Morning at the Office Cws 11

by MITTLEHOLZER E

Exploring the complicated landscape of human interaction within the walls of the offices of Essential Products Ltd., this serious yet comedic novel offers a glimpse into 1940s Trinidad. Against the backdrop of the often hierarchical and always complex office space, characters negotiate issues of sexual attraction and repulsion, their attitude to colonial rule, racial tensions, and the changing labor market of contemporary society. Filled with rich characters and an acute but sympathetic portrayal of a microcosm of middle- and lower-middle-class Trinidad, this satire turns a careful eye to the disparities between the world of the office and wider society.

Genres: Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

Reviews

[Orlando Fato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the 20/26 books that I have read by Edgar Mittelholzer, this is, hands down, his best book and one of the most fascinating books that I have ever read in my life. Its plot is as simple as it gets –a morning at the office– but told in a very clever way. This book is a character study –the many characters of Trinidad or the Caribbean– which takes place one morning in an office in Port of Spain.

Edgar Mittelholzer analyzes and intertwines the lives and dynamics of fourteen characters of different social and cultural background. Their hopes, dreams and frustrations, along with their virtues, vices and prejudices, are examined in a way that it is always interesting, even though these characters are nothing but ordinary people. There is even a gay character, respectfully portrayed without ever using the word gay or homosexual, and a supernatural episode included in one of the background stories. At one point, even Edgar Mittelholzer himself is in the book, with a different name of course, explaining and justifying the approach he used to write this novel.

All in all, a clever book for those interested in life in Trinidad under British rule. Another interesting read about island life, set in Barbados this time, is Mittelholzer's "Of Trees and the Sea", although this title is still out of print. I am glad that Peepal Tree Press is releasing these long out of print novels by this excellent Guyanese writer. Hopefully, it will reissue more of his titles.

[Jonathan Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb novel that deserves to much more widely-known. It deals with the events of the morning of one day at the office of a retail business in Port Of Spain, Trinidad. We see the entire universe of racial, class and gender distinctions that every character is dominated by, including the talentless Englishmen sent out to the colonies. In a self-referential an aspiring author appears, clearly representing the author, and he explains the methodology of the "telescopic realism" with which the tale is told. The whole work is excellent in construction and execution.

[O · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 only because it lost me to the end.

I think this is an essential read for all Trinidadian people, from all walks of life.

This is literally a morning at an office in Port of Spain, and the book closes off at 12 noon.

There is a diverse cast of characters listed at the start of the book, and it breaks down their names, their job titles, but also their racial background, very specifically if they are mixed race and I was thinking, does this matter?

For the people in the book, it did. Race mattered.

I thought it a really interesting look at race relations in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1940s, with the trope of the self hating Indian, which I do believe still exists some way today.

I feel so naive, to the point that I am wondering if the clear boundaries drawn are exaggerated, if people did think themselves so much better than others, because of their race.

It was news to me that people looked down on those of Portuguese descent, as well as Chinese descent. I didn't know "colored" was in a higher position than them. I don't know anything!

I had no idea this was how the hierarchy of race was in the past and now it's like it doesn't exist. Well, not as so harshly, ofc it manifests in extreme situations, but not daily ones.

I think today in Trinidad, you're going to be judged mostly on class, what you drive, where you live, what you wear, how your carry about yourself rather than race. And that is an observation, I have no proof, it's just what I've seen.

But there are many people in this book, bumbling about their morning, each of them very interesting, some explored more than others. It's a funny, interesting book.
Sorry I never put a synopsis. Just read it and see how you like it.

[Ruby Kwartz]

I struggled with the sheer amount of characters but they each offered a unique insight into their internalisations of colourism and hierarchy in colonial Trinidad. I enjoyed that the narrative was low-stakes on a surface level, but many of the superficial interactions held much deeper meanings

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dreary. The stodgiest short novel since Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Fourteen character sketches in search of a plot.

Doubtless there's interesting stuff here: the brave, clinical dissection of how race and ethnicity affect Caribbean society and personal relationships; the snapshot of office life in 1950. But none of the characters came to life for me, the story was thin-to-nonexistent and the dialogue (which is full of clumsy attempts to render the accents and speech patterns phonetically) wooden and unbelievable.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing read! It is set in 1947 in an office in Trinidad which was in part of the British West Indies. The interactions of the various races of the office workers leads to insightful behavior. The office is a microcosm of Trinidad Society in general. The people working there are Caucasian British men, Creoles, Portuguese, Chinese, black, and colored with every imaginable shade of skin tone. The events of a typical day, highlight these racial differences and make this a very incisive and ahead of its time novel. I wish this book was better known because it is a work of brilliance.

[Jimoh D Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great job

[Bob Arbogast · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, but I'm prejudiced, my wife is from Trinidad. The author takes such a small event, one morning in an export office and introduces the reader to a large cast of fully developed characters. Prejudices, longings, fears and hurts are all exposed and I felt for these people. The book reads like an ethnographic study, but it’s not dry; in fact, it’s quite funny, and there’s a whole lot of lust going on in this particular office.
The language might be offensive to many readers, but it reflects the racial stereotypes of the time and place. After all, the book is about racial politics, and Mittelholzer is laying it all bare for reader to witness first hand.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A human being, viewed in entirety, was a coalescence of all the other lives, all the objects and all the events involved with his past."

This was a really fantastic novel that explored race, identity, and culture. I'm saddened that this novel is not more widely known, but I hope it is taught in some postco class somewhere.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is says on the cover - a morning at the office. Interesting for it's exploration of colourism, even though it deals with the trivia of daily life.