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Bob Shacochis
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Easy in the Islands Kindle Edition

by Bob Shacochis (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 30 ratings
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Winner of the National Book Award for First Fiction: “Beguiling stories . . . about an uncommonly fascinating part of the hemisphere” (Time).
 
Easy in the Islands is a “stunning” collection of stories by one of contemporary America’s foremost journalists and fiction writers. Infused with the rhythms of the Caribbean, these vivid tales of paradise sought and paradise lost are as lush, steamy, and invigorating as the islands themselves (The Washington Post).
 
A calypso singer named Lord Short Shoe consorts with a vampish black singer to bilk an American out of his only companion—a monkey. An island bureaucracy confounds the attempts of a hotel owner to get his dead mother out of the freezer and into a real grave—until he resorts to a highly unusual form of burial. Two poor islanders stumble into a high-class dance party and find themselves caught in a violent encounter that just might escalate into revolution. And a young woman sails off into the romantic tropics with the man of her dreams, only to learn the hard way—as Eve did—that paradise is just another place to leave behind.
 
From fishing fleets in remote atolls too small to appear on any map to the sprawling barrios and yacht filled marinas of Miami, Bob Shacochis charts a course across a Caribbean that no tourist will recognize.
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  1. Print length
    227 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Grove Press
  5. Publication date
    December 1, 2007
  6. File size
    4139 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Shacochis's] stories have an unselfconscious narrative momentum--a linear drive toward an ending--that I associate with the easy ways of an old master...I think this boy's been writing since he was a baby."

About the Author

A contributing editor for Outside and Harper’s, Bob Shacochis has been a GQ columnist and writer for numerous other national publications. He is also the author of the novel, Swimming in the Volcano, a work of literary reportage about Haiti, The Immaculate Invasion, a second collection of stories, The Next New World, and a collection of essays on food and love, Domesticity. He lives in Florida and New Mexico.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0066A9WNE
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press (December 1, 2007)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 1, 2007
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4139 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 227 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 30 ratings

About the author

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Bob Shacochis

Bob Shacochis

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A contributing editor for Outside and Harper’s, Bob Shacochis has been a GQ columnist and writer for numerous other national publications. He is also the author of the novel, Swimming in the Volcano, a work of literary reportage about Haiti, The Immaculate Invasion, a second collection of stories, The Next New World, and a collection of essays on food and love, Domesticity. He lives in Florida and New Mexico.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
30 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Al Gowan
5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh, funny, revealing
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2013
Verified Purchase
Great read and fresh insights through intriguing characters. Shacochis brings us the patois of his characters and the grim reality they often face in what tourists and NGOs see as paradise.
I am now reading Swimming in the Volcano.
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andy
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2016
Verified Purchase
Stories were very good. Really enjoyed the authors take on the language of the islanders.
One person found this helpful
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Joy S
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2015
Verified Purchase
Loved this book.. It was entertaining, thoughtful, with well developed, complex characters. Was hoping that there would be a second book so that I could follow these characters and see how they unfold.
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matthew bradley
4.0 out of 5 stars As Easy as it Flows
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2000
Diving head first into the collection of short stories that together embody the spirit and adventurous energy of the islands, I swam in the wonderfully clever landscape that Shacochis has painted for his readers. He writes with such ease, his characters seemingly existed before their stories were created. More than this, Shacochis does a dream-like job of taking the reader on an adventure, which is overall, the appeal of islands.
Each more independent than the last, the stories flow effortlesly into the reader's subconscious, relaxing the muscles, and wandering the islands in the reader's mind. It is as if the landscape itself acts as a continuously appearing character, simply asking the reader to open up to new and exciting experience.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys leaving their mind, if only for a brief while, to swallow down the purity of a presumed paradise. Don't hesitate on this one, turn off the television, and get on board for "Easy in the Islands". Who knows, you just might not want to leave once you get there. It is that easy!
14 people found this helpful
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Santa Barbara traveler
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
Terrific short stories. Shacochis has a feel for the Caribbean and the quirky characters that inhabit these islands.
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M. O. D'ignazio
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy in the Islands
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2010
Verified Purchase
Easy process...priced right, quick response...now all I have to do is find the time to READ!!!
2 people found this helpful
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John D Harris
5.0 out of 5 stars I met the man, then discovered his writing.
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2015
I met Bob in Limbe' Haiti in 1995. Even though I quit smoking several years ago, I will always remember the Camel Lights he brought for me when he was writing Immaculate Invasion. After returning home, I found his books and got down to enjoying the same sense of humor in his literary work. I wish I knew where he was now. Even though I don't drink anymore either, I'd enjoy buying him drinks just to hear more stories.
One person found this helpful
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Stephen Armstrong
5.0 out of 5 stars Amusing and interesting short stories from the Caribbean...
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2006
My wife and I were asked to read this book of short stories before our first trip to the Caribbean. I thought it was amusing and interesting throughout. No wonder it won the National Book Award for First Fiction. With shades of American writing from the south, these short stories convey the dilemmas, humor, and enigmas of being a whole person mutated by time, place, temperature, sea, flowers, gender, and color. Wonderful stuff. You won't go wrong.
8 people found this helpful
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