Book Review: The Wine of Astonishment by Earl Lovelace

What a bacchanal!!! I loved it!!! 😚 The Wine of Astonishment by Earl Lovelace was short but sweet…. an entertaining, engrossing, read about all the drama associated with the little village called Bonasse in Trinidad and the struggles of the Shouter Baptist community to be recognized as a ‘proper’ / civilized religion. Overall I will rate this book 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. A must have for your bookshelf if you love Caribbean literature. I was gifted this lovely book by husband in 2022 and I am so happy to have it as part of my bookshelf, a welcome addition.

” Lord, you make your people see hard things, you make us to drink the wine of astonishment.”

The story is told from the point of view of Eve Dorcas and her husband who is the leader of the Shouter Baptist Church and also a farmer in the village 🌱🌿. They have fought with the authorities for years for their religion to be accepted and the struggle does not end even when they elect their very own, Ivan Morton, a young man who grew up in the village to political office. As time passes, the war comes and goes their struggles and hardships continue. Not all of them deal with this well. Bolo, another villager, ends up rebelling against the injustices imposed on them by the colonial government and turns into the village BadJohn, terrorizing any and everyone ☹️. How will things turn out? Will their religion ever be accepted? I guess you will just have to read the book to find out.

The Wine of Astonishment was well written with many memorable characters and chronicles the historic and real struggle of the Shouter Baptist religion to be accepted in the Caribbean by the political directorate during the early 1900s. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Caribbean literature or anyone who just wants a good book to curl and read on an evening ☹️. Have you read this book before 📚📖? What were your thoughts on the story?

Much Love,

Celly