Compass of the dying

the long version

When Laurence Lieberman writes of Guyana or islands in the Dutch West Indies, he excavates, explores, even exhumes the essence of the place. In the flora and fauna, in the rural cafes and ruins of churches and crypts, in the taste of iguana soup and the look of light through strained glass, Lieberman unfolds an exquisite atlas of the senses. Folk tales, legends, and island myths play a great role in his newest work. In the eddies of a river in Guyana, Lieberman dares river demons. On the island of Aruba, he hears the chants and work songs of long-dead miners in an abandoned gold mine. He briefly loses himself when he stares into the mirror of a well once frequented by slaves on Bonaire. Coupled with natural forces - floods, volcanic eruptions, constant rains - these folk tales and the stories of the islanders' lives create a "wedding of sun and rain," and a map to the troves of the Caribbean hidden beneath a rich and often violent history.