With all the focus and furore over millennials and their problems, it was a refreshing change to read a book about the Jamaica of old and get lost in an epoch when life was much simpler, sane and sweeter.
Thanks to Michelle Thompson’s novel ‘A Way to Escape’, I was able to go back to the 70s; to the era of three sister frocks, bobby socks, snow cone and genie floor polish. If you have no clue what I am talking about you obviously missed an awesome childhood filled with laughter and discovery which makes Thompson’s novel all that more relevant.
A nostalgic trip and a half, ‘A Way to Escape’ surrounds the Tomlinson clan and their rags to riches journey fuelled by the determination of the females in the family, chiefly Rose, the mother and bread winner who started life all over again when her alcoholic husband suddenly puts her out of their matrimonial home. Blessed with talent and a tenacity to see her four children prosper, Rose not only survived but thrived, first in Jamaica and then the harsh winters of Canada to make her mother and her children proud. The challenges were many and probably would have broken a lesser woman.
To continue reading, purchase Vol.9 #1, 2017 Issue.