Bake-Face and Other Guava Stories

by Opal Palmer Adisa

The four stories in this collection are about contemporary Jamaican women. Not the ones seen in TV travel ads, but women who must struggle to maintain their integrity, as much as their physical survival, in a society plagued for centuries by slavery, colonialism and poverty. These women are descendants of African slaves, and the reality of their lives has been camouflaged by the perennial image the Caribbean evokes for outsiders—an image that merges, paradoxically, paradise and servitude. In writing about her sisters who still live in the Jamaican countryside, Adisa gives voice to their pleasures, conflicts and feelings as few Jamaican writers before her have done. Her stories are about a plantation worker, a domestic, a village wife, and a fisherman's wife, women who constitute the majority of Jamaican women but who seldom appear as central in even their countrymen's works.

Genres: Short Stories

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Opal Palmer Adisa (born 1954) is a Jamaica-born award-winning poet, novelist, performance artist and educator. Anthologised in over 100 publications, she has been a regular performer of her work internationally.

Since 1993, Opal Palmer Adisa has taught literature and served as Chair of the Ethnic Studies/Cultural Diversity Program at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Dr. Adisa has two masters degrees from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. She has previously taught undergraduate and graduate courses at California College of the Arts, Stanford University, University of Berkeley, and San Francisco State University. In the spring of 2010, she became a member of the teaching staff at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), St Croix Campus, and also served as editor of The Caribbean Writer, UVI’s famous journal of Caribbean literature, for 2 years.
An important element of her poetry is the use of nation language, about which she has said: "I have to credit [Louise] Bennett for granting me permission, so to speak, to write in Nation Language, because it was her usage that allowed me to see the beauty of our language. Moreover, there are just some things that don’t have the same sense of intimacy or color if not said in Nation language.... I use nation language when it is the only way and the best way to get my point across, to say what I mean from the center of my navel. But I also use it, to interrupt and disrupt standard English as s reminder to myself that I have another tongue, but also to jolt readers to listen and read more carefully, to glean from the language the Caribbean sensibilities that I am always pushing, sometimes subtly, other times more forcefully. Nation language allows me to infuse the poem with all of the smells and colors of home.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Naori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tell my students that reading a good book is like going to see a film. When you open the cover you buy your entrance. You leave your ‘real’ life, walk down a dark tunnel, into a dark room, and then enter a whole new world - one just as real as the one you left behind. You can experience all sorts of emotions and feelings in this other world but it isn’t until the film is over, you tunnel back to the other side, exit the theatre or finish the book, that you start to absorb how much that world affected you. Truly good writing does exactly that: takes you to another world, awakens your mind, your emotions, and then leaves you left somewhat changed, and often in between worlds. Opal Palmer Adisa’s writing has done that for me before and I’m happy to say it has yet again. What I’m most impressed with is that these were short stories. As a writer and a reader I find short stories such a difficult feat; creating a world as diverse as a novel, with compelling characters and an engaging plot line in a dozen or so pages is a daunting task. However, three of the stories in this book were so immersive to me that they felt like fully fleshed out novels, not short stories. So much so that I took a break after reading them because it felt like I had left the theatre. I even concerned my partner when they entered the room and saw me crying after a character’s death. This is truly. good. writing. This is what we learn, this is what we teach, this is what we do and aspire to. I’m so thankful to Opal Palmer Adisa for renewing my faith in short stories. She is authentic and insists that her readers follow where she is taking them, right down to the dialect. The literary world would benefit from having more voices like hers, written in a voice like hers, heard to wider audience. But for me, I’m glad for the blessing of her imagination. Definitely read some of her work and follow where she takes you

[Melissa]

I love that a character was named June-Plum. That's a real fruit. I didn't know that!

The language is simple, the stories complex. The dialect -- I was talking patois in my head all day!

No matter what race, the reader of Bake-Face will find these stories captivating. When I finished (I read this book in one day), I wanted more and more stories by Opal to read. I love her style of storytelling.

[Shirley Cooper]

I love guava jelly and jam so when I sw the book I bought it without a thought. It's a nice selection of short stories like quava, easily digested. I learned that life is like a sea saw - up and down but we can overcome life's difficulties