A Place to Hide

A man lies in a newspaper-lined room dreaming an other life. Bob Marley'sspirit flew into him at the moment of the singer's death. A woman detachesherself from her perfunctory husband and finds the erotic foreplay she longsfor in journeying round the island. A man climbs Blue Mountain Peak to fly andhear the voice of God. Sonia paints her new friend Joan and hopes that this willbe the beginning of a sexual adventure. Dawes's characters are driven by their need for intimate contact with peopleand with God, and their need to construct personal myths powerful enough tolive by. In a host of distinctive and persuasive voices they tell stories that revealtheir inner lives and give an incisive portrayal of contemporary Jamaican societythat is unsparing in confronting its elements of misogyny and nihilistic violence. Indeed several stories question how this disorder can be meaningfully toldwithout either sensationalism or despair. For Dawes, the answer is found in thecreative energies that lie just the other side of chaos. In particular, in the dubvershan episodes, which intercut the stories, there are intense and movingcelebrations of moments of reggae creation in the studio and in performance. Dawes has established a growing international reputation as a poet and theseare stories that combine a poetic imagination with narrative drive, an acutesocial awareness and a deep inwardness in the treatment of character. In thepenultimate story, 'Marley's Ghost', Dawes's imagination soars to toweringmyth.