What a friend we have in Jesus — Mark Jacobs

This is probably the first book ever written by a Guyanese about their own travels in the Caribbean (and the diaspora) - and it is refreshing that Mark Jacobs seeks to put this Guyanese visitor gaze on Haitian life. So often people have come to Guyana and written about their time here, that it is a relief to see this reversed gaze (One day we might get best sellers who return to India and to United Kingdom and USA and write those nice kind of patronising travelogues). The first story is 'black woman and child'. Mark writes about black woman in Haiti and in Guyana beating/threatening to beat a child. In 'madame' about love Guyana style with Haitian overtones. The other vignettes are short incisive reflections, moments in time about the experiences in Haiti. About police who beat people and police who give people a lift on the road ; about magic and about reality. Some of the stories are funny, but the laughter is a kind of alternative reaction to anger . Vidyaratha Kissoon