A brilliant Jamaican-American writer takes on the themes of colonialism, race, myth, and political awakening through the experiences of a light-skinned woman named Clare Savage. The story is one of discovery as Clare moves through a variety of settings – Jamaica, England, America – and encounters people who affect her search for place and self. The structure of No Telephone to Heaven combines naturalism and lyricism, and traverses space and time, dream and reality, myth and history, reflecting the fragmentation of the protagonist, who nonetheless seeks wholeness and connection. In this deply poetic novel there exist several levels: the world Clare encounters, and a world of which she only gradually becomes aware – a world of extreme poverty, the real Jamaica, not the Jamaica of the middle class, not the Jamaica of the tourist. And Jamaica – almost a character in the book – is described in terms of extraordinary beauty, coexisting with deep human tragedy. The violence that rises out of extreme oppression, the divided loyalties of a colonized person, sexual dividedness, and the dividedness of a person neither white nor black – all of these are truths that Clare must face. Overarching all the themes in this exceptionally fine novel is the need to become whole, and the decisions and the courage demanded to achieve that wholeness.

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Bookseller: The Haunted Bookshop, LLC (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 044766
Title: No Telephone to Heaven
Author: Cliff, Michelle
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - Very Good in Good dust jacket
Jacket Condition: Good
Quantity Available: 1
ISBN 10: 0525245081
ISBN 13: 9780525245087
Publisher: Dutton
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 1987

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The Haunted Bookshop is an open shop with over 40,000 quality used, out-of-print, and antiquarian titles for students, scholars, collectors, artists, families and children. The store has been in business for over 35 years, now in a historic home near downtown Iowa City. Our open hours are 10-8 daily.