Minty Alley by C.L.R. James

Minty Alley Reviews

• 
  Nat K

  ”It would be the first time in his life that he had even voluntarily interfered in anybody’s private affairs.“
  
  #2 Minty Alley, Trinidad, 1928. A hotbed of scandal, passions and goings on. Think “Upstairs, Downstairs” (without the upstairs and the downstairs).
  
  Mr. Haynes is a well to do twenty year old who has recently lost his mother, and can longer afford the upkeep of the mortgage repayment of the family home. In an attempt to save it, he downsizes by moving to a single room in Minty Alley, while he rents out his mother’s home. That’s when the fun begins.
  
  At first he finds it hard to settle in his room, but he soon gets used to the noise and comings and goings of the other boarders. As the story progresses, he becomes more intrigued and entrenched in these very matters, and Haynes realises that he has a prime position from which to ”…watch No.2 at work and at play.” Haynes inadvertently finds he becomes the confidant of his neighbours, as their complicated relationships spill over to his part of the house.
  
  Philandering, adultery, insinuations.
  
  There is a Caribbean manner of speech, with each of the characters speaking slightly differently according to their lot in life. Their station, if you like. It’s quite a class conscious book, mainly working class, with the vernacular reflecting this. Each class simultaneously envious and disdainful of the other.
  
  Miscegenation is a word I’d not heard of before, and I was quite taken aback when I looked up its meaning. Especially in the context of this book, which features mainly native Trinidadians as characters. Though scratching beneath the surface of an easy read which has an olde world soap opera feel to it, the story is classist, sexist, misogynist and very focussed on colour. Which is what I guess was Mr. James’ intention.
  
  "Men is all deceivers."
  "She always was a jealous woman."
  
  Oh what a wicked web we weave! Talk about entanglements. Plenty of them to get ensnared in here, as we watch the dramas play out at Minty Alley. He said, she said. You scream, I scream, we all scream for icecream.
  
  This book is vibrant, boisterous and loud. Plenty of feints and heaving bosoms. Attempted crimes of passion. I’m sure it’s the best education Mr. Haynes could ever have hoped for. Better than any he could find abroad.
  
  Seriously humourous, over the top, with flamboyant characterisations. Great fun.
  
  ”In the close atmosphere, the smell of bay rum and smelling salts, mingled with the smell of cheap perfume and human flesh, was almost overpowering.”
  
  Trigger warning! There is a distressing scene of domestic violence where a young boy is mercilessly beaten by his mother. It is awful to read for its cruelty, even though it does have context in the story.
  
  This book is one of the Black Britain: Writing Back series. It has an introduction by Bernadine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other), who curated a series of six novels by writers of black UK heritage in conjunction with Penguin Books. From the intro I learnt that Cyril Lionel Robert James (aka CLR James) was born in Trinidad in 1901 and migrated to Lancashire, UK in 1932. Over the years he moved ofen, ending up in the States for a time, before returning to the UK. Minty Alley was the first novel to be published in Britain by a black Caribbean writer, so it was truly a momentous achievement. Particularly as it set the pathway for future writers of similar background. Minty Alley is also the only novel he wrote. Please have a look at the other titles on offer in this series. It’s a stellar mix of writing styles, authors and genres.
  
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
  
  "Ask for what you want. If you don't ask, you don't get."
• 
  K.J. Charles

  Interesting novel by the great CLR James, which was the first novel by a black West Indian to be published in England. It's set in Trinidad, and chronicles a rather hopeless and ineffectual young man as he rents a room in no 2 Minty Alley and becomes fascinated by the dramas acted out by the people he lives with. It's a slice-of-life sort of book focusing on character rather than heavily plot driven, with a great deal on the page for the reader to consider: colourism, racism, misogyny/sexism, domestic violence and abuse, religion, exploitation. Mostly exploitation, really, on many varying axes: what we've got here are people living a hard life who can support one another but more often pull each other down in their efforts to gain just a little power or control.
  
  Which sounds heavier than it feels in the reading. This rather reminded me of the later
  London Belongs to Me in its soap opera feel and the slightly detached, ironic viewpoint, in this case because Haynes, the POV character, basically fails to engage with his own life.
  
  An interesting read. I'm sorry it was his only novel, though in fairness, he was busy.
• 
  Alwynne

  I've known about C.L.R. James's academic work and his prominent status as a radical, black intellectual for a long time, but what I didn't realise was that he originally wanted to write fiction. Unfortunately after reading this, I have an inkling of why that ambition never really worked out. As part of Bernadine Evaristo's wider project to resurrect classic work by black authors, Penguin recently reissued Minty Alley his only published novel from 1936. It's set in Trinidad in the 1920s. At the heart of the story, and eventually the action, is a young man Haynes whose life changes when his mother dies. Haynes is middle-class, solitary and inexperienced, he works in a bookshop and spends his spare time immersed in books. Suddenly forced to cut back on his spending he rents a room in the working-class Minty Alley where he's set to receive a very different education in the ways of the world. His new home's dominated by women, the only other man's the libidinous Benoit whose increasingly notorious affairs are about to disrupt this settled household. When all hell breaks loose, Haynes shifts from outside observer to something similar to Arthur Clennam's role in Little Dorrit, everyone's suddenly rushing to get his opinion on the latest scandal.
  
  Minty Alley is a realist, slice-of-life story but it never really develops, it works well up until the point when Benoit's multiple infidelities are revealed but then it seems to stagnate, and James's seems to be continually circling, endlessly going over the same ground but with minor variations. Much of the narrative consists of conversations between Haynes and the Minty Alley women. Beyond these characters there's a curious feeling of absence, like watching a stage play confined in space and time. What's outside this house's boundary resembles a painted backdrop, barely referenced, except for brief anecdotes that crop up in the dialogue between Haynes and his housemates. What's strikingly clear is how rigidly stratified Trinidadian society was at the time, particularly around class, gender, and colourism. There are hints too of a complex series of negotiations between the modern and the traditional starting to have an impact on the local culture and the community. All of which I found fascinating but disappointingly the more I read, the harder I found it to sustain my interest.
• 
  Kevin

  Pioneering West Indian literature…
  
  --Only a scholar like C.L.R. James could get me to read a novel (
  rare to begin with) driven by a modest setting and characters (realism). I tend to go big with the few fictions I commit to (ex. dystopic/utopic thought-experiments); James’ nonfiction tomes on revolutions are a much higher priority, but alas I can only pile on so many tomes at once…
  --I will let literary scholars/critiques dissect this book’s cultural significance (ex.
  On the First Novel Published By a Black Caribbean Writer in England); written in 1928 (published in 1936 by George Orwell’s publisher), the book’s context is thus colonial rather than post-colonial since Trinidad did not gain political independence until 1962.
  
  --I experienced this book in a similar manner to
  Zami: A New Spelling of My Name; both featured dynamic characters censored from mainstream literature, i.e. working class/poor women of colour etc.
  --A possible role of literature I find compelling is weaving nonfiction’s more-abstract structural analyses (ex. colonialism’s divide-and-rule) into portrayals of everyday visceral experiences on the individual level, but sadly I have encountered very few examples illuminating the structures of real-world capitalism in story-form:
  -ex.
  Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present: I cannot pretend that my favourite economics/Sci-Fi cross-over is for readers merely looking for a Sci-Fi novel, rather than readers seeking analysis of capitalism similar to the author Varoufakis' prior nonfiction
  Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails.
  -ex.
  The Ministry for the Future: coming from the opposite direction is a Sci-Fi writer trying to integrate structural analysis; it’s a worthwhile start…
• 
  BookOfCinz

  My friend loan me this book when he heard I was writing a blog post on Classic Caribbean Reads, this book he said, should definitely be on the list. Minty Alley was originally published in the 1930s and was out of print for a long time until "recently" more copies became available. I have never heard of this book until I received a loan but I am happy to got to read it.
  
  
  The book is set in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1930s, we meet a young Mr. Haynes who in an effort to save money decides to downsize, rent out his house and go live on # Minty Alley. At #2 Minty Alley Mr. Haynes gives a vivid account of the persons he meets in what seems to be a tenement yard. We meet Mrs. Rouse, Benoit, Maisie, Nurse and some others. In this book we get a look into live at #2 Minty Alley, we meet some very flawed characters and we see Trinidad like I have never seen it before.
  
  Honestly, I enjoyed reading this book. I love reading books set in the Caribbean that is filled with vibrant characters and hilarious situations. This book is about love, life in the Caribbean and loss. While I did enjoy the book, my only drawback was that it might have been just a tad bit too long. Other than that, if you are looking for an authentic Caribbean read, I recommend this.
• 
  Issicratea

  I bought this because I was intrigued by the series ('Black Britain: Writing Back', published by Penguin and edited by Bernardine Evaristo), and because the novel itself sounded engaging. It was the first novel by a black West Indian to be published in the UK, in 1936, and it has a certain curiosity value as the only work of fiction by the historian C.L.R. James.
  
  Set in James’s native Trinidad, it opens with a young man, Mr Haynes, moving out of his family home after his mother’s death to a cheaper rented lodging in the rackety alley of the title. Haynes, a passive character and essentially an observer, watches on as the various rackety inhabitants of the alley get on with their rackety lives. It’s amiable enough, but it just didn’t grip me enough for me to get past the quarter-way mark. There wasn’t any real sign of a plot, none of the characters stood out for me, and I wasn’t getting too much joy from the writing. I haven’t given up on the series, though—there are some other intriguing-sounding titles.
  
• 
  Bob

  I have very much enjoyed the political and historical work of C.L.R. James, but reading MINTY ALLEY makes me wish that James had spent a little more time writing fiction. In this Trinidadian West Indian novel, Haynes, a young middle-class man trying to save money, moves into cheaper lodgings at No. 2 Minty Alley. He is determined to keep his distance from the other colorful inhabitants of Minty Alley, but gradually becomes part of its rich cultural life, discovering a great deal about the various lodgers and at the same time, about himself. The characters of Maisie, Haynes, Mrs. Rouse, and Benoit are unforgettable for both Haynes and the reader. The book is also an interesting exploration of the "mutually impoverishing alienation of the educated West Indian from the mainstream."
• 
  Aisha (thatothernigeriangirl)

  3.75 stars
  
  I really enjoyed this book. At first I wasn’t sure why skin color, weight and hair were used as character descriptors so many times, but I later came to think of it as an intentional commentary included by the author.
  
  Misogyny in language also appears in the narrative and even Haynes (the main character/narrator) noted how some of the other characters seems to revolve around him (for being a man) — then he goes on to say “being a man is good”. I took all of these as commentaries on misogyny in the Trinidadian society (and perhaps time) that this story was set in.
  
  Class also plays an important role in this story because of how all the other characters revered “Mr Haynes”, despite him being much younger and less experienced than them — well, class mixed with his gender anyway.
  
  I’m still surprised by how much I enjoyed this book but the barrack-style of the setting, all the drama, gossips, affairs, arguments and quarrels it entails reminded me so much of some sitcoms I grew up on in Nigeria.
• 
  Tawallah

  This is a Caribbean classic and the first book published in 1936 in London which defined West Indian Literature. It began the trend of authors who relocated to London or America or Canada and wrote stories about their home island.
  
  Minty Alley is a sort of coming of age tale set in the 1930s in Trinidad though it is never explicitly stated. Mr. Haynes is a twenty year old who has been coddled by his mother. She had big dreams for his life but died unexpectedly. Things are tight financially and Mr. Haynes decided to rent out his house and rent a room to pay the mortgage on his family home. What follows is the year long adventure at the new setting of #2 Minty Alley.
  
  The chapters are often short but very descriptive. It felt like a story you would hear among family or older people who live in the Caribbean. There is some dialect but it is explained. Despite being only 244 pages, it dragged in some parts. Overall this is a light story which is authentic of life in an urban area of most Caribbean islands.
• 
  ShaunMS

  Watching Haynes cluelessly, helplessly get drawn into the shenanigans of No. 2 Minty Alley is a pleasure. It's also a pleasure to read an early English novel that is centered fully on the lives of Trinidadian characters: issues of class, morality, and gender are present as always, but they resonate very differently.
• 
  Clive Anderson

  Pleasant read a bit like reading a soap nice handling of simple conflicts very West Indian.
  
• 
  DJ

  I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I have to read more Caribbean based novels cause they're so relatable.
• 
  Connor Browne

  Was going to give up on rating stuff but this was absolutely brilliant, incredible to think it was the only novel he wrote.
• 
  Munjiru

  I was asleep. 😴
• 
  Shirvan

  A great description of life in Trinidad.
• 
  Cassandra Smith

  Vibrant and funny and relatable, it doesn't feel like it was written so long ago! The story is totally bonkers, like EastEnders in Trinidad.
• 
  Hans Wiegand

  Utterly hilarious, a young Mr Biswas!
• 
  Candice

  It’s 1920s, but it feels like Peyton Place or your favorite reality show drama. Who’s sleeping with who? Who’s backstabbing who? And why can’t our friend Mr. Haynes move on? Why does he feel obliged/fascinated/stuck/immersed in a way that keeps him firmly in Minty Alley?
• 
  Suzanne Bhagan

  Published in 1936, Minty Alley by Trinidadian author CLR James is one of the first West Indian novels ever. The main setting of the story is the infamous barrack yard of Port of Spain. The story is both sensitive in its character portrayal and full of plenty bacchanal.
• 
  Mrs.

  A sweet West Indian treat!
• 
  James

  I was kind of expecting this book to slap but it was just really dull.
• 
  J

  Funny, well-written, and loaded with a cast of memorable characters. Far ahead of its time. Easy to see why this is the prototype for many classic Caribbean novels.
• 
  Vel Veeter

  The single novel written by CLR James who is quite famous for his history Black Jacobins and his work on cricket, Beyond a Boundary. James grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, and went to school abroad. This novel looks to prefigure a lot of writers who come after James. To me, especially, this novel feels like a precursor to VS Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas, whose main character spends his whole life dreaming of moving into a big house in the city and works (kind of) to achieve this goal, which of course has some caveats.
  
  This novel begins with our main character Haynes with a house already, but quickly realizing he will need to move from it, to let it out, and to move to a smaller place off the rent his house affords. This puts him back in interaction with the working classes of the town.
  
  The novel speaks to the idea of displacement, even by a kind of choice or with the stability of being able to rent out one's space, that happens in modern society. It's also hard to avoid the specter of colonialism in the novel as the market for rentals clearly in based in part of foreign attaches and the like needing certain kinds of spaces. It reminds me of perhaps a person being gentrified out of their neighborhood and renting out a house they inherited in order to afford the higher taxes, but still not making much of an income off of it.
• 
  A Arif

  I had never heard of James before I was made to read this book for a global modernism class. So as my expectations weren’t much, when I finished Minty Alley I was thoroughly entertained. The classism, the racism, the sexism as well as the ever-present humor is so exquisitely illustrated amongst the characters in this book, that it’s hard to not get warped in all James’ storytelling skills. We get the portrayal of each of the characters through Haynes’ eyes and it’s kinda ridiculous to see how much he himself is learning about the people of his own country. It’s entertaining as well as eye opening, at the same Time.
• 
  Maggie

  My new lockdown plan is to read the titles in Penguin and Evaristo’s collaboration of Black Britain: Writing Back. CLR James may be primarily better known in the UK for his cricket commentary, but he was unknown to me. It was an enjoyable novel which is seemingly written for the stage. The action almost entirely takes place within a home and yard - which becomes almost the universe for a small number of main characters. There are some lovely little speeches and moments of hilarity, and the quiet observing Haynes in the centre. There are references to class and colour, but I think it’s more about community and coming of age and love - told with so much heart.