Book reviews: Maas Roy – Until Judgement Comes
Life According to Maas Roy
by Yvonne Archer & Stanley Roy Archer
www.ourpeaceofhistory.com
Life According to Maas Roy charts the life of Stanley Roy Archer, who journeyed across the globe in 1954. Archer’s stories cover his time working in England, his deployment into the Royal Artillery, and his military service in the Cypriot civil war. It is aimed at young readers, and it clearly states its goal of raising ‘the self-esteem of people of African descent’. Archer’s depictions of grimy, poverty-stricken London are particularly engaging, and his stories capture a time of adventure and possibility for young men. On his return to Jamaica in 1989, Archer began various social initiatives, most significantly, the founding of the Jeffrey Town Farmer’s Association to help local farmers sell their produce more effectively. The Association has gone on to create (amongst others) a community radio station and a local literacy project.
Many of the stories in this collection were entertaining and poignant, but it was difficult to fully immerse myself in the reading of this book. It is written by Archer’s daughter with Archer and there is a saccharine hero-worship running throughout. This jars with the stories of young Archer’s bullishness. For example, he kicks his landlady’s dustbin down the stairs and gets thrown out of his lodgings, and in two separate incidents back in Jamaica, he readily defends himself with a cutlass. A fuller, more complex portrait of Archer’s journey from rascal to responsible single father and community leader would have been more enriching. His stories are sandwiched between his daughter’s exclamations and interjections, and this significantly slows the pace of the book.
Archer is an example to young black men today and his story is both inspiring and relatable to for black readers of any background. But it is a shame that his daughter’s bias and unwillingness to closely scrutinize Archer’s life prevents this book from becoming a great read. Life According to Maas Roy certainly fulfills its educational aims, but the chance to present a true portrait of a unique man has been lost. By Kehinde Fadipe
Until Judgement Comes
by Opal Adisa Palmer
Peepal Tree Press
In this collection of short stories Opal Palmer Adisa takes a close look into the lives of seven very different Jamaican men. Each tale is prefaced by a Teachment delivered by ‘Girlie’: an older woman in an unnamed Jamaican community where these men have come from, come to or passed through. She watches each of them and remembers her father’s lessons on the judgement of God and man.
This collection is a strange and wonderful insight into the lives and loves of Jamaican men. The stories are each very different in their delivery but remain of a consistently high quality. The stories of Ebeneezer who mysteriously gives birth to a son and Padee, with his tales of how the Sun came into being, have a lilt to them reminiscent of Anansi stories. Whilst the stories of Sheldon and Jeremiah have a far more introspective literary flare to them, they are open-ended slowly revealing the different parts of the character’s psyche. Each story contains its own unique truth and lesson but Adisa does not forget the fun, she just leaves you with much to think about.
There are times in this book when I found myself recognising the characters as people I knew, particularly Padee the womanizer at the close of his life trying to resolve the love and zest for life he feels with resentment towards him felt by his many “pickney” (children)and “gran-pickney”. Adisa manages to pull off the remarkable feat of ensuring that not only her main characters but the supporting cast are all well rounded.. Language may be the only thing that stops this book being accessible. Adisa’s use of the patois dialect is perfectly rendered but to those unfamiliar with how it is supposed to sound, it will take a while to really get into each story. Her lyricism and poetry can make the book seem needlessly obtuse in places but eventually rereading these parts can be rewarding.
Much like the men within its pages this is a book that requires patience, attention and love.
Dear Catch A Vibe, please accept my gratitude for the review on “Life According to Maas Roy”. I’d like to acknowledge Kehinde Fadipe’s perceptiveness on the challenge I faced in terms of the balance between my voice and my father’s in the book. Thankfully, not everyone agreed that I got it embarrassingly wrong!
What was far more interesting in the review though was Kehinde’s perceptiveness on how I didn’t ‘dish the dirt’ on Maas Roy’s character and only hinted at his foibles and faults. I really didn’t want to tell things from my own perspective too much as this wasn’t about life according to me. As joint writers, we’d agreed on an editorial policy which we’d very carefully considered and as a result, a rather interesting and relevant debate has opened up. Hopefully, the following information re: the process of writing the book will help readers and Kehinde to understand why “Life According to Maas Roy” is what it is.
First, generally speaking, it is very rare that elders from the Caribbean are completely open and honest about their past and getting them to reveal all is a highly challenging task and an unrealistic expectation. Many of us who’ve tried discussing ‘outside’ children and the wisdom of writing a will with our elders, for example, will surely have discovered this to be a truth. Maas Roy himself would many a time tell me to ‘leave that part out’ or he’d say, ‘let’s leave it at that and they will guess what we’re getting at’. I suspect that Maas Roy may well see the value in him being more open next time around as he informs me: “When we write the next book…”
Secondly, as Maas Roy’s daughter, the book was a personal award to my father – a nod to let him know that he’s done the best job that he was able to do under the circumstances. After all, why wait until our elders have died before we celebrate their achievements in a eulogy? From my own experience, some affirmation of who they are and what they’ve contributed goes a long way towards making them feel useful and loved and in return, we feel more grounded and proud of who we are.
We seem happy enough to ‘hero worship’ footballers and musicians and appoint them as role models, so why not a man of Maas Roy’s calibre – by Special Daughter’s Appointment? This book is a gift from a daughter to her father. If an OBE or an MBE is presented to someone, is it accompanied by a string of criticism by the Queen on what they could’ve done better? And besides, who am I as someone who didn’t live through the rigors of early 1950s Britain, to sit in judgement of a Black man who’s done better than many, by all accounts?
I’d like to share with you that Maas Roy is a very shy man who hides from the limelight and despite outward appearances, he’s often lacking in confidence. Even at the age of 78, Maas Roy still asks me ‘Was that OK?’ and ‘What did you think – did people really get something out of that?’ Of course, this may be due, in part, to the fact that he only enjoyed 7 years of schooling and because he was raised under the strict rigors of the British colonial class system – a time when every man, woman and child had to know their place for survival.
At any major celebratory event that Maas Roy has been integral to and is indeed thought of as a VIP, this is a man who’s usually to be found somewhere in the background, proudly wearing his work clothes rather than his best suit, and up to his elbows in one of the most undesirable jobs. For example, it’s a well known fact that he doesn’t think himself above washing dishes or unblocking a toilet. So, is it really hero worship to bring such elders to our attention? I, for one, don’t feel comfortable about leaving them working away in the shadows without ever bringing them into the light.
Finally, for a change, can we rejoice in the fact that here is a Black man who has gone against the grain, is bucking the trend and proving that not all Black brothers are feckless, irresponsible oafs? What can we hope to achieve by continually beating down and breaking the spirit of our Black men? This book is an ‘O-MOBO’ to my dad – an ‘Outstanding Man of Black Origin’ award – and I’ve no desire to apologise for that.
As for Maas Roy, when I read Kehinde’s review to him, he was pleased that another person had read the book. His main concern was that people should understand that without help, there’s no way on earth that he would ever have been able to leave “Life According to Maas Roy” as a part of his legacy. “It would never have happened” he says.