Adventure and romance in Icacos

KEITH JARDIM

I’ll Take You There! Stories by Michael Cozier. 224 pages. A Michael Cozier Production. 2018.

These seven stories entertain and make you laugh, never mind many of the characters sound like they’re zapped on the southland’s famous import. This book is Michael Cozier’s fourth, and he delivers his adventure, comedy, and romance with much energy and rascally pizazz.

The first story – Put It on Me Baby! – is yet another lesson in winning the lottery. It seems there is always a lady around to complicate matters; but, oh, how willingly the man permits such torment!

Cyril, Blackie’s uncle sets his house on fire. When Blackie complains he has set ablaze a perfectly respectable hut, Cyril booms: “What the hell I doing with ah old shack like that when I holding the first prize in the National Lottery in my hand!"

At that point, a loud bellowing noise came from behind the house.

“And what about the cows in the pen, you go let them burn too?" Blackie inquired.

“Oh hell!" Cyril exclaimed.

Blackie inherits the cows, since Uncle Cyril will be too busy spending his millions. But first Cyril has to celebrate, let everyone know he’s now a millionaire, a big man, cock of the walk, an aspiring Chittaranjan from VS Naipaul’s second novel, The Suffrage of Elvira.

Off they go to Ping’s rum shop, an establishment long worshipped by all sorts of Icacosonians – from both the hardworking and idle estate labourers to the idle and industrious owners. Cyril orders a huge round of drinks for the entire village and Ping’s disbelief is a thing to behold, if a bit familiar.

The woman, the most important acquisition, is left for last. First Cyril must get a wonderful house, a big fancy car, and then put an ad in the paper for the lady who can keep him company. Blackie is employed as driver; much laughter and mishaps ensue.

The story, which is quite long (as are the others), moves fast and is never boring. Cozier knows how to hold you, whether he’s writing about lovers and poets in a cobbler’s shop in Text Messages between Lovers or the fervent aspirations of a stowaway boy making his way from St Vincent to Tobago in the early 20th century – The Runaway Boy. What’s quite a feat in Text Messages between Lovers is that there are two sets of lovers, one of them quite chaste and romantic, the other witty, naughty, and limerick-y:

The earth is wide

the sea is deep

my love for you

I cannot keep

but hope that someday

we will meet

between the blanket

and the sheet.

Cozier is a sound moralist, but knows (wisely) to put entertainment first. In one of his most thought-provoking stories. The Special Child, he has enough gumption to keep you interested, respectful of what others may want or think, never mind you or I, dear reader, would probably never agree to do it ourselves, no matter how long we stayed in Ping’s rum shop in Icacos, courtesy of an estate Papillon is said to have stayed at.

Finding One’s Self is an autobiographical story, and one of my favourites, but who knows how much is true? Only Cozier.

Certainly the ending is not true – for the hero turns priest, and not just to get at the wine, a good enough deal from what the story reveals. The priest in this story, the first one, has his lesson cut out for him. It’s riotous comedy all the way.

I recently had the luck to attend a reading in Rio Claro where Cozier read The Stranger, a story from an earlier collection, to a group of literature students. They loved it. I had read it before, but to hear it read by the author was memorable. It’s one of his best stories, accurate about types of men and friendships, and convincingly blends pathos with humour, adventure with mystery, and the joy that comes from having good taste in shoes.

Keith Jardim is the author of Near Open Water: Stories. He teaches fiction workshops at the Naipaul House.