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Disposable People
FROM THE REVIEW BY THE JAMAICA OBSERVER The pain and passion in this freewheeling text is so palpable that it is hard to regard it as fiction. It reads like a memoir, a record of hurts and darkly humorous short stories woven together with diary entries and line drawings, redolent with clever raunchiness and with language that rivals a text by Anthony Winkler. (It is) a brilliant and often innovative offering that falls less in the realm of the West Indian tradition and more in the way of American postmodernist black humour, reminiscent of the work of Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five . Ezekel Alan has constructed a masterpiece of searing memories of his childhood in "that hateful f-ing place" in order to come to terms with them, heal himself, and honour those of the poor and victimised - the "disposable people". Ezekel Alan writes with an intensity that astonishes. This is a rousing text, full of energy and venom, and tells multiple stories of 'disposable people" while building an understanding of the lot of Jamaica's poorer children. Alan is brilliant in his analysis of Kenny Lovelace's relationship with his father and in the stories of abuse that most of the children suffered at the hands of the village men. His novel is a wail of agony wrapped in spritely prose, deepened with irony and a bitter humour. It reads fast and packed with surprise and horror. This is no admiring chronicle of the values of the God-fearing Jamaican peasant but a searing account of the exigencies of poverty and superstition in a demanding environment. It is a magnificent piece of work, combining different modes of storytelling including poetry, letters, journal writing, and sketched images, and covering a plethora of issues, including attitudes to homosexuality. Alan has done a bang-up job of presenting the memories of the boy he once was and the collective memories of the village he came from. His coming to terms with these memories in a brilliantly innovative text is our gain and his salvation. - Mary Hanna, Bookends Review, the Jamaica Observer newspaper (Read the full review bit.ly/z7RUV8)
- GenresContemporary
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 11, 2012
17 people are currently reading
285 people want to read
About the author
Ezekel Alan
3 books14 followers"This was a very difficult story for me to write, and for a lot of reasons. Many of the stories in the novel are based on things that happened in the village where I grew up, and were hard to revisit and come to terms with.
It took me close to two years to write the book, not because I didn't know the details of the story, but because I wasn't sure I wanted to tell it. In particular, I struggled with writing about things I felt might dishonor the memories of people I grew up with, many of whom have since passed away.
I love Jamaica. It is the only place I will ever call home. But there are things that happened there that should make none of us proud. I hope I have been able to tell some of the good and bad of that past with authenticity.
I am very surprised and deeply grateful for all the kind reviews and comments the novel has received so far. I am astonished that it was selected as a Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize and that it is the first self-published novel to win a regional award. Hopefully this will encourage me to get off my lazy butt and complete the next novel."
Ezekel Alan is a Jamaican consultant working in Asia. He lives with his wife and kids, and has a good reliable dog. "Disposable People" is his debut novel which was a Regional Winner for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize. Ezekel blogs at www.ezekelalan.com.
It took me close to two years to write the book, not because I didn't know the details of the story, but because I wasn't sure I wanted to tell it. In particular, I struggled with writing about things I felt might dishonor the memories of people I grew up with, many of whom have since passed away.
I love Jamaica. It is the only place I will ever call home. But there are things that happened there that should make none of us proud. I hope I have been able to tell some of the good and bad of that past with authenticity.
I am very surprised and deeply grateful for all the kind reviews and comments the novel has received so far. I am astonished that it was selected as a Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize and that it is the first self-published novel to win a regional award. Hopefully this will encourage me to get off my lazy butt and complete the next novel."
Ezekel Alan is a Jamaican consultant working in Asia. He lives with his wife and kids, and has a good reliable dog. "Disposable People" is his debut novel which was a Regional Winner for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize. Ezekel blogs at www.ezekelalan.com.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 29, 2017
This was a surprisingly good (I assume fictional autobiography) book. Jamaica is not the sun, beach, rum and fun place I thought it was. It does have abject poverty, under employment, drugs and alcohol and a very high murder rate.
In this book of startling honesty, black humour and at times unbelievable events, there is also plenty of under age sex, sex between adults, sex between adults and teens/children and sex between relations.
The narrator, now a successful consultant, looks back at his life in Jamaica and reminds the reader he will never go back to where he grew up. The writing uses poetry, flashbacks, journal entries and narratives to tell it's story of growing up, the characters in the ghetto and a reflective tone that is unique, humorous and shows the obvious relief of having escaped from the squalor and hopelessness that many of his childhood friends had to endure.
In this book of startling honesty, black humour and at times unbelievable events, there is also plenty of under age sex, sex between adults, sex between adults and teens/children and sex between relations.
The narrator, now a successful consultant, looks back at his life in Jamaica and reminds the reader he will never go back to where he grew up. The writing uses poetry, flashbacks, journal entries and narratives to tell it's story of growing up, the characters in the ghetto and a reflective tone that is unique, humorous and shows the obvious relief of having escaped from the squalor and hopelessness that many of his childhood friends had to endure.
March 9, 2012
REVIEW FROM THE JAMAICA OBSERVER NEWSPAPER
The pain and passion in this freewheeling text is so palpable that it is hard to regard it as fiction. It reads like a memoir, a record of hurts and darkly humorous short stories woven together with diary entries and line drawings, redolent with clever raunchiness and with language that rivals a text by Anthony Winkler.
(It is) a brilliant and often innovative offering that falls less in the realm of the West Indian tradition and more in the way of American postmodernist black humour, reminiscent of the work of Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five. Ezekel Alan has constructed a masterpiece of searing memories of his childhood in “that hateful f-ing place” in order to come to terms with them, heal himself, and honour those of the poor and victimised – the “disposable people”.
Ezekel Alan writes with an intensity that astonishes. This is a rousing text, full of energy and venom, and tells multiple stories of 'disposable people" while building an understanding of the lot of Jamaica's poorer children.
Alan is brilliant in his analysis of Kenny Lovelace’s relationship with his father and in the stories of abuse that most of the children suffered at the hands of the village men. His novel is a wail of agony wrapped in spritely prose, deepened with irony and a bitter humour. It reads fast and packed with surprise and horror. This is no admiring chronicle of the values of the God-fearing Jamaican peasant but a searing account of the exigencies of poverty and superstition in a demanding environment.
It is a magnificent piece of work, combining different modes of storytelling including poetry, letters, journal writing, and sketched images, and covering a plethora of issues, including attitudes to homosexuality.
Alan has done a bang-up job of presenting the memories of the boy he once was and the collective memories of the village he came from.
His coming to terms with these memories in a brilliantly innovative text is our gain and his salvation.
- Mary Hanna, Bookends Review, the Jamaica Observer
(See full review here: http://ezekelalan.files.wordpress.com...
The pain and passion in this freewheeling text is so palpable that it is hard to regard it as fiction. It reads like a memoir, a record of hurts and darkly humorous short stories woven together with diary entries and line drawings, redolent with clever raunchiness and with language that rivals a text by Anthony Winkler.
(It is) a brilliant and often innovative offering that falls less in the realm of the West Indian tradition and more in the way of American postmodernist black humour, reminiscent of the work of Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five. Ezekel Alan has constructed a masterpiece of searing memories of his childhood in “that hateful f-ing place” in order to come to terms with them, heal himself, and honour those of the poor and victimised – the “disposable people”.
Ezekel Alan writes with an intensity that astonishes. This is a rousing text, full of energy and venom, and tells multiple stories of 'disposable people" while building an understanding of the lot of Jamaica's poorer children.
Alan is brilliant in his analysis of Kenny Lovelace’s relationship with his father and in the stories of abuse that most of the children suffered at the hands of the village men. His novel is a wail of agony wrapped in spritely prose, deepened with irony and a bitter humour. It reads fast and packed with surprise and horror. This is no admiring chronicle of the values of the God-fearing Jamaican peasant but a searing account of the exigencies of poverty and superstition in a demanding environment.
It is a magnificent piece of work, combining different modes of storytelling including poetry, letters, journal writing, and sketched images, and covering a plethora of issues, including attitudes to homosexuality.
Alan has done a bang-up job of presenting the memories of the boy he once was and the collective memories of the village he came from.
His coming to terms with these memories in a brilliantly innovative text is our gain and his salvation.
- Mary Hanna, Bookends Review, the Jamaica Observer
(See full review here: http://ezekelalan.files.wordpress.com...
April 30, 2012
Ezekel Alan's novel, "Disposable People," is a difficult, yet rewarding read. What I mean by "difficult" is twofold. First, difficult in that vivid language is used to describe the brutality, degradation, and hopelessness that torments real people struggling under the weight of poverty, loneliness, and hopelessness. For those expecting a read about Jamaican locals who work in the tourist industry, the settings are far from the resorts and posh hotels along the beautiful coasts. I've read "A Small Place" and "Lucy" by Jamaica Kincaid (one of my favorite authors), and Alan's tale takes Kincaid's prose to the next level with his mixture of stream-of-consciousness, journal entries, storytelling and poetry. Second, I said this was a "difficult" read because the book is very long and digresses often--making it a true exercise in concentration to keep all of the characters straight and reap the true reward at the end where the author connects people, place, and events across decades of time. I am glad I stuck with Alan's story until the end, however, I think I could have enjoyed this book more if it were a shorter length. Congratulations to the author for daring to put pen to page and write about often unspeakable and "invisible" truths.
August 25, 2015
This was by far the most depressing book I've read. From begin to end Kenny took me on the dreadful journey of his childhood growing up in Jamaica. While his innocence accounted for a a few laughs, it was his conscious that would bring us back to "that hateful f****** place". These were stories that very few rarely open up to talk about. When you ask someone what their country of origin is like, they usually respond with how beautiful it is, how kind the people are, the positive aspects of their culture. But rarely do we come across someone as brave as Kenny who goes beyond a foreigners inquiry, and truly expresses what its like to grow up in his home, Jamaica. For that, I really appreciated the read...but I've got my own problems to worry about.
October 13, 2012
I was drawn to Disposable People by the description of the story and decided to enter the first-read giveaway and to my surprise I was a winner! I found this book to be an interesting read. To see the cultural difference and also to see how someone's life can change.
February 27, 2012
Disposable People
by Ezekel Alan
Poverty and desperation describe the start of life for Kenneth E.S. Lovelace, or Kenny. Born into a squatters village called a "Depression" in 1970's Jamaica, he struggles with all the dangers and trials of poverty. He and his kind, living in one-room self-built houses on someone else's land, are "Disposable People." Kenny shows us his world through a collection of diary entries written to Semicolon, his true love. Peppered with bits of his writing collection, poetry, and reminiscence over time we gradually hear his tale. This novel takes a train-of-thought approach to Kenny's experiences. A progression of understanding, rather than a chronology, takes the reader scene by scene through his childhood and out of the "Depression", or "That hateful f***ing place", and into his life as a successful author, far from the squalor of his childhood.
Ezekel Alan's book wowed me on so many levels. Kenny is thoughtful and honest, confessing all his sins to Semicolon. Ezekel displays gorgeous poetry, joy, beauty, culture, ideals, horror, sin, murder, fear, suspicion and faith, all surging through his tale. The graphic nature of many of Kenny's experiences are often witnessed while Kenny and his cousins eavesdropped without shame "because we all knew that everything we did was being quietly observed by the cold unblinking eyes of Eternity." It's all part of the honesty and depth of every bit of the book. Kenny bared his soul to Semicolon, telling her what he experienced and valued, but also what he felt, learned, and how he failed. Scandalous or horrific scenes are highlighted with a knowing, dark humor, but contain profound lessons learned.
There seemed to be a kind of love/hate relationship between Kenny and his old home. Though he describes it with stark and unforgiving frankness, he does so with an underlying pride and affection.
Even the source of the book is mysterious and poetic, "A Novel Inspired by True Events". Somehow I heard the voice of my own grandmother, transported across time, culture, race, and nationality. I guess some opinions appear everywhere: "If he had gone to church, none of this would have ever happened to him."
by Ezekel Alan
Poverty and desperation describe the start of life for Kenneth E.S. Lovelace, or Kenny. Born into a squatters village called a "Depression" in 1970's Jamaica, he struggles with all the dangers and trials of poverty. He and his kind, living in one-room self-built houses on someone else's land, are "Disposable People." Kenny shows us his world through a collection of diary entries written to Semicolon, his true love. Peppered with bits of his writing collection, poetry, and reminiscence over time we gradually hear his tale. This novel takes a train-of-thought approach to Kenny's experiences. A progression of understanding, rather than a chronology, takes the reader scene by scene through his childhood and out of the "Depression", or "That hateful f***ing place", and into his life as a successful author, far from the squalor of his childhood.
Ezekel Alan's book wowed me on so many levels. Kenny is thoughtful and honest, confessing all his sins to Semicolon. Ezekel displays gorgeous poetry, joy, beauty, culture, ideals, horror, sin, murder, fear, suspicion and faith, all surging through his tale. The graphic nature of many of Kenny's experiences are often witnessed while Kenny and his cousins eavesdropped without shame "because we all knew that everything we did was being quietly observed by the cold unblinking eyes of Eternity." It's all part of the honesty and depth of every bit of the book. Kenny bared his soul to Semicolon, telling her what he experienced and valued, but also what he felt, learned, and how he failed. Scandalous or horrific scenes are highlighted with a knowing, dark humor, but contain profound lessons learned.
There seemed to be a kind of love/hate relationship between Kenny and his old home. Though he describes it with stark and unforgiving frankness, he does so with an underlying pride and affection.
Even the source of the book is mysterious and poetic, "A Novel Inspired by True Events". Somehow I heard the voice of my own grandmother, transported across time, culture, race, and nationality. I guess some opinions appear everywhere: "If he had gone to church, none of this would have ever happened to him."
March 11, 2012
REVIEW FROM THE JAMAICA OBSERVER NEWSPAPER
The pain and passion in this freewheeling text is so palpable that it is hard to regard it as fiction. It reads like a memoir, a record of hurts and darkly humorous short stories woven together with diary entries and line drawings, redolent with clever raunchiness and with language that rivals a text by Anthony Winkler.
(It is) a brilliant and often innovative offering that falls less in the realm of the West Indian tradition and more in the way of American postmodernist black humour, reminiscent of the work of Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five. Ezekel Alan has constructed a masterpiece of searing memories of his childhood in “that hateful f-ing place” in order to come to terms with them, heal himself, and honour those of the poor and victimised – the “disposable people”.
Ezekel Alan writes with an intensity that astonishes. This is a rousing text, full of energy and venom, and tells multiple stories of 'disposable people" while building an understanding of the lot of Jamaica's poorer children.
Alan is brilliant in his analysis of Kenny Lovelace’s relationship with his father and in the stories of abuse that most of the children suffered at the hands of the village men. His novel is a wail of agony wrapped in spritely prose, deepened with irony and a bitter humour. It reads fast and packed with surprise and horror. This is no admiring chronicle of the values of the God-fearing Jamaican peasant but a searing account of the exigencies of poverty and superstition in a demanding environment.
It is a magnificent piece of work, combining different modes of storytelling including poetry, letters, journal writing, and sketched images, and covering a plethora of issues, including attitudes to homosexuality.
Alan has done a bang-up job of presenting the memories of the boy he once was and the collective memories of the village he came from.
His coming to terms with these memories in a brilliantly innovative text is our gain and his salvation.
- Mary Hanna, Bookends Review, the Jamaica Observer
(See full review here: http://ezekelalan.files.wordpress.com...
The pain and passion in this freewheeling text is so palpable that it is hard to regard it as fiction. It reads like a memoir, a record of hurts and darkly humorous short stories woven together with diary entries and line drawings, redolent with clever raunchiness and with language that rivals a text by Anthony Winkler.
(It is) a brilliant and often innovative offering that falls less in the realm of the West Indian tradition and more in the way of American postmodernist black humour, reminiscent of the work of Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five. Ezekel Alan has constructed a masterpiece of searing memories of his childhood in “that hateful f-ing place” in order to come to terms with them, heal himself, and honour those of the poor and victimised – the “disposable people”.
Ezekel Alan writes with an intensity that astonishes. This is a rousing text, full of energy and venom, and tells multiple stories of 'disposable people" while building an understanding of the lot of Jamaica's poorer children.
Alan is brilliant in his analysis of Kenny Lovelace’s relationship with his father and in the stories of abuse that most of the children suffered at the hands of the village men. His novel is a wail of agony wrapped in spritely prose, deepened with irony and a bitter humour. It reads fast and packed with surprise and horror. This is no admiring chronicle of the values of the God-fearing Jamaican peasant but a searing account of the exigencies of poverty and superstition in a demanding environment.
It is a magnificent piece of work, combining different modes of storytelling including poetry, letters, journal writing, and sketched images, and covering a plethora of issues, including attitudes to homosexuality.
Alan has done a bang-up job of presenting the memories of the boy he once was and the collective memories of the village he came from.
His coming to terms with these memories in a brilliantly innovative text is our gain and his salvation.
- Mary Hanna, Bookends Review, the Jamaica Observer
(See full review here: http://ezekelalan.files.wordpress.com...
August 15, 2018
Great book!
November 13, 2013
When I finished, I was not sure about my feeling about this book. Relieved for reasons I can't comprehend. This is a kind of book that when you come to the last page, you close it (in my case: I close Kindle cover) and just be still.
I found some words are unusual and quite disturbing. I don't mean in a bad way but simply disturbing. Until later you got used to is and you enjoy reading those words over and over again. You kinda like it. At least, I do. Just like the story in this book. There are disturbing events happening, in this case in a fucked up place in Jamaica but I think I can find them in many other places. They are disturbing but often after repetition of occurrence, they are becoming the usual day-to-day things. Nothing need attention. They don't matter anymore. Disposable people.
So in the end, I really liked the book. It is different kind of book that I read. It tells the story of people that are not often heard and known. A story that somehow stick in your mind for whatever reason. The story is told in a way that brutally honest that makes me wonder whether the author is a teenage - well not the vocabulary but more on the way the story goes.
It's been a week after I finished it and I still am thinking about it.
I found some words are unusual and quite disturbing. I don't mean in a bad way but simply disturbing. Until later you got used to is and you enjoy reading those words over and over again. You kinda like it. At least, I do. Just like the story in this book. There are disturbing events happening, in this case in a fucked up place in Jamaica but I think I can find them in many other places. They are disturbing but often after repetition of occurrence, they are becoming the usual day-to-day things. Nothing need attention. They don't matter anymore. Disposable people.
So in the end, I really liked the book. It is different kind of book that I read. It tells the story of people that are not often heard and known. A story that somehow stick in your mind for whatever reason. The story is told in a way that brutally honest that makes me wonder whether the author is a teenage - well not the vocabulary but more on the way the story goes.
It's been a week after I finished it and I still am thinking about it.
June 27, 2013
I love how refreshingly honest this novel is. It is not an immediately-fall-in-love type of read but soon enough you come to appreciate the bluntness of the language. All in all it is a rewarding experience, traversing that 'hateful f**king place' with Kenny.
September 9, 2013
This book got me hooked in and I stayed hooked until the last page. The stories were vivid and took me to that place that the author seems to hate but love because it was home. The imagery was concise and to the point. I would recommend this book.
October 24, 2015
culturally speaking, I was way out of my element on this one, and as a result did not enjoy reading it very much. It did open my eyes to the reality of what is possibly the "norm" in this place that we as Americans view as a tropical paradise. Crude and harsh.
July 31, 2012
I have finished and I love it. I will admit that it took me very long to read and several times I has said that I was not going to finish it but I got through it and I am happy that I finished it.
November 17, 2012
This book is awesome!
June 16, 2013
Powerful - initially hard to get into, as the style is of a memoir, but ultimately well worth persevering with.
Left me hungry for more - a proper voice and a story needing to be heard.
Left me hungry for more - a proper voice and a story needing to be heard.
April 2, 2014
Amazing read. Loved it.
Read
April 25, 2017How do you begin to describe a book like Disposable People?
I bought Disposable People several years ago, when it was the Caribbean regional winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize, and somehow never got around to reading it. At that point, it was a self-published book, though it has since been brought out by Peepal Tree, who also published Jacob Ross’s The Bone Readers, winner of this year’s Jhalak Prize.
Disposable People is fiction, but it is constructed as if it were a memoir, and as Alan himself reveals on his Goodreads Author Page:
“This was a very difficult story for me to write, and for a lot of reasons. Many of the stories in the novel are based on things that happened in the village where I grew up, and were hard to revisit and come to terms with.”
The narrator is Kenny Lovelace, who grew up in rural Jamaica in the 1970s and 80s, in a village he calls only ‘That hateful f –– place.” On one level, Kenny is one of the lucky ones. An escapee, now a successful international business consultant. But ‘that hateful f –– place” does not let go so easily.
Even as a memoir, the book’s construction is not straightforward. Some chapters read like shot stories, some more like ruminations. The narrative is pierced with journal entries, poems, sketches... At times the narrator stares out of the page to address his notional reader, the love of his life, whom he refers to as ‘Semicolon.’
The whole is pieced together like a patchwork quilt, moving apparently randomly back and forth in time, sometimes picking up threads from earlier instalments. The register of the voice slides between standard English and Jamaican patois. Often the (brutal) conclusion of a scene is left to the reader to infer.
Like other recent Caribbean authors, such as Marlon James and Jacob Ross, Alan ruthlessly exposes the dark underbelly of what wealthy tourists imagine to be paradise. The poverty in which his narrator grows up is ugly, grinding, demeaning. Alan does not flinch from showing the result – be it disease, parasites, sexual violence or murder.
Not an easy read but a powerful one. Darkly funny, shocking, and moving, right up to the gut-wrenching conclusion.
I bought Disposable People several years ago, when it was the Caribbean regional winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize, and somehow never got around to reading it. At that point, it was a self-published book, though it has since been brought out by Peepal Tree, who also published Jacob Ross’s The Bone Readers, winner of this year’s Jhalak Prize.
Disposable People is fiction, but it is constructed as if it were a memoir, and as Alan himself reveals on his Goodreads Author Page:
“This was a very difficult story for me to write, and for a lot of reasons. Many of the stories in the novel are based on things that happened in the village where I grew up, and were hard to revisit and come to terms with.”
The narrator is Kenny Lovelace, who grew up in rural Jamaica in the 1970s and 80s, in a village he calls only ‘That hateful f –– place.” On one level, Kenny is one of the lucky ones. An escapee, now a successful international business consultant. But ‘that hateful f –– place” does not let go so easily.
Even as a memoir, the book’s construction is not straightforward. Some chapters read like shot stories, some more like ruminations. The narrative is pierced with journal entries, poems, sketches... At times the narrator stares out of the page to address his notional reader, the love of his life, whom he refers to as ‘Semicolon.’
The whole is pieced together like a patchwork quilt, moving apparently randomly back and forth in time, sometimes picking up threads from earlier instalments. The register of the voice slides between standard English and Jamaican patois. Often the (brutal) conclusion of a scene is left to the reader to infer.
Like other recent Caribbean authors, such as Marlon James and Jacob Ross, Alan ruthlessly exposes the dark underbelly of what wealthy tourists imagine to be paradise. The poverty in which his narrator grows up is ugly, grinding, demeaning. Alan does not flinch from showing the result – be it disease, parasites, sexual violence or murder.
Not an easy read but a powerful one. Darkly funny, shocking, and moving, right up to the gut-wrenching conclusion.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews