Financial aid for Jamaica’s entertainment industry
Caribbean Life, APRIL 23-29, 2021 31
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The sins of the father shall
be visited upon the son.
That’s what’s said, that a son
pay for his father’s misdeeds,
but maybe the old man didn’t
intend to leave a negative legacy.
Maybe he tried his best, but
something went wrong. Maybe,
as in the new novel “The Son of
Mr. Suleman” by Eric Jerome
Dickey, Pops meant well.
Adjunct Professor Pi Suleman
didn’t want to be at his
employer’s event. He had better
things to do, better places
to be than a room at UAN, but
his boss, the white woman who
hired him, the wife of a powerful
judge, demanded that he be
there or else.
Like a fool, he’d taken gifts
from her, things given in what
he understood was an effort to
make his job easier. She was
Like Father, Like Son?
helpful to him but it came with
a price: whenever she wanted to
sexually assault him, she did,
and when she threatened to say
that he was to blame, there was
little a Black Man from Memphis
could do.
Meeting Gemma Buckingham
was the only good thing to
happen at that UAN event.
She was one of the most
beautiful women Pi had ever
seen, this child of London and
Africa, and he wanted to know
her better. Even when she mentioned
that she was a fan of his
father, a man who impregnated
Pi’s mother and then disappeared,
a famous man, a writer
Pi had never met but hated, Pi
still wanted to know Gemma
Buckingham.
She was coy with him, teasing
him with information
and curves. She was apparently
well-off and she didn’t
care that Pi wasn’t yet tenured,
didn’t have the salary he
needed, drove an old car. Yes,
she had secrets – but then, so
did he and the white one who
was blowing up his phone with
demands and traps and tricks
was the secret who was going
to pay…
There is an old rule for writers that says, “kill your darlings,”
Book cover of “The Son of Mr. Suleman” by Eric Jerome
Dickey.
meaning that a good writer
should eliminate unneeded
passages and overused phrases.
If you’ve ever read anything
by the late author Eric Jerome
Dickey, you know that he generally
ignored that advice; “The
Son of Mr. Suleman, filled as
this brick-sized novel is with
“darlings,” is no exception.
And yet, it’s hard to even
slightly dislike a story that
makes its characters tackle
DWB, racism, classism, white
supremacy, ill-placed power,
and a dozen other societal
issues between bodice-ripping
erotica and page-ripping thrills.
It’s hard to let go of a book
that makes you absolutely, onehundred
percent need to know
what happens next. The surprise
is that Dickey does all this
as he pushes readers to accept
a degree of discomfort: unlike
with his past novels, the sex
isn’t always sexy here, and the
thrills are more threatening
than thrilling.
Be prepared to be turned
every which way with this book.
Be set to let “The Son of Mr.
Suleman” eat up your weekend.
Just be ready, because missing
it would be a sin.
“The Son of Mr. Suleman”
by Eric Jerome Dickey
c.2021, Dutton
$27.00 / $36.00 Canada
560 pages
‘The Son of Mr. Sulemon” author, Eric Jerome Dickey. Joseph Jones Photography
By Nelson A. King
With the COVID-19 pandemic
hitting Jamaica’s entertainment
industry very hard, Prime
Minister, Andrew Holness has
promised to help the industry
financially, according to CaribbeanNationalWeekly
(CNW).
During a recent sitting of
parliament, Holness addressed
stakeholders in the industry,
CNW said.
He said that while he understands
that entertainment is
a business, parties are still
ground-zero for COVID-19,
according to CNW.
“This government does not
see entertainment as only fun,”
CNW quoted Holness as saying.
“We understand that entertainment
is an industry; it is a business
for many; they have invested
heavily in their business.
“It is the reality; it is the
proven fact that the gatherings
that happen at parties are usually
the ground zero of spread,
and we have tried to find ways
within the public health science
to accommodate these
kinds of events and gatherings,”
he added.
The Jamaican prime minister
said his government plans
to invest in dancehall and
the entertainment industry,
according to CNW, stating that
this will start with financial aid
to those that have been hit hard
by the closure of the sector.
“Dancehall is being hijacked.
Other people are taking our
music and making more money
off it, because the people who
are carrying the music not seeing
the economic value in the
music,” Holness said.
“We understand the hurt
and suffering,” he added. “Many
have lost significant resources.
So, we are going to have to
make an allocation.
“I do plan to call in the leaders
of the industry,” he continued.
“We want to have an
engagement, because we see
our music and our culture as
a part of our economic recovery.”
Holness added that the government
would also assist in
the rebound of the industry
through investments in proper
infrastructure, according to
CNW, promising to create venues
or halls where parties can
be held freely without disturbance.