BOOK
COMRADE SISTER - available now
In 1979, the Marxist-Leninist New Jewel Movement under Maurice Bishop overthrew the government of the Caribbean island country of Grenada, establishing the People’s Revolutionary Government. The United States under President Reagan infamously invaded Grenada in 1983, staying until the New National Party won election, effectively dealing a death blow to socialism in Grenada.
With Comrade Sister, Laurie Lambert offers the first comprehensive study of how gender and sexuality produced different narratives of the Grenada Revolution. Reimagining this period with women at its center, Laurie Lambert shows how the revolution must be recognized for its both productive and corrosive tendencies. Lambert argues that the literature of the Grenada Revolution exposes how the more harmful aspects of revolution are visited on, and are therefore more apparent to, women. Calling attention to the mark of black feminism on the literary output of Caribbean writers of this period, Lambert addresses the gap between women’s active participation in Caribbean revolution versus the lack of recognition they continue to receive.
Readers can purchase a copy of Comrade Sister from University of Virginia Press or from these select bookstores:
A Different Booklist (Canada)
Bookshop.org (Find your local bookstore)
Indigo (Canada)
Art and Soul Books (Grenada)
Cover art: In Search of Self (2001) by Susan Mains. Acrylic and mixed media; 60 x 56 inches. (Courtesy of the artist).
Listen to Lambert discuss Comrade Sister on this New Books Network podcast.
REVIEWS
“...Lambert brings into the mainstream discussion several unpublished, important, and understudied texts—notably those by Walcott, Salkey, and Purcell—the significance of which is hard to overstate.”
“Comrade Sister allows us to see feminist points of solidarity between people whose perspectives might otherwise have been obscured by a hard line between progressive and conservative, a line that does not always map neatly onto Caribbean politics.”
On October 26, 2020 I had the pleasure of spending some virtual time with Ronald Cummings (Brock University) and Yuko Miki (Fordham AFAM) to discuss my work and the process to write Comrade Sister.