Black Midas
SynopsisPlot
Comparing ruthless 20th-century prospectors to the long-ago Spanish explorers who raped a continent in their quest for El Dorado, the novel follows the dreams and delusions of Aron Smart, a youth orphaned early in life and brought up on a farm by his grandparents who impressed upon him the value of an education. When Aron’s schooling is cut short after a reversal of fortune, however, he becomes deeply discouraged by his lack of opportunity and decides to follow in his father’s footsteps as a diamond prospector. He quickly becomes very rich—his companions in the mines call him “Shark”—and he is determined to use his new wealth to buy his way into the middle class.
Story
About this book
Black Midas by Jan Carew is set in Guyana and follows Aron Smart, a young man orphaned early in life and raised by grandparents on a farm. They stress the importance of education, but when a sudden turn of fortune ends his schooling, Aron finds himself with few prospects. Discouraged, he turns to the same trade that defined his father's life: diamond prospecting in the dense interior of the country.
Aron proves remarkably successful in the mines, earning the nickname Shark from the men who work alongside him. His rapid wealth brings a new obsession. He sets out to buy entry into the middle class, convinced that money alone can open doors that colonial society has kept shut. The novel draws a direct parallel between twentieth-century prospectors like Aron and the earlier Spanish explorers who crossed the Atlantic seeking El Dorado, linking personal ambition to a centuries-old pattern of extraction and self-destruction.
Carew uses Aron's rise to examine greed, class division, and the limited choices available in postcolonial Guyana. The story is rooted in a specific landscape where rivers, forests, and mining camps shape daily life as much as any social hierarchy.
