Women Writing the West Indies, 1804 Book

Multicultural literature gives its audiences a glimpse of a world that is far-removed from their armchairs. Another virtue of mulitcultural literature is that it often gives voice to people who are ignored or shunned to the side. What makes Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles so vital is that the focus of the works collected is the LGBT communities of Central America and the West Indies. Often these cultures have been plagued by homophobia and their respective gay and lesbian communities have been repressed into silence, making the authors' writing all the more important. The scope of this collection runs from essays to poetry and stories to book entries. What links the stories is the importance of having these authors' points of view presented.

Aldo Alvarez's "Property Values" is the strongest story of the collection. It is a comic fable of prejudice and social grace, dealing with an ambitious real estate agent who is faced with her own ignorance and bigotry after learning that her wealthy clients are gay. The story has a wonderful twist of an ending, where our real estate agent gets her due; however, Alvarez never neglects to maintain her humanity. While the story is funny, there are some serious issues of classism, homophobia, and discrimination that maintain their presence, without hurting the story or its clever tone.

Another strong piece is Marilyn Bobos' "Somebody Has to Cry" a poignant tale of a group of people who are strongly affected by the life and death of a charismatic female acquaintance. What is so engaging about this story is that Bobos creates a gallery of believable characters, each with a distinct voice and intellect. While the dead woman is central to each character's monologue, each also has a complex story of his or her own to share.

The transgender community isn't ignored. Jose Alcantara Almanzar's stunning "Lulu or the Metamorphosis" maps out a day-in-the-life of our heroine, a MTF transgendered person. Almanzar details the struggle and duality that Lulu faces not only emotionally, but physically as well. What sets this story apart from the others is the wonderful detail to Lulu's surroundings: the music, food, even the temperature.

Not all the stories fit into the tone of the work. Surprisingly, the weakest entry comes from the brilliant Before Night Falls author, Reinaldo Arenas. "Eroticism," taken out of the context of its source, is one-note and unappealing. The author makes out a laundry list of sexual trysts that go awry. The humiliating experiences that the gay characters must go through are presented in almost gleeful fashion - a sadistic collection of different ways gay men could be debased. When reading the other authors' empowering works, Arenas' contribution is head-scratchingly craven and backward.

While the motivation is to highlight the struggles of the Caribbean LGBT community, the goal of the stories is to impart to the audience a population underserved and undernourished. Here's hoping that these writers will find mainstream success and be able to pen stories with happy endings.

Review by Peter Piatkowski