The Pleasures of Exile

by George Lamming

The Pleasures of Exile, originally published in 1960, is a classic of Caribbean disapora writing. George Lamming is one of the major figures in late twentieth century his novels - including In the Castle of My Skin (1953) - were part of the social, cultural, and political revolution of modern Black writing. This book was Lamming's first work of non-fiction. Written in 1960 during his self-imposed exile in Britain from his native Caribbean, Lamming explores many questions and themes of identity formation. Ranging broadly over cultural politics, he incorporates memoirs of his own experience of exile, as well as his travels across the Caribbean, West Africa and the USA. Drawing upon Shakespeare's The Tempest and C. L. R. James's The Black Jacobins, as well as his own fiction and poetry, Lamming deftly locates the reader in a specific intellectual and cultural domain while conjuring a rich and varied spectrum of physical, intellectual, psychological and cultural responses to colonialism. introduction to a writer who was always far ahead of his written before the term 'post-colonial' was invented, the book explores the key issues that have become central to studies of modern literature today, including the politics of migration, cultural hybridity and minority discourse.

Genres: Nonfiction, Canon

Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

George Lamming was born in the Caribbean island of Barbados on June 8, 1927. He attended The Combermere School which has produced other Barbadian literary icons including Frank Collymore and Austin Clarke. He left that island for Trinidad in 1946, teaching school until 1950. He then emigrated to England where, for a short time, he worked in a factory. In 1951 he became a broadcaster for the BBC Colonial Service. He entered academia in 1967 as a writer-in-residence and lecturer in the Creative Arts Centre and Department of Education at the University of the West Indies.

Since then, he has has served as a Visiting Professor and Writer-in-Residence at the City University of New York. He has worked as a faculty member and lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Duke University and a Visiting Professor of Africana Studies and Literary Arts at Brown University. In addition to his American teaching and lecturing experience, Lamming has also taught or lectured at universities in Tanzania, Denmark, and Australia.

Reviews

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to this by my love for Shakespeare, as Lamming weaves into his professional memoir a classist and colonial interpretation of The Tempest. Also, reading autobiographical material from Colin Powell and Malcolm Gladwell made me interested in the West Indian experience. Lamming's jumble of recollections is poetic and strives to be honest and psychologically accurate as an interpretative over descriptive recollection. I found it eminently readable and enlightening.

[ekenechukwu]

Completely forgot about this book when I was done with it (a while ago lol) and now adding to my read entry because I want to reveal in the vanity of everyone on here seeing what I'm reading —as well as the vanity of seeing my "growth" as a reader through Goodread's end of the year statistics.

Anyway

This book is a lot of meat deceptively packaged to appear light. I went in expecting a body of work that is descriptive of occurrences general to any black person - mistake, it's far from that. Firstly Lamming is a hard-boiled Shakespeare groupie, and this means all interpretations of his very specific (will get to that later, maybe.) experiences are tinted with allusions to Shakespeare's work, specifically the tempest. Unexpectedly, I'd just began reading the tempest

--- man it's 8am and I'm already tired of this because I'm dreading having to edit this. Fuck this 'review' lol bye

[Eréndira Derbez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un testimonio personal de un escritor antillano afrodescendiente. Para ello toma una obra de teatro sumamente política, La Tempestad (presentada en 1611) de Shakespeare y desarrolla una serie de ensayos en los que le otorga una lectura sobre lo colonial. Los personajes principales son el colonizado y el colonizador: Caliman -el esclavo “salvaje”, descendiente del diablo: “Hombre y algo distinto a Hombre”- y Próspero -el “amo”. Lo recomiendo mucho.

[Eréndira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un testimonio personal de un escritor antillano afrodescendiente. Para ello toma una obra de teatro sumamente política, La Tempestad (presentada en 1611) de Shakespeare y desarrolla una serie de ensayos en los que le otorga una lectura sobre lo colonial. Los personajes principales son el colonizado y el colonizador: Caliman -el esclavo “salvaje”, descendiente del diablo: “Hombre y algo distinto a Hombre”- y Próspero -el “amo”. Lo recomiendo mucho.

[Wyatt strawbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly I think three stars could be generous. Just kinda a kid book. Lit theory and personal anecdote mixed together could be good, but I feel like maybe the sections were too discrete? Idk. The foreword says the book is a “series of interrelated essays” and I guess that’s true it just seemed off to read. Also there was an index in the back. Kinda strange. The personal stories were fun period descriptions and it was interesting to hear ones from America, England, the Caribbean, and Africa.

[Saide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lamming is a post colonial writer and thinker who challenged the preconceived notion of a orientalism 50 years ago by creating a thought provoking novels...

[Teah · Rating 4 out of 5]

a must read for anyone interested in Postcolonial lit. or Caribbean lit.

[Samantha Reive · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essential poco reading