Limin’ Times by the Writers’ Circle of St. Croix (U.S.V.A.) (Author House: 2009. ISBN 978-1-4389-7493-4)
Limin’ Verb.
Caribbean term: “To relieve from attention or effort: relax.”
“Limin’ ” is just hanging out, to buss a lime with friends, dat means to take advantage of life, yeah, mon. De ony ting you waste is time, cause dat’s the only ting in life comes free.” (Source: National Geographic article, “Limin’ Times” by Chalres Kulander.
So for those of us from colder latitudes, “limin'” s the equivalent of “chillin'”, but said with an island lilt. I picked up this little collection of essays, poems, and short fiction when I was on a cruise in the Caribbean this past spring. I love to read local writing when I travel:oo It let’s me feel the pulse of the place and learn a bit of local culture. I got those things from this rather sparse (though not cheap) collection. Some of the writing was topnotch. A collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, though set in London, was pretty darn good. A long novella about the Maroons (“the Hiawatha Project”) occupies too much of the book and is a tad disappointing. The tale rambled on without any real plot, point, or intrigue. I would have much rather read the author’s poem about the Maroons in one pass than have the verse interspersed throughout the novella.
This collection also has the misfortune of having been printed by AuthorHouse, one of many POD (Print On Demand) outfits out there. Not having a professional editor outside AuthorHouse go over the manuscript before printing causes irritations like the lack of consistent indentation over 1/3 of the book. Still the product is better than my first two efforts at self-publishing in terms of overall quality, but, when a writers’ group is behind the effort, you’d expect more. Not as local in flavor or as literary as I expected. 2 and 1/2 stars out of 5.
