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Disappearance
This novel that echoes the styles of Joseph Conrad and V. S. Naipaul follows a young Guyanese engineer appointed to help save and shore up a Kent coastal village's sea defenses, and his relationship with the old woman with whom he lodges. Learning more about the village's history through his relationship with Mrs. Rutherford, the narrator discovers that underlying the village's Englishness is a latent violence that echoes the imperial past, forcing him to not only reconsider his perceptions of himself and his native Guyana, but also to examine the connection between land and memory.
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
David Dabydeen
34 books24 followersDavid Dabydeen (born 9 December 1955) is a Guyanese-born critic, writer, novelist and academic. Since 2010 he has been Guyana's ambassador to China.
Dabydeen is the author of novels, collections of poetry and works of non-fiction and criticism, as editor as well as writer. His first book, Slave Song (1984), a collection of poetry, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. A further collection, Turner: New and Selected Poems, was published in 1994, and reissued in 2002; the title-poem, Turner is an extended sequence or verse novel responding to a painting by J. M. W. Turner, "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon coming on" (1840).
His first novel, The Intended (1991), the story of a young Asian student abandoned in London by his father, won the Guyana Prize for Literature. Disappearance (1993) tells the story of a young Guyanese engineer working on the south coast of England who lodges with an elderly woman. The Counting House (1996) is set at the end of the nineteenth century and narrates the experiences of an Indian couple whose hopes of a new life in colonial Guyana end in tragedy. The story explores historical tensions between indentured Indian workers and Guyanese of African descent. His 1999 novel, A Harlot's Progress, is based on a series of pictures painted in 1732 by William Hogarth (who was the subject of Dabydeen's PhD) and develops the story of Hogarth's black slave boy. Through the character of Mungo, Dabydeen challenges traditional cultural representations of the slave. His latest novel, Our Lady of Demerara, was published in 2004.
Dabydeen has been awarded the title of fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is the second West Indian writer (V.S. Naipaul was the first) and the only Guyanese writer to receive the title.
In 2001 Dabydeen wrote and presented The Forgotten Colony, a BBC Radio 4 programme exploring the history of Guyana. His one-hour documentary Painting the People was broadcast by BBC television in 2004.
The Oxford Companion to Black British History, co-edited by Dabydeen, John Gilmore and Cecily Jones, appeared in 2007.
In 2007, Dabydeen was awarded the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award for his outstanding contribution to literature and the intellectual life of the Indian diaspora.
(from Wikipedia)
Dabydeen is the author of novels, collections of poetry and works of non-fiction and criticism, as editor as well as writer. His first book, Slave Song (1984), a collection of poetry, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. A further collection, Turner: New and Selected Poems, was published in 1994, and reissued in 2002; the title-poem, Turner is an extended sequence or verse novel responding to a painting by J. M. W. Turner, "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon coming on" (1840).
His first novel, The Intended (1991), the story of a young Asian student abandoned in London by his father, won the Guyana Prize for Literature. Disappearance (1993) tells the story of a young Guyanese engineer working on the south coast of England who lodges with an elderly woman. The Counting House (1996) is set at the end of the nineteenth century and narrates the experiences of an Indian couple whose hopes of a new life in colonial Guyana end in tragedy. The story explores historical tensions between indentured Indian workers and Guyanese of African descent. His 1999 novel, A Harlot's Progress, is based on a series of pictures painted in 1732 by William Hogarth (who was the subject of Dabydeen's PhD) and develops the story of Hogarth's black slave boy. Through the character of Mungo, Dabydeen challenges traditional cultural representations of the slave. His latest novel, Our Lady of Demerara, was published in 2004.
Dabydeen has been awarded the title of fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is the second West Indian writer (V.S. Naipaul was the first) and the only Guyanese writer to receive the title.
In 2001 Dabydeen wrote and presented The Forgotten Colony, a BBC Radio 4 programme exploring the history of Guyana. His one-hour documentary Painting the People was broadcast by BBC television in 2004.
The Oxford Companion to Black British History, co-edited by Dabydeen, John Gilmore and Cecily Jones, appeared in 2007.
In 2007, Dabydeen was awarded the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award for his outstanding contribution to literature and the intellectual life of the Indian diaspora.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 21, 2018
Most of the reviews about this book complain that it is slow and nothing happens. It is true that the pace is languid and that there is very little action. However there is a great deal going on beneath the surface; as there always is with Dabydeen. The influence of Naipaul is clear as is that of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; most of all though there is the influence of another Guyanese novelist Wilson Harris.
The protagonist is a Guyanese engineer who comes to England to work on coastal defences on the south coast near Hastings. He stays in the village of Dunsmere with Mrs Rutherford. We move backward to his childhood and to his first engineering job in Guyana and then back to the present. Interestingly the particular stretch of coastline near Dunsmere is the same one where the protagonists of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses also land. Mrs Rutherford is a sort of guide, not only to the village, but to the past and colonialism. She has lived in Africa and has some tribal masks, which play a role in their discussions about England and colonialism; her husband has left her (now possibly dead). There are two characters who play similar roles; both workmen on the coastal projects; Swami in Guyana and Christie, an Irishman, in England.
The novel is packed with symbolism; the crumbling cliff; falling apart as the empire fell apart. The migrant condition is examined in the interplay with Mrs Rutherford on the very stretch of coastline so symbolic in British history (1066 and all that). Of course the engineer is battling the very same sea that he battled in Guyana. The landscape in England is symbolic and strange:
“I felt like some prehistoric bone in the Hastings museum which had suddenly stirred in its glass cabinet”
Alienation and identity are strong themes; the engineer tries to fit in rather than be himself; Mrs Rutherford points out he too is hidden behind a mask of subservience because of his desire to be accepted.
The contrast between the two engineering projects is significant; the sea triumphs in Guyana. As the worker Swami points out the engineer has adopted a western approach and not taken into account local conditions and local gods. In England Christie says much the same thing to him. Although the scheme in England works, the local gods here are custom and money. The Engineer’s mentor Prof Fenwick (who set up the job), he discovers (through Christie) is taking money and dragging the job out.
The migrant experience is alien and unsettling, but changes the face of the landscape and indeed the structure of the land as the sea wall is completed.
There are so many layers; the heart of darkness theme is also central and it is easy to get lost in all the levels of meaning. Actually an enjoyable and thought provoking read.
The protagonist is a Guyanese engineer who comes to England to work on coastal defences on the south coast near Hastings. He stays in the village of Dunsmere with Mrs Rutherford. We move backward to his childhood and to his first engineering job in Guyana and then back to the present. Interestingly the particular stretch of coastline near Dunsmere is the same one where the protagonists of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses also land. Mrs Rutherford is a sort of guide, not only to the village, but to the past and colonialism. She has lived in Africa and has some tribal masks, which play a role in their discussions about England and colonialism; her husband has left her (now possibly dead). There are two characters who play similar roles; both workmen on the coastal projects; Swami in Guyana and Christie, an Irishman, in England.
The novel is packed with symbolism; the crumbling cliff; falling apart as the empire fell apart. The migrant condition is examined in the interplay with Mrs Rutherford on the very stretch of coastline so symbolic in British history (1066 and all that). Of course the engineer is battling the very same sea that he battled in Guyana. The landscape in England is symbolic and strange:
“I felt like some prehistoric bone in the Hastings museum which had suddenly stirred in its glass cabinet”
Alienation and identity are strong themes; the engineer tries to fit in rather than be himself; Mrs Rutherford points out he too is hidden behind a mask of subservience because of his desire to be accepted.
The contrast between the two engineering projects is significant; the sea triumphs in Guyana. As the worker Swami points out the engineer has adopted a western approach and not taken into account local conditions and local gods. In England Christie says much the same thing to him. Although the scheme in England works, the local gods here are custom and money. The Engineer’s mentor Prof Fenwick (who set up the job), he discovers (through Christie) is taking money and dragging the job out.
The migrant experience is alien and unsettling, but changes the face of the landscape and indeed the structure of the land as the sea wall is completed.
There are so many layers; the heart of darkness theme is also central and it is easy to get lost in all the levels of meaning. Actually an enjoyable and thought provoking read.
January 2, 2014
Losing oneself in a crowd or in chaos. I think this is the main theme of this book by African author David Dabydeen. Born in Guyana, he studied English at Cambridge. His five novels and three collections of poetry were awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Quiller-Couch Prize and the Guyana Price, as well as being shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize, the Dublin Impac Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Whew! I do not know any of those but Dabydeen surely deserves all of them because this book almost made as the Best African Novel for me.
Almost because for the first 3/4 of the book, the plot is wonderfully told until the last quarter where Dabydeen seemed to have injected too many twists and revelations making his denouement felt contrived and rushed up. The first half of the book is basically about the main characters of the book, a young Guyanese engineer who comes to a coastal Kentish village as a part of a project to shore up its crumbling sea-defenses. There he meets Mr. & Mrs. Rutherford who are at odds with one another. Mrs. Rutherford, who loves to tend her flower bed, becomes the young man's constant companion. There is also Professor Fenwick who is suspected to be gay by some people. Then there is also the friend of the Rutherfords, Mr. Curtis who is rumored to be Mrs. Rutherford's lover. Lastly, there is Christie an Irish who also comes to live at the Rutherford's house to help maintain their house.
These characters are described vividly in the first three quarters of the book. The storytelling is richly intertextual making references to the works of Conrad, Wilson Harris and V.S. Naipaul. At times, it was difficult to understand because the setting changed so very often mimicking probably what went on in Dabydeen's mind while writing the book. However, towards the middle part, everything started to settle down and the reading became easy as the plot thickened. It was a breeze from then on but like what I already mentioned, too many twists and revelations were put in the ending and everything became unbearably contrived.
The mood of the novel is similar to Rabindarath Tagore's The Home and the World (4 stars) or Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche's Half of a Yellow Sun (4 stars). The only big difference is that the black character leaves his home country (Guyana) and goes to Britain. In these two books, the racial discrimination happens in the African country.
If there is one thing I really like and it is enough for me to recommend this book to you, it is the Dabydeen's lyrical prose. He is first and foremost a poet and it shows in his writing here. It is always a joy to read a poet describing his surroundings especially if the setting is in a laid back coastal town in Britain or the exotic land of Africa.
I liked this book!
Almost because for the first 3/4 of the book, the plot is wonderfully told until the last quarter where Dabydeen seemed to have injected too many twists and revelations making his denouement felt contrived and rushed up. The first half of the book is basically about the main characters of the book, a young Guyanese engineer who comes to a coastal Kentish village as a part of a project to shore up its crumbling sea-defenses. There he meets Mr. & Mrs. Rutherford who are at odds with one another. Mrs. Rutherford, who loves to tend her flower bed, becomes the young man's constant companion. There is also Professor Fenwick who is suspected to be gay by some people. Then there is also the friend of the Rutherfords, Mr. Curtis who is rumored to be Mrs. Rutherford's lover. Lastly, there is Christie an Irish who also comes to live at the Rutherford's house to help maintain their house.
These characters are described vividly in the first three quarters of the book. The storytelling is richly intertextual making references to the works of Conrad, Wilson Harris and V.S. Naipaul. At times, it was difficult to understand because the setting changed so very often mimicking probably what went on in Dabydeen's mind while writing the book. However, towards the middle part, everything started to settle down and the reading became easy as the plot thickened. It was a breeze from then on but like what I already mentioned, too many twists and revelations were put in the ending and everything became unbearably contrived.
The mood of the novel is similar to Rabindarath Tagore's The Home and the World (4 stars) or Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche's Half of a Yellow Sun (4 stars). The only big difference is that the black character leaves his home country (Guyana) and goes to Britain. In these two books, the racial discrimination happens in the African country.
If there is one thing I really like and it is enough for me to recommend this book to you, it is the Dabydeen's lyrical prose. He is first and foremost a poet and it shows in his writing here. It is always a joy to read a poet describing his surroundings especially if the setting is in a laid back coastal town in Britain or the exotic land of Africa.
I liked this book!
February 12, 2020
A very well written, interesting, thought provoking, mainly character based, meditative, short novel about a Guyana engineer in his early 30s, who travels from Guyana to Dunsmere, on the Kent coastline, to undertake the work of helping to shore up the crumbling Dunsmere cliff and saving over ten houses that are near the cliff. Whilst in Dunsmere, the Guyana engineer lodges with an old English woman, Mrs. Rutherford. We learn of her past and her position in the village.
The novel is about a number of issues including how the past influences the present, English village attitudes, the disappearance of imperialism and man’s battle against nature.
Here is a random quote from this book of many thought provoking paragraphs:
‘I passed the cottages on my way from the cliff, glancing furtively at their doorways. I hurried by out of guilt over all the intimate information I had amassed on the occupants. They were probably peeping out of their windows at me, without realising that I was no stranger to their lives. They assessed me by my surface, my skin colour and the quality of my suit, but although they were hidden form me I knew what they looked like inside.........I had no belief that I could connect with them. Their lives were as foreign as the flowers Mrs Rutherford introduced me to.’ (Page 117, Peepal Tree edition)
This book is listed in Boxall’s ‘1001 Books you must read before you die’.
The novel is about a number of issues including how the past influences the present, English village attitudes, the disappearance of imperialism and man’s battle against nature.
Here is a random quote from this book of many thought provoking paragraphs:
‘I passed the cottages on my way from the cliff, glancing furtively at their doorways. I hurried by out of guilt over all the intimate information I had amassed on the occupants. They were probably peeping out of their windows at me, without realising that I was no stranger to their lives. They assessed me by my surface, my skin colour and the quality of my suit, but although they were hidden form me I knew what they looked like inside.........I had no belief that I could connect with them. Their lives were as foreign as the flowers Mrs Rutherford introduced me to.’ (Page 117, Peepal Tree edition)
This book is listed in Boxall’s ‘1001 Books you must read before you die’.
September 23, 2012
"Work, work, work, that's the doom of your people isn't it? Isn't that why the English shipped millions of you over to the Caribbean? So how come you don't hate them?"
"I've not really considered it that way… I just don't…" I said, thinking of Professor Fenwick's influence on me, his conscientious tuition and dedication to duty. How could I hate such a man, whatever culture he belonged to? A single act of kindness on his part had the power to erase a whole history of crime. "It's the future that matters," I continued, struggling to evolve a cogent answer, "I'm me, not a mask or movement of history. I'm not black, I'm an engineer."
"That's silly," she continued immediately, "you can't block yourself off from the past and sit daydreaming at the edge of the desert. That's why I had to go back with Jack, that's why I wanted him to find me even though I resented it. I walked away from the desert and returned to the English compound and began to fight. I really longed to be alone, colorless and invisible, but I couldn't escape being English, I couldn't escape being what I was. So I fought against myself. No more slushy reminiscences in the English Club about oak trees and cream teas back home. Of course the other women grew suspicious of me when I gave up bridge sessions and meetings to plan safari weekends. Jack made excuses for me, saying the heat had gone to my head, that I had become grumpy and solitary, but I didn't care. What mattered was secretly teaching the African children about our dinosaur culture, however deeply we tried to bury it and make neat furrows and tranquil gardens in the earth above. Do you know that the best histories of England are being written by black scholars nowadays? Do you? Probably some of those very children I taught who have now grown up." She snatched the glass from my hand and poured out more wine. I noticed the trace of froth at the corner of her mouth. She'd worked herself up into a passion. I began to appreciate the reason for Jack's absence. He had not abandoned her, he had run away! She was too formidable for him, so he fled. All his fantasies of blood and sex were nothing compared to the knowledge of horror she possessed and was determined to proclaim. "You don't know much about our history or yours," she said, resuming her attack. "Have you ever thought that the engineering you're versed in is all derived from us? That we've made you so whiter than white that whatever fear and hatred you should feel for us is covered over completely?"
I had no trouble finding a passage to quote in Disappearance. The hard part was choosing among the many that I post-it marked along the way as I was reading. David Dabydeen tells the tale of a Guyanese engineer of African descent visiting a rural coastal English town to work on a project to shore up collapsing cliffs against the forces of a powerful sea. He rooms at the home of an aging British woman whose husband is not around and whose whereabouts aren't entirely clear. She has spent a portion of her married life in Africa, and the engineer is profoundly unsettled by the artifacts on prominent display in her home which call to mind his ethnic heritage and by her expectations about who he is, based on his nationality and ethnicity. The book is about identity, colonialism and its effects on colonized and colonizer, about rationality vs. superstition and belief, about the relationship of the personal and the political, and about the ability of humankind to triumph over the power of the natural world. The engineer comes to like his host very much, but struggles to make sense of her. He is also struggling to understand himself and the philosophies that guide him personally and professionally. The story weaves in and out of the present, with Mrs. Rutherford and others in the village telling him of her past, and with the engineer recalling his own childhood and early career in Guyana.
I liked this book, I really liked it, but wasn't blown away or enchanted. I think I was in my head rather than my heart for the most part, and the things it did with my head were not interesting or experimental or revealing enough to make up for my not being more emotionally involved. I definitely recommend the book, but there are others I'd tell you to get to first if you had to choose. Still, I'm glad I had time for this one, and I'm particularly glad for a quick and interesting read from the 1001 list from a country as small and under-represented in world literature as Guyana. Because I hate to have to leave out some interesting quotes, I'll close with another passage, this one from the narrator's memories of Guyana.
"Repentance?" I asked, startled by her mention of the word which haunted my boyhood. "How do you mean?" But she said nothing else, retreating into herself, into a space as cramped and suffocating as the village she had come from, a handful of homes in the pocket of bush on the banks of a river too dangerous to cross except by boats with engines. Its strong hidden currents frequently capsized the small canoes they paddled, sucking in a body and feeding it downstream to piranha. There seemed to be no way into the village and no way out except by hazarding one's life. Those born into the place were doomed to stay there, inheriting the wretched plots of clearing from their parents, existing on a diet of yams, plantains, wild fowl, and fish. She had managed to get out, only to be trapped in a canteen in the service of male students who wanted to force her into the tighter space of their lust. And yet the word "repentance" came from her mouth, so naturally, Alfred's big word which had signified to me the whole broadness of the sky in which God lived. "So big," he had said, pointing to the sky before returning to the patch of cloth on his machine.
"I've not really considered it that way… I just don't…" I said, thinking of Professor Fenwick's influence on me, his conscientious tuition and dedication to duty. How could I hate such a man, whatever culture he belonged to? A single act of kindness on his part had the power to erase a whole history of crime. "It's the future that matters," I continued, struggling to evolve a cogent answer, "I'm me, not a mask or movement of history. I'm not black, I'm an engineer."
"That's silly," she continued immediately, "you can't block yourself off from the past and sit daydreaming at the edge of the desert. That's why I had to go back with Jack, that's why I wanted him to find me even though I resented it. I walked away from the desert and returned to the English compound and began to fight. I really longed to be alone, colorless and invisible, but I couldn't escape being English, I couldn't escape being what I was. So I fought against myself. No more slushy reminiscences in the English Club about oak trees and cream teas back home. Of course the other women grew suspicious of me when I gave up bridge sessions and meetings to plan safari weekends. Jack made excuses for me, saying the heat had gone to my head, that I had become grumpy and solitary, but I didn't care. What mattered was secretly teaching the African children about our dinosaur culture, however deeply we tried to bury it and make neat furrows and tranquil gardens in the earth above. Do you know that the best histories of England are being written by black scholars nowadays? Do you? Probably some of those very children I taught who have now grown up." She snatched the glass from my hand and poured out more wine. I noticed the trace of froth at the corner of her mouth. She'd worked herself up into a passion. I began to appreciate the reason for Jack's absence. He had not abandoned her, he had run away! She was too formidable for him, so he fled. All his fantasies of blood and sex were nothing compared to the knowledge of horror she possessed and was determined to proclaim. "You don't know much about our history or yours," she said, resuming her attack. "Have you ever thought that the engineering you're versed in is all derived from us? That we've made you so whiter than white that whatever fear and hatred you should feel for us is covered over completely?"
I had no trouble finding a passage to quote in Disappearance. The hard part was choosing among the many that I post-it marked along the way as I was reading. David Dabydeen tells the tale of a Guyanese engineer of African descent visiting a rural coastal English town to work on a project to shore up collapsing cliffs against the forces of a powerful sea. He rooms at the home of an aging British woman whose husband is not around and whose whereabouts aren't entirely clear. She has spent a portion of her married life in Africa, and the engineer is profoundly unsettled by the artifacts on prominent display in her home which call to mind his ethnic heritage and by her expectations about who he is, based on his nationality and ethnicity. The book is about identity, colonialism and its effects on colonized and colonizer, about rationality vs. superstition and belief, about the relationship of the personal and the political, and about the ability of humankind to triumph over the power of the natural world. The engineer comes to like his host very much, but struggles to make sense of her. He is also struggling to understand himself and the philosophies that guide him personally and professionally. The story weaves in and out of the present, with Mrs. Rutherford and others in the village telling him of her past, and with the engineer recalling his own childhood and early career in Guyana.
I liked this book, I really liked it, but wasn't blown away or enchanted. I think I was in my head rather than my heart for the most part, and the things it did with my head were not interesting or experimental or revealing enough to make up for my not being more emotionally involved. I definitely recommend the book, but there are others I'd tell you to get to first if you had to choose. Still, I'm glad I had time for this one, and I'm particularly glad for a quick and interesting read from the 1001 list from a country as small and under-represented in world literature as Guyana. Because I hate to have to leave out some interesting quotes, I'll close with another passage, this one from the narrator's memories of Guyana.
"Repentance?" I asked, startled by her mention of the word which haunted my boyhood. "How do you mean?" But she said nothing else, retreating into herself, into a space as cramped and suffocating as the village she had come from, a handful of homes in the pocket of bush on the banks of a river too dangerous to cross except by boats with engines. Its strong hidden currents frequently capsized the small canoes they paddled, sucking in a body and feeding it downstream to piranha. There seemed to be no way into the village and no way out except by hazarding one's life. Those born into the place were doomed to stay there, inheriting the wretched plots of clearing from their parents, existing on a diet of yams, plantains, wild fowl, and fish. She had managed to get out, only to be trapped in a canteen in the service of male students who wanted to force her into the tighter space of their lust. And yet the word "repentance" came from her mouth, so naturally, Alfred's big word which had signified to me the whole broadness of the sky in which God lived. "So big," he had said, pointing to the sky before returning to the patch of cloth on his machine.
September 3, 2009
Disappearance is the rather morose tale of a young engineer from Guyana who travels to the English coast to build a sea wall, and in turn discover something about the country that held his captive for so long, and the people who inhabit it. It's a good premise for a book, but I struggled to get on with the characters. The engineer builds a brief relationship with Mrs Rutherford, his landlady who spent time in after and suffered at the hands of her unfaithful husband. She however, is depicted in such a wooden fashion, and the engineer is so over earnest, that it's difficult to really feel for their stories. Indeed, Mrs Rutherford only really comes to life through the words of others, such as Christie the Irish labourer.
The whole read felt a little stifled, a little detached, and so the carefully considered revelations stimulated little in the sense of emotion as I read them. Not one of the best novels, by a long way.
The whole read felt a little stifled, a little detached, and so the carefully considered revelations stimulated little in the sense of emotion as I read them. Not one of the best novels, by a long way.
December 19, 2011
I finished this yesterday. The book is the reported conversations of an migrant to England, working to save our sea defences and an elderly English woman who has an obssession with Africa and a mysterious past.
I thought the novel worked well at the beginning and end but I got lost for a while in the middle. Not a gripping novel as nothing much actually happens, from the synopsis I was expecting an insight into England from an outsiders eyes, but the scope was limited to a tiny village and just two other characters.
I thought the novel worked well at the beginning and end but I got lost for a while in the middle. Not a gripping novel as nothing much actually happens, from the synopsis I was expecting an insight into England from an outsiders eyes, but the scope was limited to a tiny village and just two other characters.
March 31, 2023
I come from a family of immigrants. They lived in poverty in Hong Kong or China, and even the thinnest slice of meat was a sense of luxury. I’ve had to dig and dig to find out more about my history, which was erased from the textbooks after I moved to America. My parents would rather I focus on learning English when I was in school, and never spoke of our cultural heritage. As a result, I felt isolated in history.
Disappearance is a story about a black engineer who is building a dam in Guyana. He reflects on his childhood and fascination with England, which is described as a place of “order.” We also see his relationship with Mrs. Rutherford, his lodging lady, Christie, an Irishman, and his search to uncover the mystery of Curtis.
The story spoke to me about a history that we are taught to be ashamed of knowing. I felt it was especially important to recognize that colonization is deeply engrained in English history, which affects the way people of color perceive one another and themselves. It opens up the questions of who establishes order, knowledge, and history in ways that felt deeply personal. I know that the story isn’t without flaw, and this review is more of an exploration of personal questions than the actual book, but it got me thinking and I liked it a lot.
Disappearance is a story about a black engineer who is building a dam in Guyana. He reflects on his childhood and fascination with England, which is described as a place of “order.” We also see his relationship with Mrs. Rutherford, his lodging lady, Christie, an Irishman, and his search to uncover the mystery of Curtis.
The story spoke to me about a history that we are taught to be ashamed of knowing. I felt it was especially important to recognize that colonization is deeply engrained in English history, which affects the way people of color perceive one another and themselves. It opens up the questions of who establishes order, knowledge, and history in ways that felt deeply personal. I know that the story isn’t without flaw, and this review is more of an exploration of personal questions than the actual book, but it got me thinking and I liked it a lot.
July 5, 2021
I read this because it was one of the '1001 books you must read before you die' - a book and author I'd not heard of, relatively recent, relatively short. It's a serious piece of work, thoughtful and clever, but not I think deathless literature. Dabydeen can write, but his narrator's voice is unconvincing. The book is good on observing the English and their prejudices. It's interesting to see how his jaundiced view of our racism has dated: society is beginning to catch up, in some respects, with our wilful ignoring of our legacy of slavery. His understanding of gardens and the plant world seems seriously flawed, which strikes a false note. His story of a declining England, slipping into irrelevance as it tries to resist being physically washed away, rings all too true.
There's a lot to like and admire, but ultimately not a book I'd recommend.
The edition I read is a Secker and Warburg paperback from 1993 with a classy cover design by Chris Shamwana. How do I update the details of the edition, e.g. add cover art? Can't figure that one out.
There's a lot to like and admire, but ultimately not a book I'd recommend.
The edition I read is a Secker and Warburg paperback from 1993 with a classy cover design by Chris Shamwana. How do I update the details of the edition, e.g. add cover art? Can't figure that one out.
April 15, 2025
The grey-yoned cover of this book hints at the story it contains for me. The book is interesting, but quite melancholic, harsh, I'm not quite sure how to describe it.
A book about building. A physical thing (wall), but also relationships. Learning 'how things work' at the other side of the ocean. Where surprisingly coworkers in their relations to one another are not as determined to getting the job done as he is and he expected them to be. They are copying behaviour that's exhibited by their boss.
One of the persons ge talks to, feels as foreign as he.
And his landlady... A strange woman indeed. Jack (not the dog!) is a character that doesn't appear, but does play a role in the book. Where is he, what does he do, why did he leave? I would have liked to know.
A book about building. A physical thing (wall), but also relationships. Learning 'how things work' at the other side of the ocean. Where surprisingly coworkers in their relations to one another are not as determined to getting the job done as he is and he expected them to be. They are copying behaviour that's exhibited by their boss.
One of the persons ge talks to, feels as foreign as he.
And his landlady... A strange woman indeed. Jack (not the dog!) is a character that doesn't appear, but does play a role in the book. Where is he, what does he do, why did he leave? I would have liked to know.
March 10, 2023
Thoughtful, well-written novel, short on action, but probing big themes with a considered insistence. A Guyanese engineer finds himself in charge of a project to protect a tiny portion of the coastline of Southern England from erosion by the insistent pummelling of the sea. He lodges with a solitary woman, Mrs. Rutherford, whose house is decorated with African tribal masks, relics of extinct societies. Foreman of the works is a stereotypical Irish navvy called Christie. Between Guyana, Ireland and Africa there is plenty of scope for meditation on the unpleasant aspects of Britain's colonial history.
April 4, 2025
This book was a great addition to our course on the british countryside. i really enjoyed the perspective this brought to our class. the novel is beautifully written, crisscrossing between past and presence, bringing to light the impact of colonialism, and the main character's reckoning with identity and belonging.
August 27, 2021
A good story needs a conflict....
May 17, 2022
so heavy handed and no compelling plot. Nothing happened and the point was made very early on. Really did not enjoy. It was written more like a literary example text than a good book. Hated it.
September 28, 2025
A Guyanese engineer travels to England to work on a seawall, confronting his own and British colonial past.
June 19, 2016
To be honest I really am at crossroads with this book. On one hand I definitely can’t say I disliked it but on the other hand – with the exception of one chapter and the last paragraph – I wasn’t absorbed either. For a 156 page novel it also took a while for me to read, which I found strange. I just couldn’t really engage myself.
An unnamed Guyanese/African engineer moves to a coastline English village in order to build a breaker as the sea is slowly eating everything away and houses are collapsing. As this is a short-term project he moves in with Janet Rutherford, a woman who has a reputation amongst the townspeople. The engineer does discover that she does have a bit of a past and her lovers also reveal some things about her and the workplace where the engineer is stated.
Really though the plot is superfluous , What Disappearance is really about is the notion of race amongst the British population. The engineer is clearly an outsider in England but due to his education does not fit in well with his own people either. However Mrs. Rutherford also has issues as the majority of the villagers hate her as she finds English culture boring but during her sojourn to Africa she couldn’t really blend in and ended up teaching British history to African children. The third ‘alien’ character is the Irishman Christie who accentuates his Irishness as a sign of individuality and although he is accepted by the villagers, he ends up going slightly mad due to this.
By the end of the novel all characters live on and survive, which is the only solution really.
I already gave my views in the first paragraph so I won’t go into them again but I do feel that there is something a bit lacking – does anyone share this view??
An unnamed Guyanese/African engineer moves to a coastline English village in order to build a breaker as the sea is slowly eating everything away and houses are collapsing. As this is a short-term project he moves in with Janet Rutherford, a woman who has a reputation amongst the townspeople. The engineer does discover that she does have a bit of a past and her lovers also reveal some things about her and the workplace where the engineer is stated.
Really though the plot is superfluous , What Disappearance is really about is the notion of race amongst the British population. The engineer is clearly an outsider in England but due to his education does not fit in well with his own people either. However Mrs. Rutherford also has issues as the majority of the villagers hate her as she finds English culture boring but during her sojourn to Africa she couldn’t really blend in and ended up teaching British history to African children. The third ‘alien’ character is the Irishman Christie who accentuates his Irishness as a sign of individuality and although he is accepted by the villagers, he ends up going slightly mad due to this.
By the end of the novel all characters live on and survive, which is the only solution really.
I already gave my views in the first paragraph so I won’t go into them again but I do feel that there is something a bit lacking – does anyone share this view??
November 20, 2021
***
A novel about the impact of the passage of time on your perception of self and history, through the eyes and memories of a young Afro-Guyanese engineer working on a coastal defence project in the south of England. While the parallel between an eroding coast line and eroding/shifting perceptions of race difference is interesting, the slow pace of the writing, even though necessary, is probably too slow and uneventful for my liking.
A novel about the impact of the passage of time on your perception of self and history, through the eyes and memories of a young Afro-Guyanese engineer working on a coastal defence project in the south of England. While the parallel between an eroding coast line and eroding/shifting perceptions of race difference is interesting, the slow pace of the writing, even though necessary, is probably too slow and uneventful for my liking.
April 15, 2012
This is the story of a young engineer from Guyana visiting England on a work project to help build a sea defence. He lodges with an unusual character Mrs Rutherford for his stay and this book really is his views on her and life in an English village.
It is nicely written and although there is some mystery about where Mrs Rutherfords husband is, the book really does not seem to go anywhere or have any particular plot to it, for this reason I'm glad it was only a short read.
It is nicely written and although there is some mystery about where Mrs Rutherfords husband is, the book really does not seem to go anywhere or have any particular plot to it, for this reason I'm glad it was only a short read.
August 21, 2015
Very enjoyable short novel about 'Britishness' as seen by a visitor to England. It looks to the past and to the future and gets quite philosophical at times which really hit the spot as far as I am concerned. The basic story of an engineer from Guyana overseeing works on coastal protection I found less accessible - being a bit technical for me but also quite symbolic for the idea of the erosion of national identity. Well written and worn reading.
May 27, 2012
An interesting read but hard-going. I liked the flashes back to Guyana. The characters were quirky but realistic.
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