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Thine Is The Kingdom
When young Gavin Blake returns to his island home to claim his right to citizenship he is stonewalled. He discovers that the only way forward is through bribery. Confronted with the stark irony of having to do something illegal to become legal he finds he must make a choice. While he weighs his options, Gavin takes a job on the yacht of a wealthy young local called Jacob Thesinger who lives in an old colonial seaside home and who sees himself as the defender of the island's culture and history while crime and corruption threaten him. A local fisherman who uses the abandoned property next door as a base and moors his boat directly in the path of Thesinger's yacht becomes the focus of Thesinger's rage. Neither man respects the other, nor the other's property, and they are set headlong towards a confrontation which comes as Gavin Blake is forced to make his final choice and which leads ultimately to death. This is a novel that explores the nature of class and identity in the post-colonial world through a narrative rich in imagery and wrought in a confident, graceful prose. Both a tale of adventure and a story of conflict Thine is the Kingdom reveals the inner lives of Buckner's characters and in so doing implicates us all in one man's struggle to do the right thing.
235 pages, Paperback
First published May 20, 2009
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September 6, 2018
This is either an unusually good self-published book, or an unusually poorly-edited traditionally-published book. Set in the Bahamas, probably around the 1990s, it follows the adventures of a young man named Gavin Blake (whose name looks enough like the author's to give me pause), who despite being born in the islands is not considered a citizen because his father was American. Though college-educated, Gavin takes a job caretaking a yacht for the well-off Jacob Thesinger, and witnesses lawlessness and corruption firsthand.
The insider look at life on the Bahamas is quite interesting, though it’s a grim vision, centering largely on rich people preoccupied with rising crime rates, and on government corruption and ineffectiveness. The vividness of Buckner’s writing, meanwhile, is impressive; he sets an immersive scene, virtually transporting readers to the Bahamas. Gavin’s role in the plot is a bit weak though – the blurb definitely oversells it with his “struggle to do the right thing,” which amounts to voicing a couple of ineffectual protests to Jacob’s bad behavior toward the end while continuing to enable it. A good editor could have whipped this plot into excellent shape, but as is it’s a bit flabby.
But the need for better editing is most glaring in the writing itself. I think the book was copyedited by spellcheck, and not the current version that highlights grammatical errors too. That’s the only way I can explain the sheer frequency of misused words, which occur on average every couple of pages throughout. “We starred out at the sea,” “people collapsed and slid, taking other’s with them,” “A long main of white hair blew about his shoulders,” “he wore white leather Weejuns without sox,” “They’re faces shone,” the list goes on and on. But the thing that most makes it look like an amateur effort are the overblown, ponderous “philosophical” passages that say nothing much. Here’s an example:
“We don’t have the energy to feed all our hungers. We choose one and try to make it perfect. One thing to polish. One thing to shine. A single path to keep to over the turmoil of years. That we have just this one choice is intimidating. Some never decide. Thesinger had chosen his path. He knew who he was and I envied that. But once you begin to feed that lonely burn, it becomes law.”
Which starts out talking as if it’s describing a universal condition, but changes gears halfway to make it specific to one character, all without describing human behavior in a way that resonated with my real life experience at all.
That said, I don’t want to come down too hard on this book. My expectations for it were rock-bottom – only four libraries in the United States even have it (thank you Interlibrary Loan!) – and on that basis I was rather pleasantly surprised. Dialogue and some action move the story along, and the vividness of the writing helps a lot. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but in the course of my world books challenge I’ve read much worse. This book has plenty of potential; with a good editor to polish it up it might have shone.
The insider look at life on the Bahamas is quite interesting, though it’s a grim vision, centering largely on rich people preoccupied with rising crime rates, and on government corruption and ineffectiveness. The vividness of Buckner’s writing, meanwhile, is impressive; he sets an immersive scene, virtually transporting readers to the Bahamas. Gavin’s role in the plot is a bit weak though – the blurb definitely oversells it with his “struggle to do the right thing,” which amounts to voicing a couple of ineffectual protests to Jacob’s bad behavior toward the end while continuing to enable it. A good editor could have whipped this plot into excellent shape, but as is it’s a bit flabby.
But the need for better editing is most glaring in the writing itself. I think the book was copyedited by spellcheck, and not the current version that highlights grammatical errors too. That’s the only way I can explain the sheer frequency of misused words, which occur on average every couple of pages throughout. “We starred out at the sea,” “people collapsed and slid, taking other’s with them,” “A long main of white hair blew about his shoulders,” “he wore white leather Weejuns without sox,” “They’re faces shone,” the list goes on and on. But the thing that most makes it look like an amateur effort are the overblown, ponderous “philosophical” passages that say nothing much. Here’s an example:
“We don’t have the energy to feed all our hungers. We choose one and try to make it perfect. One thing to polish. One thing to shine. A single path to keep to over the turmoil of years. That we have just this one choice is intimidating. Some never decide. Thesinger had chosen his path. He knew who he was and I envied that. But once you begin to feed that lonely burn, it becomes law.”
Which starts out talking as if it’s describing a universal condition, but changes gears halfway to make it specific to one character, all without describing human behavior in a way that resonated with my real life experience at all.
That said, I don’t want to come down too hard on this book. My expectations for it were rock-bottom – only four libraries in the United States even have it (thank you Interlibrary Loan!) – and on that basis I was rather pleasantly surprised. Dialogue and some action move the story along, and the vividness of the writing helps a lot. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but in the course of my world books challenge I’ve read much worse. This book has plenty of potential; with a good editor to polish it up it might have shone.
August 2, 2019
Thine is The Kingdom is about a young man named Gavin Blake. Blake’s father is from Florida and his mother is from the Bahamas. Blake was born in the Bahamas, but did not gain Bahamian citizenship as his father was an American. After his parents are gone, Blake struggles with his identity. He went backpacking through different islands for a couple of years, but eventually returned to the Bahamas. Blake got a job with Jacob Thesinger in order to earn some money while waiting for his Bahamian citizenship to be approved. His job would be to improve the condition of Thesinger’s boat the Orion. There is a lot violence on the island, so Blake has to protect the boat from stranglers. One day, Blake goes with Thesinger, Dock, and Clint to retrieve crawfish for Thesinger’s big party. Later on, Blake pays the secretary at the Immigration office in order to get his citizenship papers. At the big party, Thesinger and his wife, Arial, venture out to the beach. Curious because Blake knows Arial is not very good at swimming, he follows them. Blake hears Arial’s screams and swims up to help her. While rescuing Arial from drowning, Blake finds that Thesinger had murdered a fisherman. Blake then traveled back up to the party, vowing that he would no longer be related to Thesinger’s actions.
Aside from citizenship coming from the birthplace of the father, the foundation of violence is culturally different from American culture. Gavin Blake realized that his, “whole country was full of people claiming their own rights and wrongs” (Buckner 186). In the Bahamas, the government did not have much of an influence on what went on in the islands. There was an illegal fish market that everyone was aware of, but the government did nothing about it. People would just walk onto boats that did not belong to them, and others would just stroll across a stranger’s property. Blake and Thesinger got into two fights with just random men trying to steal stuff from Thesinger’s property. The fights were violent with blood, knives, and threats of murder. At the end of the book, Thesinger even killed a fisherman named Caleb. The reason that this violence developed is because of the lack of government force. Without the government actively working, people would create their own “rights and wrongs” instead of following laws. This is different from American culture because most Americans follow laws, which decreases the amount of violence. Additionally, there was little known police force on the Bahamas. In America, there are police everywhere.
Garth Buckner wrote Thine is The Kingdom so that people in the Bahamas could start aiming for change. This book is similar to The Great Gatsby as there is a division between the rich and the poor in the Bahamas. The rich almost feel like they need to take care of the poor in order to uphold the quality of the island. One night, Thesinger went to burn the fish market down. Thesinger believed that he had no other choice as it was “the right thing to do” (Buckner 196). Despite other things such as, “the fact that these people have no business license, [sic] the fact that they never pay a cent in tax, this market is a health hazard” (Buckner 196). If Buckner could bring awareness that the rich think that destroying homes and people is the only answer, maybe the government and other Bahamians could start to make a change. If enough Bahamians knew that this was a problem, they could pressure the government into fixing the island so that the market would no longer be illegal.
A theme of Thine is The Kingdom is to not let outside influences stop oneself from reaching personal goals. Thesinger’s friends made fun of Blake for not having the same culture and citizenship as all other Bahamians, but Gavin continued to do still do his job. When one of the ships broke, Blake said he could fix it, so “‘If this is nothing’, then fix it!’ Roberts spat back, gray faced. ‘That’s right, University Boy!”’ (Buckner 103). The friends called him University Boy because they thought Blake looked like a foreigner. Blake could have let the teasing get to him, but he still did his job to fix the ship. He still fixed the ship because “a voice inside [Blake] said, this is your only chance. Muck this up and you’re back on the traveler’s road” (Buckner 112). Blake did not let the outside influence of the teasing stop him from working towards his personal goal of gaining his citizenship. Fixing the ship would allow him to gain his citizenship as he could earn some money while waiting for the papers from the Immigration Office. The money would allow him to continue to live in the Bahamas. Even at the end of the book, when Arial is drowning, Blake puts his personal goals first. Before saving Arial, Blake, “dug the passport out and very carefully chucked it up on the dry sand” (Buckner 225). The outside influence of someone drowning did not cause Blake to lose concentration on his personal goal of being able to keep his citizenship. He would keep his citizenship if he was able to preserve his passport. Blake makes having his citizenship such a strong goal as he wants to finally feel like he belongs in the Bahamas with a strong sense of identity.
This book was not my favorite, so I would not recommend it to others. While the plot was interesting at times, such as the fights, I didn’t like the ending of the book. Blake used money to bribe for his citizenship papers instead of getting it the right way. He also continued to let Thesinger get along with his poor behavior instead of ending it. He let Thesinger kill a man and did not say a single thing about it. I wish the book would have ended with Blake finally coming up with good morals. Otherwise, part of me thinks the book is telling me to do “the wrong thing”. Therefore, I had a hard time finding a theme of the book. Also, there were many editing errors of this book, but they probably arose in translation of this book into English.
Aside from citizenship coming from the birthplace of the father, the foundation of violence is culturally different from American culture. Gavin Blake realized that his, “whole country was full of people claiming their own rights and wrongs” (Buckner 186). In the Bahamas, the government did not have much of an influence on what went on in the islands. There was an illegal fish market that everyone was aware of, but the government did nothing about it. People would just walk onto boats that did not belong to them, and others would just stroll across a stranger’s property. Blake and Thesinger got into two fights with just random men trying to steal stuff from Thesinger’s property. The fights were violent with blood, knives, and threats of murder. At the end of the book, Thesinger even killed a fisherman named Caleb. The reason that this violence developed is because of the lack of government force. Without the government actively working, people would create their own “rights and wrongs” instead of following laws. This is different from American culture because most Americans follow laws, which decreases the amount of violence. Additionally, there was little known police force on the Bahamas. In America, there are police everywhere.
Garth Buckner wrote Thine is The Kingdom so that people in the Bahamas could start aiming for change. This book is similar to The Great Gatsby as there is a division between the rich and the poor in the Bahamas. The rich almost feel like they need to take care of the poor in order to uphold the quality of the island. One night, Thesinger went to burn the fish market down. Thesinger believed that he had no other choice as it was “the right thing to do” (Buckner 196). Despite other things such as, “the fact that these people have no business license, [sic] the fact that they never pay a cent in tax, this market is a health hazard” (Buckner 196). If Buckner could bring awareness that the rich think that destroying homes and people is the only answer, maybe the government and other Bahamians could start to make a change. If enough Bahamians knew that this was a problem, they could pressure the government into fixing the island so that the market would no longer be illegal.
A theme of Thine is The Kingdom is to not let outside influences stop oneself from reaching personal goals. Thesinger’s friends made fun of Blake for not having the same culture and citizenship as all other Bahamians, but Gavin continued to do still do his job. When one of the ships broke, Blake said he could fix it, so “‘If this is nothing’, then fix it!’ Roberts spat back, gray faced. ‘That’s right, University Boy!”’ (Buckner 103). The friends called him University Boy because they thought Blake looked like a foreigner. Blake could have let the teasing get to him, but he still did his job to fix the ship. He still fixed the ship because “a voice inside [Blake] said, this is your only chance. Muck this up and you’re back on the traveler’s road” (Buckner 112). Blake did not let the outside influence of the teasing stop him from working towards his personal goal of gaining his citizenship. Fixing the ship would allow him to gain his citizenship as he could earn some money while waiting for the papers from the Immigration Office. The money would allow him to continue to live in the Bahamas. Even at the end of the book, when Arial is drowning, Blake puts his personal goals first. Before saving Arial, Blake, “dug the passport out and very carefully chucked it up on the dry sand” (Buckner 225). The outside influence of someone drowning did not cause Blake to lose concentration on his personal goal of being able to keep his citizenship. He would keep his citizenship if he was able to preserve his passport. Blake makes having his citizenship such a strong goal as he wants to finally feel like he belongs in the Bahamas with a strong sense of identity.
This book was not my favorite, so I would not recommend it to others. While the plot was interesting at times, such as the fights, I didn’t like the ending of the book. Blake used money to bribe for his citizenship papers instead of getting it the right way. He also continued to let Thesinger get along with his poor behavior instead of ending it. He let Thesinger kill a man and did not say a single thing about it. I wish the book would have ended with Blake finally coming up with good morals. Otherwise, part of me thinks the book is telling me to do “the wrong thing”. Therefore, I had a hard time finding a theme of the book. Also, there were many editing errors of this book, but they probably arose in translation of this book into English.
January 31, 2023
This edition needed a proofreader. Otherwise a good read!
June 2, 2018
For Gavin, his kingdom is the Bahamas. He was born there, and so was his mother. However, according to his (well-used) passport he’s American like his father. Keen to claim Bahamian citizenship, Gavin decides to turn his back on travelling the world and instead finds a job sailing a yacht for the very wealthy Jacob and his attractive wife Arial.
The vast divide between the very rich and the very poor in the Bahamas soon becomes apparent when the pair stumble across a burglar. This uneasy contrast turns up time and time again. There seems to be a vicious circle of not enough work and the resulting crime the leading the richer citizens to move away, taking possible jobs with them. The frequency of the violence is honest but very depressing.
I enjoyed the novel because it reminded me of The Great Gatsby. Rich people with “old money” throw huge parties and do what they want with little thought to what the consequences might be.
A portrait of life on the Bahamas by a man who feels like a Bahamian but is treated like an outsider because of his skin colour and accent.
The vast divide between the very rich and the very poor in the Bahamas soon becomes apparent when the pair stumble across a burglar. This uneasy contrast turns up time and time again. There seems to be a vicious circle of not enough work and the resulting crime the leading the richer citizens to move away, taking possible jobs with them. The frequency of the violence is honest but very depressing.
I enjoyed the novel because it reminded me of The Great Gatsby. Rich people with “old money” throw huge parties and do what they want with little thought to what the consequences might be.
A portrait of life on the Bahamas by a man who feels like a Bahamian but is treated like an outsider because of his skin colour and accent.
August 14, 2019
2.5 stars
This was my read the world selection for The Bahamas
Gavin returns to his birthplace of The Bahamas and endeavors to get his citizenship - he is not considered a citizen as his father was American - even though his mother was Bahamian.
Much of this book is about boating and fishing (and a few undercurrent themes), with about the last third of it having more going on. There are strong analogies throughout of exposing the ugliness of The Bahamas underneath it’s beautiful surface.
I didn’t hate this book, but it didn’t grab my attention much and it’s likely I’ll completely forget about this within the next week.
This was my read the world selection for The Bahamas
Gavin returns to his birthplace of The Bahamas and endeavors to get his citizenship - he is not considered a citizen as his father was American - even though his mother was Bahamian.
Much of this book is about boating and fishing (and a few undercurrent themes), with about the last third of it having more going on. There are strong analogies throughout of exposing the ugliness of The Bahamas underneath it’s beautiful surface.
I didn’t hate this book, but it didn’t grab my attention much and it’s likely I’ll completely forget about this within the next week.
October 15, 2021
This was my pick for the Bahamas. This book reminded me a lot of the Great Gatsby. I thought the descriptive writing was good. The book itself was just kind of eh. There is not really a central plot with peak action the book leads up to. It’s more of an inner journey of the protagonist who never really feels he belongs anywhere ,returning to his birthplace that he also feels like an outsider in, and his struggle with that. It was just ok to me. A pleasant read due to the writing, but not very interesting as a whole.
July 6, 2017
Bahamas: Easy living i bermudashorts med vand, strand og palmer, en kold drink i den ene hånd og den anden på luksusyachtens styrepind. Tilsyneladende. Råddenskaben lurer under overfladen - ifølge Garth Buckners roman Thine is the Kingdom.
Læs anmeldelsen på K's bognoter: http://bognoter.dk/2017/07/06/garth-b...
Læs anmeldelsen på K's bognoter: http://bognoter.dk/2017/07/06/garth-b...
March 12, 2021
Global Read Challenge 83: The Bahamas
I liked this book. It was a page turner for sure and very atmospheric. Obviously it is one narrow perspective but I thought it was done well. I felt it was hard to get a feel of what Gavin's motivations were other than getting citizenship. I would read something else by this author.
I liked this book. It was a page turner for sure and very atmospheric. Obviously it is one narrow perspective but I thought it was done well. I felt it was hard to get a feel of what Gavin's motivations were other than getting citizenship. I would read something else by this author.
July 4, 2021
I enjoyed the island culture and atmosphere that the author brought to life in this book. The overall story was slow to come together, but was a interesting depiction of different men trying to find the meaning and the place of home. It is not until the end that the protagonist finds his security to be at home in his own identity and beliefs.
June 20, 2019
Read the world: The Bahamas
The insider look at life on the Bahamas was quite interesting, but I'm happy I've finally finished reading it. It's a very poorly written book.
The insider look at life on the Bahamas was quite interesting, but I'm happy I've finally finished reading it. It's a very poorly written book.
March 3, 2021
Liked the story and everything, but the amount of errors was staggering...
August 28, 2025
Whatever i loved this
June 24, 2017
slow but interesting read about life in the Bahamas
May 1, 2016
Everyone wants to be the last one through the door; hell is other people. The past can be just as intoxicating as six too many mojitos. When one develops a strong place-based identity, there is only one way to be at peace.
January 13, 2014
Basically a 200 page rant on how terrible the Bahamas have become and how it was so much better "in the old days." I give it 2 stars only for some of the historical perspectives.
June 25, 2024
235 pages of an endless pissing contest between all the consistently unlikeable men in the novel, the worst of which is probably the narrator.
April 26, 2017
I read this book while on Eleuthera ( got it from the local library). It was handed to me as a novel that provided local history and politics but wasn't greatly written. I found the book to be just the opposite: a fairly good page turner with near universal " times are a changin' " perspective.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews