Earl Lovelace reads from Salt (1996)

Robert Antoni of the University of Miami introduces Trinidadian novelist Earl Lovelace and talks about his novels The Dragon Can't Dance and The Wine of Astonishment. Lovelace reads the first chapter of his book, Salt. The novel features Alford George, the son of a poor farm worker who rises above his class through perseverance. The first chapter satirizes the white colonizers of the black Caribbean. The second chapter introduces the character Florence, who sees Alford George at a distance and exclaims to her mother that he is the man whom she will marry. She begins to put on airs, so that every man in town falls in love with her, but she is waiting for Alford to notice. The third chapter deals with the character Bango Durity, a worker and activist, who raises the question of how race relations between blacks and whites can be healed in view of their history of brutalized and brutalizers. Lovelace then answers some questions from the audience.