Carnival

by Robert Antoni

Set in a small Canadian town, Mary Blakeslee's novel portrays two eleven-year-old boys who find themselves caught in a mob-related diamond theft when they visit the carnival. Matthew, an only child, is burdened with an overprotective mother with a heart problem, while Jason comes from a relatively relaxed environment.

Matthew faces a dilemma when Jason disappears from the tattooed lady's tent. Fearful of his mother's reaction, he overrides his concern for Jason and withholds information that would lead to his mother's discovery of his carnival visit. However, a heroic last-minute decision brings Matthew and the police to the scene of the crime, saving Jason from sure death at the hands of the diamond thieves. In a particularly forced ending, families are reunited and love and understanding abound.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Robert Antoni was born in the United States in 1958, and he carries three passports: US, Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas. His fictional world is the island of Corpus Christi, and to create it he draws upon his two hundred years or family history In Trinidad and Tobago and his upbringing in the Bahamas. His first novel, Divina Trace, was published in 1991 by the Overlook Press in New York1 and by Quartet in London. It received the Commonwealth Writers Prize, an NEA, James Michener and Orowitz fellowships. His second novel, Blessed is the Fruit, was published by Henry Holt in 1997 and in London by Faber & Faber. His story collection, My Grandmother’s Erotic Folktales was published in London by Faber & Faber in 20OO and in New York by Grove/Atlantic in 2001. My Grandmother’s Erotic Folktales appeared in French translation (Du Rocher)-, and it has been translated into Finnish (LIKE) Spanish (Anagrama). His most recent novel, Carnival, was published in New York by Grove/Atlantic (Black Cat) in 2OO5 and it has appeared in French translation (Denoel) and in Finnish (LIKEO). Carnival will appear in Spanish (Anagrama) and it will be published in London by Faber g Faber to coincide a reprinting of Divina
Trace in 2006. Carnival was short—listed for the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2006. Antoni’s short fiction has appeared in Conjunctions, The Paris Review, Ploughshares and other periodicals and it was included in the Editors Choice for 1985, The Oxford Book or Caribbean Short Stories in as well as other anthologies. He was awarded the Aga Khan prize for Fiction in 1999 by the Paris Review, where he is a Contributing Editor. He is also a Senior Editor or Conjunctions where he was co-editor, along with Bradford Morrow, of an Anthology or Caribbean writing titled Archipelago (Conjunctions 27). Antoni has given upwards or a hundred readings around the United States and the Caribbean, in addition to the ICA in London and the Harbourfront in Toronto. He holds an MA from Johns Hopkins University, an MFA and a PhD from the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa. He is a former Associate Professor or creative writing and Caribbean 1iterature at the university or Miami where he taught for nine years until flay 2001. While at the university of Miami he acted as Associate Director of their Caribbean Writers Summer Institute. He presently 1ives in New York and he teaches Fiction Writing at Columbia University.

Reviews

[Sheila Abacan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for something to read and found this book on our shelf. I felt like reading something short and childish.
I think if I read it as a child, I'd give it a 3 or a 4. This is the kind of book I'd enjoy when I was like 9 years old-mystery and adventure that I could easily imagine myself into. Just that, it's so simple of a plot and quite too predictable.
Anyways, I've been a nine-year old for an hour :)