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Summer Lightning (short story collection)

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Summer Lightning
AuthorOlive Senior
PublisherLongman
Publication date
1986
AwardsCommonwealth Writer's Prize (1987)
Big Jubilee Read (2022)
ISBN978-0582786271

Summer Lightning and other stories is a 1986 collection of short stories by Jamaican writer Olive Senior.[1][2] It won the 1987 Commonwealth Writers' Prize[3] and was selected for the 2022 Big Jubilee Read, a list of 70 titles by Commonwealth writers.[4]

In A History of Literature in the Caribbean: English- and Dutch-speaking countries the stories are described as "scintillating evocations of life in rural Jamaica".[5] Booker Prize winner Marlon James included it in his "My 10 Favorite Books" in a 2016 New York Times piece, saying "The entire future of Caribbean prose is mapped out in this collection of stories, and I don't know a single Caribbean writer who doesn't reread it often".[6]

Senior has said of this book: "I believe Summer Lightning to be a true expression of everyday life in that part of the world I describe, i.e., deep rural Jamaica, in terms of behaviours, beliefs, practices narrated and language used."[7]

Story titles

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The stories in the book are:[8]

  • Summer lightning
  • Love orange
  • Country of the one eye god
  • Ascot
  • Bright Thursdays
  • Real old time t'ing
  • Do angels wear brassieres?
  • Confirmation day
  • The boy who loved ice cream
  • Ballad

References

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  1. ^ Thieme, John (12 July 2019). "'Mixed Worlds': Olive Senior's Summer Lightning". Kunapipi. 16 (2). ISSN 0106-5734. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  2. ^ O'Callaghan, Evelyn (1986). "Review of Summer Lightning and Other Stories". Journal of West Indian Literature. 1 (1): 92–94. ISSN 0258-8501. JSTOR 23019657.
  3. ^ "Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners 1987–2007" (PDF). Commonwealth Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  4. ^ "A literary celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's record-breaking reign". BBC. 17 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  5. ^ Victor Ramraj (2001). "Short fiction". In Arnold, Albert James; Rodríguez-Luis, Julio; Dash, J. Michael (eds.). A History of Literature in the Caribbean: English- and Dutch-speaking countries. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 217. ISBN 978-90-272-3448-3. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  6. ^ James, Marlon (13 May 2016). "My 10 Favorite Books". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  7. ^ Evans, Lucy (2014). "Rural Communities". Communities in Contemporary Anglophone Caribbean Short Stories. Oxford University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-78138-118-2.
  8. ^ Catalogue record for "Summer Lightning". Worldcat. OCLC 39458693. Retrieved 19 April 2022.