WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE

(The following is an Extract of an interview that I had done with Oonya Kempadoo in Georgetown, Guyana in  February , 2015. Kempadoo’s first novel, BUXTON SPICE, was an instant success. It was on the London bestseller list throughout 1999, nominated for the 2000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The novel was translated in French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew. Her second novel, TIDE RUNNING, won the Casa de las Americas Literary Prize of Cuba. Kempadoo’s third novel was recently released.)

Petamber Persaud (PP) –        Congratulations on your new book – your third novel; how do you feel now that the book is now in the public domain?

Oonya Kempadoo (OK) –      I feel relief, a big relief because it took a long time in coming…

(PP)   –       How long?

(OK) –        Ten years.

(PP)   –                  (Questioning look mixed with amazement) Wow

(OK) –        Yes; writing off and on. It was a relief to release it finally.

(PP)   –        I’ve listened to writers likening this moment to giving birth – carrying the idea for months/years, the labour pains…And the arrival of your advance copy, checking to see the limbs/pages are intact, if it smells good, etc…

(OK) –         Checking to see if it is crying/responding….

(PP) –           There is a period of seventeen years from your first novel, ‘Buxton Spice’ to ‘All Decent Animals’, time enough to examine the impact of your writing. If someone was to write a paper on the art of Oonya Kempadoo, what would you like to see mention?

(OK) –        That’s a difficult question because I strongly feel everyone is entitled to interpret a work according to his/her own knowledge and experience. The reading of the work is what completes the journey you started off on, propelled by the desire to share a story, an idea….To me after it is written and it is published, when someone is able to read it and re-imagine it, reinterpret it according to their own understanding and experience, that completes the cycle and that’s the reward for sharing stories.

So it is difficult to answer the question of what I would like to see put down on paper about my work. But my work is used in gender studies. Sex and sexuality is a theme in every piece of my work. The language of the Caribbean, how the dialect is used, and for me, I don’t know if this comes across, the reflection of contemporary Caribbean society, is important.

(PP) –          To me, it seems that the writer is taking a big risk leaving all that work to the reader.

(OK) –        I don’t see it as a risk. I see it as a gift really – that you give and you release. And it’s beyond the control of the writer how anyone should read a work. And why should I want to control that? Reading is the only process that activated the imagination in a way in which you have to add colour, sound, light; bringing all of the senses into play in order to fill a picture. When you read, you activate those parts of the brain, different from say looking at a movie where there are some of those already.

Writing allows someone to create this whole other experiential world from the word. Reading allows each person to draw from his/her own particular experience, observation and whatever makes up your way of thinking. So I think the reading is the most beautiful part of the process. I believe in the right of the reader and I don’t believe I have the right to say this is the right way or the wrong way to read my work. I can only control what I put down on the page, but beyond there is not up to me.

(PP) – Talking about control: What aspects of the writing do you control or what drives your writing?

(OK) –        The characters control a lot. But I pay a lot of attention to the language – the rhythm, the flow of how easy or difficult it becomes to read and how well that flow is working or not. That is my focus in working and editing the language in the narrative. But the characters drive what needs to happen in the book – the plot. The themes I look back at afterwards and see what readers and reviewers help me to identify. To me it starts with story and you don’t know where it is going but if you are honest and pay attention to what the characters want to say and want to do next, that drives the narrative forward.

(PP) –           It looks like a paradox – so much, so many things happening during, before and after the writing. And there is much more to the process of writing. During the process of writing, you would come into contact with other writers and books. Let’s for a moment talk about those influences.

(OK) –         For me, growing up in Guyana, when I started my first book, ‘Buxton Spice’,  the most powerful influence was reading ‘Canary Row’ by Steinbeck and ‘Miguel Street’ by Naipaul. Those two books read together while I was in a village setting – observing and interacting with characters and village life very similar to those two volumes  – gave me some sort of idea then that it would be important to start doing some character sketches. So that was one of my earlier influences helping me to believe I can also write. I didn’t start writing then; much later. But I believe ‘Miguel Street’ is a wonderful collection of character study and it is still very inspiring to me.

From Naipaul’s other book, ‘The Lost of El Dorado’, I use a lot information in my research on Trinidad for my third novel [All Decent Animals].

I know the politics of Naipaul and Trinidad…

(PP) –          …and Guyana…and India…

(OK) –         But I really respect his work – his critical eye and harsh observation is what really helped me as a writer. Sam Selvon – I love his work …how he deals with the language to get the flow, flow is everything, flow is important even though I want to be true to the language as much as possible, it must not stop and stumble you. Selvon’s work is lovely to read.

(PP) – Some other influences…

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

by Petamber Persaud