Description
Book Synopsis"When in 1845 the German-American inventor John Adolphus Etzler claims to have created a machine that can harness the power of nature to free people from the drudgery of labour, he is met by both scepticism and hope.
Based on a real historical figure and the actual journey he made from England to Trinidad with the motley crew of followers he recruits in Britain, Robert Antoni’s novel is a brilliant exploration of the persistence of dreams and the individual human stories that underlie Etzler’s quest. In particular, Antoni’s creation of Willy, one of the younger utopians, is a tragi-comic tour-de-force in revealing his contrary impulses—between young love for the sparky Marguerite, loyalty to his family as they discover the life-threatening realities of the tropical paradise, and his fascination with Trinidad and Etzler’s utopian dream.
Not least of the novel’s attractions is the richly comic account of its researching, in the titanic battles between the unscrupulous researcher and the librarian who will protect her photocopier, though not her virtue, with her life. How this prose epic of Trinidad’s history connects to the present is a matter for the reader to deduce – but connect it does, in many satirical ways.
Trade Review"Antoni has a fine ear for cultural tensions and a wicked sense of humor."--"Ocean Drive Magazine" "As Flies to Whatless Boys" by Trinidadian Robert Antoni is a tragic historical novel, accented with West Indian cadence and captivating humour, and provides an unforgettable glimpse into 19th-century T&T."--"Trinidad Express Newspapers" "If you are a smart reader who likes something different, this will make you happy."--Spacebeer (Blog) "A pleasure of a read. A lovely artifact of a book. A delight on many levels, and a deeply felt, deeply moving novel."--Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud (Blog) "A marvel of a novel, layered in histories, Robert Antoni's unique and engaging "As Flies to Whatless Boys" is an unforgettable and matchless work of fiction. A crowning achievement in an exceptional body of work by this amazingly talented writer."--Edwidge Danticat, author of "Claire of the Sea Light" "As Flies to Whatless Boys" is an inventive, witty, comic romance that is as much about history and adventure as it is about language. With virtuosic attention to language, Robert Antoni delightfully explores the written word in all its forms--as letters, as e-mails, as reportage, as narration, as archives--to tell stories, to paint characters, to demonstrate the range and integrity of English and its dialects, and to edge us closer to ourselves as equally human beings."--Earl Lovelace, author of "Is Just a Movie" "As Flies to Whatless Boys" is a brilliant novel that is rivetingly localized in a distant time and an untouched place, and yet somehow speaks vibrantly to this present age and to the universal human condition. Robert Antoni is a treasure of our literary culture."--Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" "Like the preserved hummingbirds at its center, this novel is a tender and strange object, referencing something no longer with us, but maintained in its beauty as art."--Tiphanie Yanique, author of "How to Escape from a Leper Colony" "Robert Antoni is one of the great comic writers of the New World--that sweaty, sun-blasted, eternally baroque, dystopia where our tears, issued from laughter or sorrow or more often both, have the potency of overproof rum. "As Flies to Whatless Boys" is a mishmash merriment of an adventure story, an island of luscious prose in a sea of delight."--Bob Shacochis, author of "The Woman Who Lost Her Soul" "Antoni is an audacious storyteller, mining his very own language and ways of telling from the linguistic cornucopia of Trinidad. His story is moving and is also hilarious."--Lawrence Scott, author of "Light Falling on Bamboo" "Robert Antoni doesn't make giant steps. He makes quantum--and sometimes hilarious--leaps past whatever we called metafiction to the same territory as Richard Powers and David Foster Wallace. But like those men and unlike nearly everybody else, he never forgets that at the core of it all you've still got to tell a rip-roaring story."--Marlon James, author of "The Book of Night Women"
