For Literary Stars, Life’s A Beachside Festival In Jamaica · Global Voices
Calabash Festival Moments (L to R): ) <PERSON> reads; interacts with audience members; a packed house; music is a key element of the festival. Images by <PERSON> and <PERSON>. Used with permission.
In years to come, the problem of how to top this year’s stellar line-up is likely to be a key problem for the artistic director of the Calabash Literary Festival, whose 2014 edition came to a close on June 1.
Jamaica’s international literary festival has attracted some big names since 2001, when it made its debut at Treasure Beach, on the island’s non-touristy south coast; but this year the event was especially star-studded, featuring the likes of <PERSON>, <PERSON>, <PERSON> <PERSON> and <PERSON>. <PERSON>, author of Go the Fuck to Sleep—now available in Jamaican Patois under the title Go the Raas to Sleep—and <PERSON>, of Live from the New York Public Library fame, rounded out the celebrity line-up.
<PERSON> was there to interview the festival’s premier invitee—<PERSON>—though the American curator’s flowery trousers and t-shirt may have been a trifle too casual for a Jamaican audience uptight about foreigners behaving as though the country is one big beach, even in the context of Calabash’s laid-back atmosphere (the festival’s main stage is a rustic open-air gazebo overlooking the beach). <PERSON> further alienated the audience by asking self-aggrandising questions that <PERSON> barely had a chance to answer before besieging him with the next, but the celebrity interviewer soon recovered favour by drawing <PERSON> out on the music in his books—with songs by <PERSON>, U2 and Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes” carefully lined up and waiting to be played.
“Lou <PERSON> was a friend of yours, wasn’t he?” <PERSON> asked. <PERSON> replied: “In a way it seems ludicrous to say <PERSON> was my friend; it’s like saying I had God’s email address.”
The once-elusive <PERSON>, who spent many years undercover to escape the wrath of Muslim extremists offended by his novel The Satanic Verses, spoke on a range of subjects: the fictionality of fiction (“once you’re given that gift—of the fictionality of fiction–it liberates you”); occupying <PERSON>’s universe; his envy of writers deeply rooted in one place (e.g. <PERSON> and <PERSON>); his influences, which include <PERSON> Dubliners and Ulysses and storehouses of Indian stories like the Panchatantra and the Mahabharata that he called “wonder tales of the East”.
The author told a spellbound audience of the problems of being labelled a magical realist—with the stress on the “magic” part—when for him art is about telling the truth. 550
He established a great rapport with his audience, often glancing searchingly around to gauge reactions. Calabashers experienced a friendly and relaxed <PERSON>, standing on no ceremony whatsoever and amiably agreeing to have his picture taken with everyone who approached him.
The only thing to top a lion eating out of your hands is a tiger saying “meow”. The formidable <PERSON>, whom one might have expected to be quite ferocious, given the often uncompromising tone of her work, was disarmingly genteel and elegant. Her words packed a wicked wallop every now and then, just to remind you why she’s considered the “bad gyal” of Caribbean letters, but by and large she was in a warm and expansive mood. Calabash's artistic director, <PERSON>, in the role of interviewer, didn’t make the mistake of trying to compete with <PERSON>, instead yielding up the limelight while expertly steering the writer in productive directions.
Among other things, <PERSON> told a fascinated audience how much she loved money, gardening and the practice of writing. Children might occasionally be forgotten at school while <PERSON> focused on finding the right words. Answering a question regarding the title of her latest novel, See Now Then, <PERSON> described her writing as a delicate balancing act:
“I came to understand that the “now” had to be the weight, the balancing weight in the story. I tend to write that way. 464