King of the Carnival and Other Stories

by Willi Chen

This irresistible collection of short stories reveals both the harsh and gentle realities of Trinidadian society.
Funny and fun-loving, violent and peaceful, a nation of many different races; this is the real Trinidad - in mind body and spirit.

155 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 1988

About the author

A prolific and multifaceted artist, Chen began publishing his stories of Trinidad life in the 1980s in journals and newspapers. His only collection to date, King of the Carnival and Other Stories, was published in 1982. Traditional in his literary style, his central theme is the encounter between cultures in the often harsh context of his native island; strangely, the Chinese community, into which he was born, rarely appears in his work. A painter and sculptor, he designed the Christ the Lord Roman Catholic Church in Marabella, Trinidad. He was awarded the National Hummingbird Medal for Art and Culture in 1989.

Reviews

[Rion Scott]

The prose is somewhat overly mannered which many times placed a wall between me and the stories. I don't recall much about most of the stories in this book despite having just closed the pages. Somewhat ornate prose as a way of keeping the reader at arm's length, I guess.