Jamaica Boy in Search of America

AMAICA BOY IN SEARCH OF AMERICA is the coming of age story of a twelve-year-old boy in Jamaica. Set primarily in the violent socialist regime of Michael Manley during the 1970s, but in the United States as well, Brockton Findley, the book’s protagonist, learns painfully to accept his fluid and ambiguous sexuality in an extremely homophobic country that kills gay people on sight, and to come to terms with the brutal rape and murder of his best friend, Sonya. Much of the novel centers on the close relationship between Brockton and his father, Basil. We witness the man’s descent into madness, as he comes to believe that he is Jesus Christ. Brockton endures a traumatic purification ritual conducted by his father to heal him of his adolescent struggles that could have cost him his life.

JAMAICA BOY IN SEARCH OF AMERICA is about the failed immigrant experience and one boy’s determination to redeem this failure. It is the story of Basil Findley, who uproots his family to come to America to achieve stardom as a singer. When Basil fails to beat the odds stacked against him, we see the dark side of his aspiration and how the lure of the American dream plunges him into despair so great that it rips his family apart. This novel is about the return to home and the painful re-adjustment it requires of those who have fled it. Brockton's only hope for salvation and freedom is to escape to America.