Corentyne Thunder
SynopsisPlot
Set on the coast of British Guiana, the story spans three generations and revolves around Ramgollal, an old Indian cow-minder on the Corentyne coast who has worked hard for many years to save money and build his herd of cows. He is proud of his children from two marriages, particularly the daughter of his first marriage, who is married to a well-to-do white planter. Their son Geoffry is light-skinned, ambitious, and poised to make a success of his life, and Ramgollal takes much satisfaction in his grandson’s accomplishments. When Geoffry seduces and impregnates Kattree, his mother’s half-sister, however, Ramgollal’s world begins to fall apart.
Story
About this book
Corentyne Thunder, first published in 1941, is set along the Corentyne coast of British Guiana. At its center is Ramgollal, an elderly Indian cow-minder who has spent years of hard labor saving money and building up a herd of cattle. His family stretches across three generations and two marriages, and he measures his place in the world partly through their fortunes. His eldest daughter, from his first marriage, lives as the partner of a prosperous white planter, and their son Geoffry has grown up light-skinned and driven to succeed.
Geoffry's ambitions give Ramgollal quiet pride, but the family's stability fractures when Geoffry becomes involved with Kattree, a younger daughter from Ramgollal's second marriage. The relationship crosses lines within the family that cannot easily be undone, and the consequences reach into every part of Ramgollal's carefully constructed life.
Edgar Mittelholzer wrote the novel as a portrait of the Indian immigrant community in the British Caribbean colonies during the early twentieth century. The book is recognized as one of the first modern novels to center the lives of Indo-Caribbean people in the region, and it draws much of its texture from the flat coastal landscape where cattle and sugarcane shaped daily existence.
