Crick Crack, Monkey

by Merle Hodge

Book Overview

A revealing novel of childhood about Tee who is being made socially acceptable by her Aunt Beatrice so that she can cope with the caste system of Trinidad.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0435989510
• ISBN13: 9780435989514
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A great text to teach in a postcolonial literature course

This short but intense novel lends itself to a fruitful discussion of postcolonial issues such as appropriation and abrogation, assimilation and acculturation, hybridity, mimicry, and Eurocentrism. I taught it with considerable success in an upper-division class. The students found the ending disappointing, though. The cultural and linguistic complexity of Trinidadian society and the country's struggle to carve out an identity for itself are effectively captured in the confusion of the orphaned protagonist, Tee, who is torn between the warm but no-nonsense environment at her Tantie's and the 'properness' of life with Beatrice, her aunt who lives in the city.

Poignant critique of the effects of colonialism

More than humor, I remember this book for its poignancy, the effects on a young girl of her own culture (black, Caribbean) being denigrated and other cultures and anything associated with whiteness and England being praised. So touching was the scene where Tee is playing with dolls; so telling is her idealization of the dolls' world and the juxtaposition with her own. Everyone wants the best for their children; this book examines how people decide what is best and how these preconceptions affect the very children they love and want to protect.

If you enjoyed Miguel Street, You'd love this book.

This is one of the rolicking, humorous West Indian novels in the vein of V.S. Naipaul's Miguel Street, Alvin Bennet's God, the Stonebreaker, Austin Clarke's Amongst the Thistles and Torns, and A House for Mr. Bishwas. It captures the bitter-sweet experiences of a little girl growing up in Trnidad and Tobago. An excellent Caribbean novel.