This delightful book evokes the language and spirit of Barbados. The author weaves in tales of growing up in Barbados with memories of the food, 'hot cuisine', that fashioned his childhood. For anyone who has visited the island, this will surely bring back fond and enticing memories. Read the book, visit Barbados!

This culinary memoir of the author's childhood in Barbados describes his early introduction to cooking, his involvement with native dishes, and his progress in becoming a cook. Don't look for recipes here; it's more a memoir and biography of Barbados cooking, though descriptions of preparing dishes are lovingly detailed and rival James Beard's American presentations.

My daughter loves this book. She is three and we read it all the time. She is learning about racing and enjoys it alot. We even met Kyle Petty and he signed our copy. He calls it "Austin's book" If you like racing and are a Petty fan it is a good book for your collection. I had a very hard time finding it!

"When I got to the end of St. Matthias Gap, I would stand for a while and watch the drug store. The large bottles of glass that contained 'sweets' medicines and pills of all sorts of toughness and strength and sweetness."

Nobody does it better than Mr. Austin 'Tom' Clarke. Nobody can
take us back into those long ago times with literature so touching, so real, so magical, so painful, so peaceful and picturesque, and yet so lovely.

For Austin 'Tom' Clarke is a man for all seasons and beneath his humour and fun-poking there is a depth and intensity that makes his story so very arresting and captivating. I must say this book stimulated my mind to such an extent that it was not always easy to put it down just for a few moments. Giving an autobiographical account of his life as a youngster, we venture with him into his life at Combermere and how the school system worked at the time. Latin was a favourite with Clarke and his friends but unfortunately not having the money for the text books the information had to be handwritten from the textbooks of one of the privileged boys. Even for Scripture lessons when one would have thought that there would have been so many Bibles in the island, some guys had to write out Acts Of the Apostles in long hand. It was during wartime and things were terrible scarce and jobs hard to come by. Most of the people in the village worked for the Whites doing domestic work or at the Marine hotel in the same capacity. So it was the norm to emulate everything English.....studying English history, society and manners. After all the country was under Colonial control and Barbadians would have it no other way. They knew no other way.

Mr. Clarke doesn't fail to humour us as he recounts his days in the St. Michael's Cathedral or throw us into a fit of nostalgia as he reminisces of the Brilliantine shining on his hair the first day at Combermere......so real you can actually feel the broiling hot sun and smell the sweet hairdressing grease running down his youthful neck.

One of the things I loved about Austin Clarke's book came towards the end. He describes in detail his many walks on sunny afternoons along Hastings main road when the sun scorched the bottom of his feet leaving tar marks on the surface. He describes how quiet the area was in those days, with hardly anyone walking the streets or any vehicular traffic. He would always walk slowly as he approached the drug store for that was one of his favourite places where he stood outside and surveyed the place, looking at the sweets on display and inhaling the various potent medicines and of course the Lysol. The ever-faithful Lysol would always be wafting in the atmosphere; then as you extended your eyes towards the back of the store, there would be the druggist in white, and the sea gleaming in the background. Clarke embraced a kind of peace in these surroundings.....a peace real tangible to my mind.

I would encourage all literature lovers to read this book and compare those old time days to the times we're living in now. The diversity in the culture and the innocence of what it was really like living under British rule.

In fact, this is a book for everyone.

Reviewed by Heather P. Marshall 11-03-03

I wanted so much to love this year's Giller Winner. Austin Clarke was the underdog against such big hitters as Wayne Johnston and Carol Shields but I found The Polished Hoe to be a long rambling tale with an unsatisfying climax.

Mary Gertrude Mathilda Bellfeels, a plantation field worker who luckily or unluckily caught the favor of the plantation manager Mr. Bellfeels becomes his mistress and bears him his only son. As a reward she lives and raises her son (he grows up to become the village doctor) in the Great House and no longer has to work other than being little more than a [mistress] to a man you come to truly hate.

The novel covers one long night of Mary giving her statement to a Sargent who has loved her from afar since they were both only 10 years old. In the build up to her crime, what she did and why she did it, we get the story of her almost 60 years on the plantation through anecdotes of the horrors of black life in the village of Bimshire in the West Indies where blacks are still treated like slaves even if they work for a wage.

The problem for me was that this book rambled over the same territory continually and although some of the history was compelling this novel lacked a continuity or a narrative that kept you wanting to read on. The carrot is that you know she's probably killed someone with that hoe she used to use in the north field but you don't find out who and why until the last 10 pages of the book and by then I just wanted to be done.

This is a good book for a sense of place, time and culture but don't look for a great love story or a novel of suspense in The Polished Hoe.

Austin Clarke's Giller Prize winning novel THE POLISHED HOE takes place on the fictional island of Bimshire in the "Wessindes." During one long night of confession and reflection between Bimshire lawman, Sarge, and Miss Mary Gertrude Matilda, a kept woman on the Bellfeels plantation, Clarke's characters ruminate about the lives they have led. Mary calls the police station and tells them she must confess her crime. Sarge comes to the Great House where Miss Mary resides to record her statement, but is caught in a whirlwind of memories about the woman he grew up with, his own experiences and transgressions, and the contempt circulating the island regarding Mister Bellfeels.

Enriched with native tongues and a sort of stream of consciousness writing, this is a novel that brought to mind some of the great writers of all time. The prose was lilting, and I often found myself caught in a reverie as the characters related memories from their lives. It is not a book for the drama lovers who live for fast paced reads; rather it seems to have been written for those who love narration, historical fiction, and carefully crafted characterizations.

Reviewed by CandaceK
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

The plot line is simple - Mary Matilda, a kept mistress, murders her keeper, Mr. Bellfeels, the Plantation Manager and is to give her statement first to the Constable then to the Sargent of the local police. In the giving of the statement though the complex relationships between the village and the Plantation, between the Sargent and Mary Matilda, between Mary Matilda and Mr Bellfeels and the lively village members including the higher class white (the two barristers, the school teacher and the preacher) and the lower class black (The Sargent, the Constable, the local bar owner (Manny) is full of detail and complexity.

The Sargent (Percy) and Mary Matilda have been love since they were both school children but once Mary's Ma puts Mary in front of Mr. Bellfeels her future is sealed and she becomes first his usual Saturday afternoon "fop" and then his kept mistress in a Great House on the Plantation where they raise their son Wilberforce.

The humiliation and degradation of the black plantation workforce by the controlling brutal white folks permeates the whole book. The arrogant, vicious and insatiable Mr Bellfeels turns your stomach while at the same time putting him in a time and place where he was not a misfit but acts with a degree on normalcy for that time that is frightening.

This is a book I would recommend to everyone. While there are some problems with the congruency of the ages of the participants and some difficulties with the local argot, the beauty of Mr Clarke's language surpasses all. Like the poet he is Mr Clarke evokes a sense of time and place and of human spirit that transcends his words. It is truly a beautiful novel.

In The Question, Austin Clarke takes us on a brutally honest journey through the emotions tied up in our personal relationships. A man and a woman meet at a birthday party, and their lives become permanently entwined. As time passes, the man is forced to ask himself what it is that exists between himself and this woman. He thinks about what he misses about the lover he left to be with her. And how does he really feel about his wife's friend, to whom she talks every day for hours in their own pig latin, keeping him separate from their sisterhood.

Clarke's writing is mesmerizing, giving us brilliant images of the narrator's childhood in Caribbean. These bright colors contrast starkly with the colder images of Toronto, where the story takes place. The flow of the language wraps the reader into the story, taking a lilting, but inescapable path towards the climax.

Clarke's language creates a feeling of langour, and yet the book is a quick read. No time is wasted; every page and paragraph contributes to the overall story. The narrator is a human being, honestly presenting his flaws, flaws which drive the story and its conclusion. Along the way, we are granted new insight into human relationships, the interplay between secrets and intimacy.

I highly recommend The Question, a rare book in that it's both an extremely good and easy read while also providing plenty of content to think about when you're done.

Clarke's wide ranging selection of reviews,spanning a period of fifty years, reflect an intellect seriously and, in my opinion, immorally, neglected by those claiming to be students of English literature. His incisive comments and criticisms on the work of many of his contemporaries, coupled with his vast knowledge of poetry and the means of critique offer today's students a window into the mind of one of the greatest writers to come out of Ireland this century. Long in the shadow of Yeats and Kavanagh, Clarke has yet to take his place among the greats of Irish literature. This worthy book will go some way in placing him where he belongs, alongside the more easily recognised names to come to prominence .

After reading this book and then rereading it again to think maybe I missed the point I have come to the conclusion that the author of this boring leads a very dull life with little or no imagination. There was little to no humor and basically the story had no plot... my recommendation... don't waste your money!

The writer of this book lacks direction and creativity. I would definitely not recommend this book.

This book has some funny parts to it. I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a good laugh or two.