Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

When I finished the last page and closed the book, my first thought was that I am pretty sure I didn't catch everything going on in this book. It is not long in length, but there there is a depth to it, and sometimes I felt like I didn't see to the bottom of it. I am not alone--one review I read noted that the author's style is one of sensory maximalism, in which unexpected shifts and juxtapositions repeatedly wrongfoot the reader. This is set in the 1940s, as American destroyers arrive in Trinidad’s harbors and naval bases forcibly displace village communities. It reaches into the country’s past as a much-trafficked and undervalued colonial possession, and it hints at the complications that might accompany its journey towards a still-distant independence. High on the list of these complications is the treatment of the people of color in general, and the island’s marginalized Hindu population, whose rights are curtailed in law, in particular. There is a hint of magical realism with a whisper of superstition that is intriguing but not fully absorbed by me. There are also a myriad of cast members whose lives we see only partially. All of them are held between past and future, their lives about to change as their country does, but with little indication that they can see the cost of transition.