The White Man in the Tree and Other Stories

by Mark Kurlansky

• ISBN13: 9780671036058
• ISBN10: 067103605X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Washington Square Press

Summary

The award-winning author of the bestsellers Cod and The Basque History of the World makes his eagerly anticipated fiction debut -- with this funny and moving romp through the world's melting pot. The White Man in the Tree and other stories The White Man in the Tree is a comedy of cultural misunderstandings set in the Caribbean, New York, and Paris, a novella and eight stories about people who, because of their differences -- between men and women, blacks and whites, Caribbeans and visitors, Jews and Christians, rich and poor -- misjudge each other. As celebrated a nonfiction writer as he is, Mark Kurlansky was born to write fiction as well: he has an ability to unmask our foibles and write about love with wit and outright humor. Whether it is a sophisticated European filmmaker, an ambitious young black Haitian woman, a promising politician obsessed with women's feet, or a fish-out-of-water rabbi in search of a kosher chicken in Curaçao, each of Kurlansky's characters engages us with impulses and interactions that are by turns comic, insightful, and poignant. The White Man in the Tree is an affectionate portrait of a unique society, where Europe, America, Africa, and Asia meet Latin America. Filled with surprises and delight as Kurlansky approaches each scene from a new and unexpected angle, The White Man in the Tree is a tender, wholly original, and thoroughly entertaining fiction debut.

Author Biography

Mark Kurlansky is the author of The Basque History of the World; the New York Times bestseller Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World; A Chosen Few: The Resurrection of European Jewry; and A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny. During the past twenty years he has spent a great deal of time in the Caribbean, including seven years as the Chicago Tribune's Caribbean correspondent, and has written numerous works of short fiction and journalism about the region. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Contents

The White Man in the Tree: A novella in two parts

Devaluation

The Unclean

Naked

Beautiful Mayagüez Women

Vertical Administration

Packets and Paperscraps

The Deerness of Life

Desaparecidos

The White Man's Glossary