Augments of Change — Kelvin Christopher James

Kelvin Christopher James uses a panoramic canvas for this absolutely entertaining and slyly informative novel that addresses topical issues such as Climate Change, Plutocracy, Racism, and Immigration. Matters that might be heavy going but for James' sparkling voice and his original structuring of the story. With the apt word or phrase, his nimble prose lightens the sober and simplifies the complex. His characters turn out to be folks you know, real and quirky as neighbors and family. Their viewpoints and personas are convincingly presented in lucid language as he moves the plot along with brio. And what a plot it is As if thought fodder like Climate Change, Greed, Moneyed Politics, Pollution, and Over-population were not enough, Augments of Change confronts Miscegenation, Racism, Evolution, Potable water, De-forestation, Human Oppression, and Women's Soft Power. Then just when Change makes a positive stance, there arrives an invasive force from deep space Not the big-headed, odd-colored, funny-eyed creatures of our comic-booked expectations, but natural entities that conquer from within and have abilities from terrific to terrifying. Praise for his Jumping Ship and Other Stories: "A warm and gifted raconteur" -New York Times Praise for Secrets, A Novel: "Incantatory. . . the finest novel to come out of the Caribbean experience since V.S. Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas." -Washington Post Kelvin Christopher James is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature.