A Casual Brutality
by Neil Bissoondath
ISBN: 9781896951409
Format: Trade Paperback
Size: 5.43" x 8.46"
Subjects:
FIC019000 FICTION / Literary
Price: $19.95
Publication Date: March 21, 2003
Synopsis:
A Casual Brutality is a powerful, dark novel about the failure of a decent man to come to terms with the moral disintegration of the Caribbean island of his birth.
Casaquemada is a fragile West Indian republic divided by racial antagonism, lured into a spurious nationalism by impotent rulers, awash in a mindless consumerism fostered by easy money and a lust for an imported version of the good life. Raj Ramsingh is a Toronto doctor who returns to his native island only to leave it again, having paid a tragic price for his unwillingness to recognize the cruel imperatives of the men who will determine Casaquemada’s fate.
A Casual Brutality takes the reader into a world of terrifying dualities: illusion has become destruction; decency had become helplessness; nationhood has become tribalism; and a violent future looks only towards a brutal past. A novel as timely now as when it was first published in 1988.
Nominated, 1988 Smithbooks/ Books in Canada First Novel Award
Nominated, Guardian Fiction Prize
Reviews
“Mr. Bissoondath draws with complexity and precision … few first novels have the depth and reach of A Casual Brutality.”
— The New York Times
“There is an extravagant talent evident in this work.”
— Newsday
“This is a book that can make a difference in the way we perceive the modern world … A Casual Brutality heralds the arrival of a compassionate and humane new voice.”
— Publishers Weekly
“An absorbing and very readable novel, written with intelligence, conviction and wit.”
— London Weekend Telegram
“[Bissoondath] handles his theme and his characters with such dexterity and aplomb that it’s hard to remember this is a first novel … a powerful and troubling novel.”
— The Globe and Mail
“Bissoondath is a superb tale-spinner: the novel is always engrossing, and towards the end… it builds force like the political thriller it partly is.”
— Books in Canada