My Grandmother's Erotic Folktales

by Robert Antoni

Blending Caribbean folk stories with modern settings, this unique collection of stories narrated by a ninety-seven-year-old woman alternates between the lewd, witty, and lyrical.

Genres: Fiction

201 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1986

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

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

when i picked up this book, which i bought a long time ago and recently rescued from an old book shelf of mine, i uncharacteristically decided to read some reviews before i started. based on the low ratings, i didn’t expect much from the story. but once i started reading it, i couldn’t put it down. i have lost sleep over wanting to finish or read one more of the stories. the way the story is written conversationally, like a transcription of the mixed english vernacular that can be heard by reading, brings the story to life. it’s charming and funny. also, there were some very uncomfortable and violent topics that were spoken of casually that, coming from a man writing in the voice of a woman, didn’t feel right. i also tried to do some research on the author to find out more about him because, as a seemingly white-passing cis man, i didn’t know how to feel about a lot of what he was writing. but, i was just reading an interview between him and another writer and his thoughts on race and identity and history and trauma are insightful and deliberate. i will definitely be reading more from him

[2TReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of Caribbean style and flare, the oral storytelling flow grips you from the start of one tall tale to the next.

'And that is the other thing Papa God gave me, that maybe you have a little bit of it youself. This love for telling stories. Because Johnny, it is something to give you pleasure and good company all you life, and it can bring you very much happiness in the end.'- Grandma

My Grandmother's Erotic Folktales is a collection ripe with Caribbean metaphoric folktales and tall tales that are hilarious, suggestive, spicy, and colourful; told in the oral storytelling tradition that permeates the Caribbean. Told in a grandmother's voice with flare and panache, we are pulled along as she traces the landscape of Corpus Christi, weaving the shaping, historical and cultural influences of a multi-peopled island.

Threaded throughout some of the more erotic leaning stories are the myths and lores of the island and the part they played in establishing some of the more well-known aspects of districts and villages.

As it is told in the oral style which is beloved in the Caribbean(and the diaspora), the story is never just concerned with its title, but consists of many parts that prolong and heighten the expectations of the concluding crescendo of the main tale. Stories told in this manner are akin to rivers that are made up of tributaries(all doing their part to feed the main river), which in the absence of one or more tributaries, is lessened in its capacity. This way, the stories can be told from the tributaries path to the river or from the river, slowly revealing each tributaries' contribution to its totality.

This was a worthwhile, titillating, engrossing, totally Caribbean-flavoured read with a clever heroine that knows how to spin a tale or two or three.

[Sumit · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a collection of stories for children than erotic folktales, this collection had its moments, but for the most part it felt that a set of short oral tales had been stretched into long and unnecessarily detailed narratives for the sake of making a book. There is a fair amount of potty/toilet humor and referring to body parts, but this hardly qualifies as eroticism - rather the kind of language and descriptions that would make a child giggle.

[Jensen Ghidella · Rating 3 out of 5]

so...yeah. i bought this book bc it was on sale and i was just too intrigued to not give it a try. was the sex in these folktales written erotically? absolutely not. was it still somehow entertaining enough to finish and sometimes even a little funny? yeah, it was. the small sections in the chapters made for good before-bed reading. 2.5 stars, since i'm unsure i "liked it."

[Olli · Rating 1 out of 5]

Huono

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is maybe my favorite book I’ve read this year. This woman…I just love her

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was supposed to be funny and erotic. Almost hilarious.

It was neither funny nor erotic, let alone hilarious. It vaguely resembled some stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (who I used to like before learning that he is for bullfighting - which dropped my valuation drastically. I try to avoid novels written by unethical writers). So don't read Marguez either :-)

I can't honestly recommend this novel. Perhaps in the summertime on the beach just to fill in time. This was quite harmless though, if you don't mind the language here and there - maybe that was supposed to be the erotic part?

Try e.g. Royald Dahl instead.

Isoäitini eroottiset kansantarinat
LIKE 2001

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I was a little wary of this one, but I ended up really enjoying it. I think the cover is a little misleading because really it's just a bunch family/folk stories with a Caribbean flavor, not really "erotic" at all I would say, even with some racier subject matter. Anyway, it has a very Gabriel Garcia Marques "Cien Anos De Soledad" flavor, and is really kind of enjoyable.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

In what is surely the most offbeat -- and bawdy -- novel with World War II as a backdrop, the Yanks take over Maria Rosa's family cocoa plantation on a west Indian island to build an airbase. In an effort to keep the servicemen who room in her home from the brothels, she entertains them with stories from her past.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is among the funniest books i have ever read

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

A grandmother in her nineties telling inappropriate stories to a grandson - at onset, quite funny. A tad repetitive.

[ButtesChaumont]

Rekisteröin kirjan BookCrossing.com-sivustolla!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13264350