Guyana Boy

Through the perspective of a child, this novel depicts the extremely hierarchical world of the colonized Guyana sugar plantation. Lilboy, the narrator, describes the liveliness and closeness of community and the restrictions it places on the opportunities of personal freedom of those working there. However, Lilboy describes how his family and friends cope with their seemingly bleak existences through maintaining their own rice plots, fishing, and celebrating with feasts and festivities. Written as a partial autobiography, this story recreates the sights, smells, sounds, and other sensual pleasures of a rural childhood within the plantation era.