Happy Sunday!
I wanted to send out the invitation early for someone (anyone) to read with me in Q2.
Did I complete Q1’s book? Not yet but we have two more weeks in March and I feel like I can dedicate some time next week to reading so you can expect a book review and reading recap/discussion of River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer really soon.
But read with me in Q2, from April to June and we will dive into the unique novel in short stories, Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed.
I started this book in 2025 but I didn’t finish it and I think it will be great read, a deep dive into Trinidad and Tobago culture and society.
Q2 Readalong Invitation: Let’s Read Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed Together
Book synopsis of Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed
oconut trees. Carnival. Rum and coke. To many outsiders, these idyllic images represent the supposed easy life in Caribbean nations such as Trinidad and Tobago. However, the reality is far different for those who live there—a society where poverty and patriarchy savagely rule, and where love and revenge often go hand in hand.
Written in a combination of English and Trinidad Creole, Pleasantview reveals the dark side of the Caribbean dream. In this novel-in-stories about a fictional town in Trinidad, we meet a political candidate who sets out to slaughter endangered turtles for fun, while his rival candidate beats his “outside-woman,” so badly she ends up losing their baby. On the night of a political rally, the abused woman exacts a very public revenge, the trajectory of which echoes through Pleasantview, ending with one boy introducing another boy to a gun and to an ideology which will help him aim the weapon.
Merging the beauty and brutality of Trinidadian culture evoked by writers such as Ingrid Persaud and Claire Adam with the linguistic experimentation of Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings, Pleasantview is a landmark work from an important new voice in international literary fiction.
Join Me on StoryGraph
The official readalong and discussion will be hosted on StoryGraph and you can join and follow along on the app or tune in here in June as well chat more about our thoughts and opinions of Celeste Mohammed’s debut.
I hope you can join me. I got my copy of Pleasantview locally at Kingston Bookshop in Half-Way-Tree in 2025.
Thanks for reading and we will chat again tomorrow.
Leave a comment if you plan to join me next quarter.
