Melissa: what is the role of women in this book? What should we make of the treatment of
women characters?
Maia: when you disconnect people (men only?) from “family,” then there are tragic
consequences (for women?) [Does Selvon distance himself from adequately from his characters’
misogyny to allow his readers some critical distance on it?]
Jeremy: why do “skins” “thump” “spades” (and vice versa)? (What does this book have to say
about the nature/meaning/attraction of black-white sexual relations in the context of 1950s
Britain?)
Gabriel: the ten-page chapter: does it “work”? (How is it supposed to work?)
Naomi: how much is Moses’ “soft heart” related to his “thinking ‘poor’”?
Chris: is there any sort of unity (or critique) in this piecemeal narrative? (If it’s a critique, then
who or what is it a critique of…?)
Marcos: See above. Plus: “The Old English diplomacy”…