reality mercilessly wears them down.
In Guiana, they meet the former slaves, who still work at the plantation as laborers alongside the coolies, and whose situation is only marginally better after their emancipation. There ensue some interesting power struggles between the former slaves and the coolies. The condition of the coolies in Guiana, and their strained relationship with the former slaves of Plantation Albion, constitute the two themes of Dabydeen’s work. The title ‘Counting house’ refers to that elusive goal Vidia never attains – to improve his condition sufficiently so his (never born) sons can learn to read and write and obtain work as accountants in the plantation.
Dabydeen’s inspiration stems from this fragment of history (excerpt from the prologue below), and undoubtedly from his knowledge of his nation’s history & personal experiences growing up in Guiana. From the prologue:
In the ruined counting house of Plantation Albion, British Guiana, three small parcels of materials survive as the only evidence of the 19th century Indian presence. The first 2 parcels consist mostly of lists of Indian names, accounts of the wages paid to them, and scraps of letters. The contents of the 3rd parcel are a cow skin purse, a child’s tooth, an ivory button, a drawing of the Hindu god Rama haloed by seven stars, a set of iron needles, some kumari seeds, and an empty tin marked ‘Huntley’s Dominion Biscuits’, its cover depicting a scene of the Battle of Waterloo.
Yes, the language of this book is crass (perhaps needlessly and overly so). Rohini & Vidia are hardly a model couple – they are suspicious of each other (not without cause) and not exactly in moon-eyed love. They don’t form the sort of stellar moral core that have you rooting for them, nor do you get reduced to tears at the inevitable collapse of their impossible dreams. They make mistakes (including some deliberate ones) and are unapologetically flawed. It all feels very raw and unforgiving, and one wonders why Dabydeen chose such an approach.
This is not a pleasant read. Nor is it uplifting or poignant. It simply is what it is, like much of human history.
Reading context: Reading around the world choice for Guiana.
Read as: Original work in English.
Book format: Physical book, borrowed from Stanford libraries.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews