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Product Description
The world of "Crick Crack, Monkey" is a dual one. Tee, the central character, is suspended between the warmth, spontaneity, and exuberance of Tantie's household, into which she and her brother are received when their father immigrates to England, and the formality and pretension of her Aunt Beatrice's world, which Tee is obliged to enter when she wins a scholarship. Tee's initiation into the middle class is an uneasy one: she is confused and disturbed by the discrimination of color and class that she learns at Aunt Beatrice's hands and by the attitudes and values that divide her two aunts. Tee's shifting perceptions find no resolution, only acknowledgment that coherence will require a mature revaluation of her experience.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A wonderful book. Read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. Beautifully written left me wanting to read more by this writer. If you like Toni Morrison, Jean Rhys and Maya Angelou, you will love this book. Warm, moving, funny, evocative and deeply heartfelt. A beautiful experience of West Indian culture through a young girls eyes. More people should know about this book,it's one of the best things I have read in a long time.
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Crick Crack, Monkey (Caribbean Writers Series)
The human, interesting and often humourous story winds its way irresistably, holding the reader with its honesty, colour and clear character portrayal. This book educates the reader, entertains the reader and takes the reader on an adventure. Sometimes intense, often irreverent, but always direct, this book evokes emotion and cheers the heart.
The human, interesting and often humourous story winds its way irresistably, holding the reader with its honesty, colour and clear character portrayal. This book educates the reader, entertains the reader and takes the reader on an adventure. Sometimes intense, often irreverent, but always direct, this book evokes emotion and cheers the heart.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
If you enjoyed Miguel Street, You'd love this book.
4 Jun 1998
Format:Paperback
This is one of the rolicking, humorous West Indian novels in the vein of V.S. Naipaul's Miguel Street, Alvin Bennet's God, the Stonebreaker, Austin Clarke's Amongst the Thistles and Torns, and A House for Mr. Bishwas. It captures the bitter-sweet experiences of a little girl growing up in Trnidad and Tobago. An excellent Caribbean novel.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Poignant critique of the effects of colonialism
22 July 2002
Format:Paperback
More than humor, I remember this book for its poignancy, the effects on a young girl of her own culture (black, Caribbean) being denigrated and other cultures and anything associated with whiteness and England being praised. So touching was the scene where Tee is playing with dolls; so telling is her idealization of the dolls' world and the juxtaposition with her own.
Everyone wants the best for their children; this book examines how people decide what is best and how these preconceptions affect the very children they love and want to protect.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A Classic Bildungsroman
9 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback
This beautifully written West Indian coming of age piece tells the story of Tee and her brother, Toddan who are forced to reside between two worlds as their aunts battle over guardianship of them.
After their mother dies and their father moves to London, Tee and Toddan live with Tantie (their father's sister) and Aunt Beatrice (their mother's sister) during their childhood and adolescent years. As the story centers around Tee's adult and childhood self recalling these experiences, the reader gets a glimpse of the down-to-earth but somewhat loose influences from Tantie and the snobbish but cultured influences from Aunt Beatrice. From one aunt she learns expletives and from the other etiquette.
Hodge cleverly displays Tee/Cynthia's duality and the impact that it has on her child and adult self. Both struggle with trying to exist and coexist in two worlds, fit in with relatives and classmates, learn from the differing cultures that surround them, and find themselves in the process.
One explanation of the term, "crick crack," is that in the francophone islands, when a storyteller wants to tell a story, he or she will shout "Crick!" And those eager to hear the story will shout "Crack." Another explanation suggests that the term is rendered when a storyteller is inquiring of his or her audience whether or not the story told is factual or fictional. Similarly, Tee poses such a question to herself to determine which world to abide in. With an inquiring mind and a "shrieking crescendo," I'll utter, "Monkey break `e back on a rotten pommerac!" You'll have to read the book to get that one.
After their mother dies and their father moves to London, Tee and Toddan live with Tantie (their father's sister) and Aunt Beatrice (their mother's sister) during their childhood and adolescent years. As the story centers around Tee's adult and childhood self recalling these experiences, the reader gets a glimpse of the down-to-earth but somewhat loose influences from Tantie and the snobbish but cultured influences from Aunt Beatrice. From one aunt she learns expletives and from the other etiquette.
Hodge cleverly displays Tee/Cynthia's duality and the impact that it has on her child and adult self. Both struggle with trying to exist and coexist in two worlds, fit in with relatives and classmates, learn from the differing cultures that surround them, and find themselves in the process.
One explanation of the term, "crick crack," is that in the francophone islands, when a storyteller wants to tell a story, he or she will shout "Crick!" And those eager to hear the story will shout "Crack." Another explanation suggests that the term is rendered when a storyteller is inquiring of his or her audience whether or not the story told is factual or fictional. Similarly, Tee poses such a question to herself to determine which world to abide in. With an inquiring mind and a "shrieking crescendo," I'll utter, "Monkey break `e back on a rotten pommerac!" You'll have to read the book to get that one.
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