Ernest Palmer’s Dream and Other Stories

In this, his third collection of stories, Earl McKenzie tours the rural Jamaican world in which he was born and raised, the island’s towns, and even ventures to Toronto, Canada. The characters we meet include young scholars who are caught up in the turbulence of cultural relativism, homophobia and madness, the nature of evil and generational conflicts about religious beliefs. We meet a deaconess who takes in a mentally ill woman from the streets, a loner who longs for riches and has a dream which changes his life, and an ageing farm worker whose goal is to get one more shot at earning some money in the United States. We are shown the impact of political violence on the life of a Rastafarian, and we meet a group of men in the country who are determined to carry out the wishes of a dead man.  We even meet an angry Taino ghost. These stories will entertain and disturb, as well as provoke thought.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Earl McKenzie is retired from the University of the West Indies, Mona, where he taught philosophy. His publications include two collections of stories (A Boy Named Ossie: A Jamaican Childhood and Two Roads to Mount Joyful and Other Stories), three volumes of poetry (Against Linearity, A Poet’s House and The Almond Leaf), one multi genrevolume (A­­­­­ Bluebird Named Poetry: Linked Poems, Stories and Paintings), and two academic texts ( Philosophy in the West Indian Novel and The Loneliness of a Caribbean Philosopher and Other Essays). In 2000 he was awarded a Silver Musgrave Medal for his contribution to literature.