Fault Lines

by Kendel Hippolyte

With verbal urgency and visionary imagination, this collection features the work of one of the Caribbean’s most important poets. Presenting what life is like on a small island, vulnerable to the wounded thrashings of world capitalism in crisis—an island where livelihoods are destroyed at the flourish of a Brussel bureaucrat’s pen; where Paradise is a tourist cruise ship that reminds the people of their neocolonial status; and where global consumerism has poisoned the ambitions of the young into drugs, crime, and violence—these candid poems are a warning of the perils fragmenting societies and ecologies.

Genres: Poetry, Post Colonial

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the world pick for St. Lucia.

I'm not much of a poetry reader but this was pretty good. I thought it was well organized, how the poems run through common themes but return to the main idea of fault lines.

[Emma K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading this book, after the first poems i thought "An alright start, but It's not life-changing poetry". Undeniably, even then I still was very fond of the work. Then as I got more into the headspace of Hippolyte and dived deeper and consumed his poetry, everything started to fall into place. I couldn't deny how it captivated me. It's modern poetry. But It's WELL DEVELOPED modern poetry. It's simplistic and easily consummable. But it is not the lowest hanging fruit. If anyone wants to delve into the realm of modern poetry, but do not wish to indulge in pointless words of so many current modern poets, who just want to come off "deep" and "thoughtful" or try too hard - try this poetry book. It's conveyed and written from a perspective of a mature writer.

[Zee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kendel Hippolyte is that poet whose consciousness you can trust. In one line he caresses you and makes your mouth water for more, in another, he slithers you like a butcher. "Day after day,/dem caught in a net, in seine:/ seine rise, sane set/ again. To pay/ a living debt, dem earn/the wages of Sane." The collection, he explores "the seaming fault between humanity's fulfillment and nature's." These poems intend to dismember and reconstruct the reader's mind with a new arrangement.