Ways of Sunlight by Sam Selvon

A review by Katrina Kushinga

This is a book of short stories divided into two parts. Both parts set around the 1950s, the first stories take place in Trinidad and the second group in London. Each Trinidadian story rolls on into the next without pausing between anecdotes until the end of Part one and then Selvon tells his London stories in the same style, one unfolding into the next.

The Trinidad based stories include tales from a variety of settings in Trinidad (and one in Venezuela) but predominately they are about village life. Selvon conveys a strong sense of the poverty and isolation and often monotony of lives in these villages. Having said that, the richness of the vegetation, the juicy mangoes, the fish in the streams that he describes, creates the sense of a most beautiful place yet despite this the life of the ordinary person is clearly very tough. For me the Ways of Sunlight are the patches of amusement, pleasure or simply something different rippling across the scene of his characters.

In the London section, the world of the characters is also hard – they struggle with the cold weather, bad housing, lack of money, which are all clearly described, and racism which is touched on more often by implication than overtly. However, I came away with a picture of young men full of energy, hope and initiative, finding ways to overcome difficulties including many of their own making. This set of stories was generally amusing, more so that the first section although the outcomes were often predictable.

I felt the sense of life in Trinidad and the sense of the Trinidadian life in London was well evoked and this was enhanced by the frequent use of Trinidadian dialect in both speech and in narration. I am not usually a great lover of short stories, so as much as my interest in Trinidad was aroused and as much as the escapades of youth in London amused me, the collection did not really draw me in … until I reached the end.

The final story, “My Girl and the City” which describes the narrator’s courting of his girlfriend, his love of London and his struggles with writing, is my favourite story in the book.  There I found some beautifully expressive phrases:

  “I heard my words echo in caverns of thought, as if they hung about like cigarette smoke in a still room …”

“…her skirt skylarking…” (in the wind)

“…the rain falling slantways and carefree and miserable.” – to give just a few examples.

I also enjoyed his references to dating in the “old days”. Selvon writes of taking the night bus “after seeing my girl home.” On another occasion, waiting for hours for his girlfriend, trying and failing to call her on a pay phone and eventually she turns up three hours late,

 “She never expected that I would still be waiting, but she came on the offchance. I never expected that she would come, but I waited on the offchance.”

So the final story turned the book from a pleasant read to one full of appreciation, and has left me wanting to read “The Lonely Londoners”.