The Sleepers of Roraima & The Age of the Rainmakers

by Wilson Harris, Mark McWatt

Exploring one of the most broken of Caribbean cultural fragments, these seven short stories delve into the world of the Amerindians, Guyana’s most impoverished and marginalized ethnic group. Detailing a culture that has long been dismembered by missionary activity throughout the Caribbean, this compilation creates a dreaming consciousness of a number of protagonists, allowing readers to participate within the culture’s myths and discover alternative realities to dominant historical images.

180 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

Born in Guyana in 1921 and based in England since 1959, Wilson Harris is one of the most original novelists and critics of the twentieth century. His writings, which include poems, numerous essays and twenty-four novels, provide a passionate and unique defense of the notion of cross-culturalism as well as a visionary exploration of the interdependence between history, landscape and humanity. In 2010 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

These tales, originally published in two volumes in 1970 and 1971, do not have the impact of the novels, obviously, nor that, even, of the essays, but they nonetheless share the same basic themes--time-consciousness, visionary experience, and creative engagement with Amerindian history. For the Harris enthusiast, they also offer an interesting picture of his development between the Guyana Quartet novels of the 60s and Carnival (1985), his next major achievement. Some commentators consider this a somewhat fallow period for Harris (I would cite _Eye of the Scarecrow_ and _Da Silva Da Silva's Cultivated Wilderness_ (1977) as qualified exceptions), but these stories reveal a writer experimenting with narrative form and even, in "Arawak Horizon," with typography, with language as materialist inscription. The results are mixed, but never uninteresting.

[Fernando · Rating 2 out of 5]

From my Instagram account @onebookonecountry

#Guyana

They have no formal history, but they have a place in history. Often forgotten in the background of European history, Wilson Harris made sure they got the praise they deserve.

In European minds, the Caribs are the primitive cannibal people of the New World. In Ameridian reality, they are fierce conquerors who subjugated other peoples. In Sleepers of Roraima, a collection of short stories, they are presented to us in raw, visceral, sometimes inaccessible language such as they were in real life.

The Age of the Rainmakers, a second short story collection, tells us the stories of the other peoples, the Macusi, Arecuna, Wapisiana and Arawaks. All of them still live in present day Guyana and still don't belong to history as we know it. That is rather unfortunate. I feel lucky to have stumbled upon Harris's work and have discovered this new and beautiful world of legends and myhts.

This edition is by @peepaltreepress

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