As Flies to Whatless Boys, by Robert Antoni
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As Flies to Whatless Boys, by Robert Antoni
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Finalist for the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize!One of Edwidge Danticat's Best Books of 2013, the New YorkerA Favorite Novel of 2013, Tin House"William’s account of young love attests to Antoni’s fluency in the poetry of nostalgia. In words as vibrant as the personalities he creates, Antoni deftly captures unconquered territories and the risks we’re willing to take exploring them."--Publishers Weekly"A rollicking 19th-century colonial tale blends history with imagination."--Library Journal"The emotional influence of Willy’s narrative—his loving descriptions of the people who surround him—is profoundly effective…Strikes strong emotional chords."--Kirkus Reviews"Antoni…has written a novel epic in scope that...is driven by outbursts of fine writing."--Booklist"This tragic historical novel, accented with West Indian cadence and captivating humour, provides an unforgettable glimpse into 19th-century T&T. The book’s narrator, Willy, falls headover-heels for the enthralling and wise Marguerite Whitechurch. Coming from the gentry, Marguerite is a world away from Willy’s labouring class."--The Trinidad Guardian, one of the Best Caribbean Books of the Year"A bittersweet coming-of-age tale of tragedy, chicanery, high ideals, harsh realities, and the hard choice between love and family duty, As Flies to Whatless Boys is highly recommended."--Midwest Book Review"As Flies to Whatless Boys is a kind of complex word game, a historical narrative in a lilting Caribbean accent, wrapped around with an oddball love story in a wild form of English that seems to create itself as it goes along. In between, snippets of contemporary records provide foils for both these linguistic inventions."--Historical Novel Society"Antoni has a fine ear for cultural tensions and a wicked sense of humor."--Ocean Drive Magazine"As Flies to Whatless Boys by Trinidadian Robert Antoni is a tragic historical novel, accented with West Indian cadence and captivating humour, and provides an unforgettable glimpse into 19th-century T&T."--Trinidad Express Newspapers"As Flies to Whatless Boys is an inventive, witty, comic romance that is as much about history and adventure as it is about language. With virtuosic attention to language, Robert Antoni delightfully explores the written word in all its forms--as letters, as e-mails, as reportage, as narration, as archives--to tell stories, to paint characters, to demonstrate the range and integrity of English and its dialects, and to edge us closer to ourselves as equally human beings."--Earl Lovelace, author of Is Just a MovieIn 1845 London, an engineer, philosopher, philanthropist, and bold-faced charlatan, John Adolphus Etzler, has invented machines that he thinks will transform the division of labor and free all men. He forms a collective called the Tropical Emigration Society (TES), and recruits a variety of London citizens to take his machines and his misguided ideas to form a proto-socialist, utopian community in the British colony of Trinidad.Among his recruits is a young boy (and the book's narrator) named Willy, who falls head-over-heels for the enthralling and wise Marguerite Whitechurch. Coming from the gentry, Marguerite is a world away from Willy's laboring class. As the voyage continues, and their love for one another strengthens, Willy and Marguerite prove themselves to be true socialists, their actions and adventures standing in stark contrast to Etzler's disconnected theories.Robert Antoni's tragic historical novel, accented with West Indian cadence and captivating humor, provides an unforgettable glimpse into nineteenth-century Trinidad & Tobago.
As Flies to Whatless Boys, by Robert Antoni- Amazon Sales Rank: #1046811 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-08-12
- Released on: 2013-08-12
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Booklist Aboard ship in the Port-of-Spain harbor in Trinidad, on a long September night in 1881, William “Billy” Sanger Tucker, speaking in a rustic vernacular, tells of his picaresque voyage to Trinidad in 1845 as a 15-year-old. He is traveling third class with his sisters and parents, while his lover, Marguerite, is traveling with her family in first class. She was born “cordless”—without vocal cords—so much of the lovers’ communication is wordless. They are members of the Tropical Emigration Society (TES), the (hare)-brainchild of the charlatan Etzler, inventor of a sort of perpetual-motion apparatus for farming. Upon their arrival in Trinidad, reality takes the form of hardship and illness. The historical narrative is punctuated by bawdy e-mails from the director of an archive where the erstwhile “novelist” is studying material related to the journey. Did the “novelist” seduce (“subjuice” in the local argot) the archive’s director for increased access? Antoni, winner of a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Divina Trace (1992), has written a novel epic in scope that, while curiously bloodless, is driven by outbursts of fine writing. --Michael Autrey
Review "Antoni has a fine ear for cultural tensions and a wicked sense of humor."--Ocean Drive Magazine"As Flies to Whatless Boys by Trinidadian Robert Antoni is a tragic historical novel, accented with West Indian cadence and captivating humour, and provides an unforgettable glimpse into 19th-century T&T."--Trinidad Express Newspapers"If you are a smart reader who likes something different, this will make you happy."--Spacebeer (Blog)"A pleasure of a read. A lovely artifact of a book. A delight on many levels, and a deeply felt, deeply moving novel."--Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud (Blog)"A marvel of a novel, layered in histories, Robert Antoni's unique and engaging As Flies to Whatless Boys is an unforgettable and matchless work of fiction. A crowning achievement in an exceptional body of work by this amazingly talented writer."--Edwidge Danticat, author of Claire of the Sea Light"As Flies to Whatless Boys is an inventive, witty, comic romance that is as much about history and adventure as it is about language. With virtuosic attention to language, Robert Antoni delightfully explores the written word in all its forms--as letters, as e-mails, as reportage, as narration, as archives--to tell stories, to paint characters, to demonstrate the range and integrity of English and its dialects, and to edge us closer to ourselves as equally human beings."--Earl Lovelace, author of Is Just a Movie"As Flies to Whatless Boys is a brilliant novel that is rivetingly localized in a distant time and an untouched place, and yet somehow speaks vibrantly to this present age and to the universal human condition. Robert Antoni is a treasure of our literary culture."--Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain"Like the preserved hummingbirds at its center, this novel is a tender and strange object, referencing something no longer with us, but maintained in its beauty as art."--Tiphanie Yanique, author of How to Escape from a Leper Colony"Robert Antoni is one of the great comic writers of the New World--that sweaty, sun-blasted, eternally baroque, dystopia where our tears, issued from laughter or sorrow or more often both, have the potency of overproof rum. As Flies to Whatless Boys is a mishmash merriment of an adventure story, an island of luscious prose in a sea of delight."--Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul“Antoni is an audacious storyteller, mining his very own language and ways of telling from the linguistic cornucopia of Trinidad. His story is moving and is also hilarious.”--Lawrence Scott, author of Light Falling on Bamboo"Robert Antoni doesn't make giant steps. He makes quantum--and sometimes hilarious--leaps past whatever we called metafiction to the same territory as Richard Powers and David Foster Wallace. But like those men and unlike nearly everybody else, he never forgets that at the core of it all you've still got to tell a rip-roaring story."--Marlon James, author of The Book of Night Women
About the Author Robert Antoni is the author of the landmark novel Divina Trace, for which he received a Commonwealth Writers' Prize and an NEA grant. His other books include Blessed Is the Fruit, My Grandmother's Erotic Folktales, and Carnival. He was a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow (for his work on As Flies to Whatless Boys), and recently received the NALIS Lifetime Literary Award from the Trinidad & Tobago National Library. He now lives in Manhattan and teaches in the graduate writing program at the New School University.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Challenging and Engaging By mnlibrarylady Not many writers can write a story occurring in 4 different times told by three different narrators, but Antoni makes this difficult feat look so easy that you forget we're jumping far enough in time to make your skin ripple. Instead, the reader slides deep into the story, deep into the romance of Willy and Marguerite, the satiric comedy of Etzler's crazy inventions, and most importantly the mystery of Chaguabarriga. We don't feel the ripples of the story; we see them echoing and spreading through the ages up to the present day in a delicate, but fascinating manner, reminiscent of the hummingbirds that fascinate Willy.My only suggestion is to include a brief guide to the Trinidad slang, as I had no clue what most of them signified. However, they didn't detract from the story, and reenforced that all the narrators spent at least the majority of their life in Trinidad. Perhaps it's time we made our reading more active and looked up definitions ourselves!I thoroughly recommend "As Flies to Whatless Boys" to anyone looking for a challenging, yet thoroughly engaging read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. As Flies to Whatless Boys By Steven Davis As Flies to Whatless Boys is Robert Antoni's imaginative recreation of what he presents as a part of his own family history. In 1845 the William Tucker family of London immigrates to Trinidad with other members of what is called the Tropical Emigration Society. Their leader, a German named Etzler, proposes to set up a utopian socialist community where most of the work will be done by an amazing self-propelled machine of his own invention called the Satellite. A number of poor families, and a few more prosperous idealists, invest their life's savings with Etzler and set sail for Trinidad. Whether Etzler was a fraud or delusional, they never learn, because soon after their arrival they are abandoned on an isolated strip of land that is mostly mud and fever-ridden mangrove swamp.The novel has several parallel narrative threads decades apart. In 1845 William Tucker had a 15-year-old son, also named William but called Willy, who immigrated to Trinidad with him. He is the principal character of the novel. But we first meet him in 1881 when he is preparing to return for the first time to England. He is telling his own son the story of how he and his family came to Trinidad, and the poignant story of his first love.Interspersed with the father/son scene in 1881 and the story Willy is telling about 1845 there are whimsical pieces of correspondence between Robert Antoni himself and a Miss Ramsol, the director of the Trinidad & Tobago National Archives, concerning the research Antoni is doing into the Tucker family, his ancestors. Antoni is making no headway with the obstinate Miss Samsol in his request to use the office photocopier, notwithstanding the fact that the two are carrying on a torrid romance after hours.In 1845 the romance is between 15-year-old Willy and Marguerite, the 18-year-old niece of one of the wealthy emigrants. Marguerite is mute, born without vocal cords, but it is their social difference that stands between the two. Willy's machinations to get to Marguerite before they sail, on the long voyage across the Atlantic, and in their early days in Trinidad are both humorously inventive and romantically touching.At five points in the novel there are notes with links to websites which supplement the text. Not all of these were available yet, as the book has yet to be released to the public, but those that were active brought up beautifully done video clips showing images from Willy's dreams.The title is a Trinidadian version of a quote from King Lear: "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods / They kill us for their sport." The strange and capricious working of fate would be the principal theme to the novel. I found this a very entertaining novel, unpredictable, often funny, and occasionally moving. I'm not sure that it is necessarily an accurate portrayal of Trinidad in the 1840s or of the experience of utopian settlers in general, especially when the author has his characters using anachronistic terms such as "blitzkrieg" and "seat belt." The use of multiple narrative lines, however, added value to the novel, was never confusing, and helped keep it interesting to the end.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. brilliant, multimodal, rejuvenating fiction By Kevin Dupre As Flies to Whatless Boys takes readers on deck and deep into the bowels of the Rosalind across the Atlantic and into the West Indies’ colonial culture of the 1840s. Through Willy who journeys to Trinidad with his family from England, in part on a quest to lead/follow his first love Marguerite, Antoni’s unique book follows a remarkable story of exploration, love, geography and, like all first-rate fiction, the human condition. In the course of a touching romance, filled with mystery and intrigue, As Flies to Whatless Boys probes the ways colonial expeditions work from the ground up. The satirical portrayal of Eztler, who organizes the venture, provides remarkable insight into “leaders” of such colonial schemes. But the heart of the novel inhabits the space of conversations: between father and son, between young lovers, between fiction and history, between a researcher and a sensual guardian of historical artifacts.One aspect of the story’s power lies in the ways it pulls together the tales of the many: the people who organized the voyage, ways they financed and recruited passengers via the Tropical Emigration Society (TES), from servants to helpers to middle-class families to venture capitalists. All are given voice, and Antoni manages to qualify the complexities of voice in fresh ways. The layered stories take place at three different points in history (1840, 1880, 2010), simultaneously. Fascinatingly, the novel is also multimodal, employing dreams captured in film and even an essay by Emerson via links noted in the text and provided by associated websites. In many ways, it is a remarkable feat, a novel teaming with characters from such varied perspectives. As Flies to Whatless Boys is nuanced, heart-warming, satirical and sexy. It leaves readers rejuvenated and mystified.Named after a line from Shakespeare’s Glouchester in King Lear, As Flies to Whatless Boys also evokes images from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (a narrator sitting on dark deck of ship waiting for its departure) as well as Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (also set in Caribbean, and with an intrigue for hummingbirds), two essential works that moved fiction and some say western consciousness, so that we might better understand the multi-faceted ways colonialism plays into the hearts and minds of Europeans and Americans, at levels seldom acknowledged yet profoundly important.
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