Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing and provocative novel!
Review: Ms. Carrington's ability to write about the multi-facets of every character is outstanding. Her writing style allows the reader to easily identify with each character's struggles, pain, and joy on the island of Trinidad. The author is particularly gifted in engulfing the reader in the sensuality felt by the characters. This book is a must read by people of all cultures.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing and provocative novel!
Review: Ms. Carrington's ability to write about the multi-facets of every character is outstanding. Her writing style allows the reader to easily identify with each character's struggles, pain, and joy on the island of Trinidad. The author is particularly gifted in engulfing the reader in the sensuality felt by the characters. This book is a must read by people of all cultures.
Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable beautifully written offering
Review: One cannot simply read this book. The texture and the depth of characters drew me in to a rich, passionate, sensual, sweet and sad experience. The characters are three dimensional, people with whom I'd like to sit down over a cup of coffee. This book is what art should be, an evocative, compelling experience that affects us in so many ways.
Rating:
Summary: Like a Painting
Review: One of my favorite reads this year. A mother and teenage daughter facing the same dilemma struggle alone, each ignorant of the other's predicament. Set in an apartment yard in Port of Spain, we meet Odile and her mother, Myra, Jakob, the noble stick-fighter, Myra's father, and my favorite, the young boy Rory who loves Odile with all his heart. Like a fine painting evokes the soul of a place, A Thirst for Rain let me feel Trinidad and it's people. Carrington shows us it's colors and smells, it's trees, flowers, streets and buildings. Through her wonderfully-drawn, touching characters, we get to share their lives. My only criticism of this book is that I didn't want it to end, I wanted more. However, it is obvious that Carrington is such a talented writer we are sure to get much more of her in the future.
Rating:
Summary: A touching,sensitive tale that you will never forget
Review: Roslyn Carrington aka Simona Taylor is a wonderful writer. As a fellow author I predict great things for Ros. A Thirst for Rain is a well written novel by a brilliant newcomer whose insight is incredible for one so young. As a Caribbean transplant I especially related to the characters in Roslyn's book. She paints vivid imagery and totally gets inside her characters heads. You feel what they feel and you see the world through their eyes. Don't let this book pass you by. You don't just read A Thirst For Rain, you experience it.
Rating:
Summary: Waiting for the sequel!
Review: Roslyn Carrington has a gift for creating wonderfully alive characters who draw you into their lives. I originally purchased the book because I was homesick for Trinidad yet found that this book appeals to everyone because of the way she writes from her heart. The memories of Trinidad it brought back were icing on the cake!
Rating:
Summary: Six Stars
Review: Roslyn Carrington paints a vivid picture of life in Trinidad - so vivid that you are transported there to experience it with all of your senses. She has an exceptional ability to view the world through the eyes of her characters. And this is an intriguing, enchanting world which most outsiders never see. An interplay of quiet dramas takes place within a small residential courtyard. The central characters, a mother and daughter, face identical problems, but are unable to share them with each other. The other characters each have their own stories which are woven expertly into the fabric of the central theme. An outstanding reading experience! You will want the story to continue!
Rating:
Summary: A Thirst For Rain: A Venezuelan Perspective
Review: Rosslyn Carrington's A THIRST FOR RAIN: A Venezuelan Perspective Well-written and fascinating, this novel is set in the island of Trinidad and focuses on two women, Myra and her daughter Odile, who suffer the ravages of machismo and single parenthood. They represent the depressing role in which so many women in tropical countries suffer and how the legacy of fatherless children is repeated from generation to generation. Although Myra had indulged in irresponsible sex, she did everything she could to prevent Odile from repeating her mistake by encouraging her to focus on her studies to assure a better future for herself. But the call of sex is powerful and young people are weak and more vulnerable. Unlike Myra, her daughter loses her baby and there is hope that she'll go back to her studies and make something of herself. In tropical countries, there are also many Slims and Jacobs, Myra's two lovers. Slim is an irresponsible womanizer. He gets her pregnant and treats her with extreme machismo. He also has his eye on Odile and would have made her pregnant if he had the opportunity. Jacob, on the other hand, is an introvert and disabled by his former exploits as a stick fighter. He moves from his small village in the eastern part of the island to its capital where he lives in the past, not caring for the present or the future until he meets Myra. He timidly courts her and eventually becomes her lover. He provides Myra the emotional support and respect which Slim so blatantly denies her. Written in disarmingly plain English, A Thirst for Rain brings back memories of my country, Venezuela, where a vast majority of the population experiences daily the depressing situations described by the author. Countless women are abandoned by machista and irresponsible men, who father their children and then leave them to fend for themselves and their families. This dire situation forces these hapless women to sell their bodies for a pittance in order to alleviate their abject poverty. Women instinctively know that there are many men ready and willing to offer money for sex. They also know that after satisfying their carnal desires, the men will discard them in that incessant search for sex so characteristic of the Latin male. Like Myra, the majority of our Latin American women live in a world of anxiety, incomprehension, and insecurity. Many are unaware of the AIDS virus and the danger it poses. Some think that if they get it, luck will save them. Others have a more fatalistic attitude and believe that death will solve the innumerable and unbearable problems, which assail them. While some of these women hope for a stroke of luck or a miracle, others believe it's their destiny or God's will for them. They will eventually enjoy their rewards in heaven. We have a hint of this idea when Myra, after an arduous workday, sits on a park bench with a beer in her hands and with her eyes shut perhaps dreaming of a better world. These moments provide her with a momentary escape from a dreary and debilitating existence. Myra is conscious of the fact that she has not modeled the best example for and consequently does not have the moral authority to question her daughter's rebellious behavior. However, she has a small ray of hope that her daughter will be different from her by studying hard and graduating and thus saving herself from the fate, the shipwreck, her mother is in. Odile, like so many of us, looks at the world from her own limited point of view without considering the consequences of her actions. She allows her carnal instincts to guide her and like her peers gets involved in the world of sex, which appears to her to be marvelous, exciting and addictive. Little does she realize that this world is like the vortex of a black hole in space, which will suck her into its center with little possibility of escape. Her attraction to this world probably occurred when she listened to her mother's cries of pleasure as she and Slim fornicated. Odile perhaps thinks that she has the right to enjoy the same sexual pleasure. Why not? Her mother's screams of passion and desire perhaps incited her to check it out by immersing herself in the pleasurable world of sexual activity. Although she doesn't fully understand it, she's attracted like an insect to candle light and the possibility of self-destruction. The tension between mother and daughter grows as their pregnancies begin to show. Like the moon, we have a dark side that we wish no one to see. When the inevitable happens, that dark side is revealed and we must face that revelation. We look for the most infantile excuses to cover our tracks, but we are unable to accept those truths that hurt us, that wound us, that make us feel responsible for our failings. First, it is difficult for Myra to confess that she's pregnant. Not knowing that Odile is also pregnant, Myra feels that she's at a disadvantage. She suffers days of anxiety and regret. Finally, the confrontation between mother and daughter opens a wide chasm between them, so wide that both are isolated and become strangers to each other. When Myra knocks on the door of Odile's room and asks her permission to enter, something she has never done before, she realizes that Odile has a right to privacy, which she had all along denied her. Myra is jolted into accepting the fact that she must ask permission to enter her daughter's room. She never thought that such a thing would happen. Myra had forgotten that everyone has to have his or her own space. Perhaps Myra thinks, like most of us, that our children will never grow up because we will always be older than they are. I really enjoyed this first novel by Rosslyn Carrington, not only for reminding me of the daily indignities that so many women suffer every day in so many countries, but also of the irresponsible machismo of many men who contribute to women's suffering. I devoured every page and on finishing the novel, I felt that I personally knew Myra, Odile, Jacob, Rory, Slim, and Sebastian. I said to myself: "Damn, I wish I could tell a story like that!" Jose Francisco Perez Venezuela November 11, 2000
Rating:
Summary: A Thirst For Rain: A Venezuelan Perspective
Review: Rosslyn Carrington's A THIRST FOR RAIN: A Venezuelan Perspective Well-written and fascinating, this novel is set in the island of Trinidad and focuses on two women, Myra and her daughter Odile, who suffer the ravages of machismo and single parenthood. They represent the depressing role in which so many women in tropical countries suffer and how the legacy of fatherless children is repeated from generation to generation. Although Myra had indulged in irresponsible sex, she did everything she could to prevent Odile from repeating her mistake by encouraging her to focus on her studies to assure a better future for herself. But the call of sex is powerful and young people are weak and more vulnerable. Unlike Myra, her daughter loses her baby and there is hope that she'll go back to her studies and make something of herself. In tropical countries, there are also many Slims and Jacobs, Myra's two lovers. Slim is an irresponsible womanizer. He gets her pregnant and treats her with extreme machismo. He also has his eye on Odile and would have made her pregnant if he had the opportunity. Jacob, on the other hand, is an introvert and disabled by his former exploits as a stick fighter. He moves from his small village in the eastern part of the island to its capital where he lives in the past, not caring for the present or the future until he meets Myra. He timidly courts her and eventually becomes her lover. He provides Myra the emotional support and respect which Slim so blatantly denies her. Written in disarmingly plain English, A Thirst for Rain brings back memories of my country, Venezuela, where a vast majority of the population experiences daily the depressing situations described by the author. Countless women are abandoned by machista and irresponsible men, who father their children and then leave them to fend for themselves and their families. This dire situation forces these hapless women to sell their bodies for a pittance in order to alleviate their abject poverty. Women instinctively know that there are many men ready and willing to offer money for sex. They also know that after satisfying their carnal desires, the men will discard them in that incessant search for sex so characteristic of the Latin male. Like Myra, the majority of our Latin American women live in a world of anxiety, incomprehension, and insecurity. Many are unaware of the AIDS virus and the danger it poses. Some think that if they get it, luck will save them. Others have a more fatalistic attitude and believe that death will solve the innumerable and unbearable problems, which assail them. While some of these women hope for a stroke of luck or a miracle, others believe it's their destiny or God's will for them. They will eventually enjoy their rewards in heaven. We have a hint of this idea when Myra, after an arduous workday, sits on a park bench with a beer in her hands and with her eyes shut perhaps dreaming of a better world. These moments provide her with a momentary escape from a dreary and debilitating existence. Myra is conscious of the fact that she has not modeled the best example for and consequently does not have the moral authority to question her daughter's rebellious behavior. However, she has a small ray of hope that her daughter will be different from her by studying hard and graduating and thus saving herself from the fate, the shipwreck, her mother is in. Odile, like so many of us, looks at the world from her own limited point of view without considering the consequences of her actions. She allows her carnal instincts to guide her and like her peers gets involved in the world of sex, which appears to her to be marvelous, exciting and addictive. Little does she realize that this world is like the vortex of a black hole in space, which will suck her into its center with little possibility of escape. Her attraction to this world probably occurred when she listened to her mother's cries of pleasure as she and Slim fornicated. Odile perhaps thinks that she has the right to enjoy the same sexual pleasure. Why not? Her mother's screams of passion and desire perhaps incited her to check it out by immersing herself in the pleasurable world of sexual activity. Although she doesn't fully understand it, she's attracted like an insect to candle light and the possibility of self-destruction. The tension between mother and daughter grows as their pregnancies begin to show. Like the moon, we have a dark side that we wish no one to see. When the inevitable happens, that dark side is revealed and we must face that revelation. We look for the most infantile excuses to cover our tracks, but we are unable to accept those truths that hurt us, that wound us, that make us feel responsible for our failings. First, it is difficult for Myra to confess that she's pregnant. Not knowing that Odile is also pregnant, Myra feels that she's at a disadvantage. She suffers days of anxiety and regret. Finally, the confrontation between mother and daughter opens a wide chasm between them, so wide that both are isolated and become strangers to each other. When Myra knocks on the door of Odile's room and asks her permission to enter, something she has never done before, she realizes that Odile has a right to privacy, which she had all along denied her. Myra is jolted into accepting the fact that she must ask permission to enter her daughter's room. She never thought that such a thing would happen. Myra had forgotten that everyone has to have his or her own space. Perhaps Myra thinks, like most of us, that our children will never grow up because we will always be older than they are. I really enjoyed this first novel by Rosslyn Carrington, not only for reminding me of the daily indignities that so many women suffer every day in so many countries, but also of the irresponsible machismo of many men who contribute to women's suffering. I devoured every page and on finishing the novel, I felt that I personally knew Myra, Odile, Jacob, Rory, Slim, and Sebastian. I said to myself: "Damn, I wish I could tell a story like that!" Jose Francisco Perez Venezuela November 11, 2000
Rating:
Summary: A Thirst for Rain
Review: Several stories have been written about single parent homes fighting society's most basic hardships in an effort to rise above predetermined stereotypes or much less, survive with a sense of normalcy. In the United States these achievements are often a tall order for families facing hardships like poverty, crime, and domestic abuse; likewise, in a poor rural setting on the island of Trinidad, families are forced to accept certain realities with time, hard work, and education as their only way out. Myra, a beautiful, hard working Creole style cook, who makes a living selling lunches to people out of a small hut in Port of Spain, Trinidad, strives to hold her business and family together while turbulent forces threaten to pull her whole life apart. On the surface, a reader sees Myra's struggle with her rebellious teenage daughter and a father with deteriorating mental health but this novel goes so much deeper in dealing with feelings of rage, resentment, disappointment and loss. I was extremely impressed with Roslyn Carrington's amazing ability to develop each character with enough substance and detail that as a reader, you feel a sense of connection with all the people in the story. In a clever way, the author gave all the characters in the book a personality trait that in some way related to people we know in our personal lives and/or ourselves. As Myra's world slowly closed in around her "A Thirst for Rain" brings you deeper into her thought process as well as the minds of those around her. Even with the cultural differences of Trinidad to the States there is no ambiguity in the emotions that are being expressed by all the characters. This truly inspiring and uplifting tale of hope and sacrifice should be considered an absolute must read for people who are ready for the ultimate drama. For me, "A Thirst for Rain" provided a wonderful example of how close knit communities can pull together in crisis and how the ability of one woman to trust can affect the lives of all those who care about her.
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