THE SUN SALUTES YOU

by C. Everard Palmer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 7, 1971

Set in his native Kendal, Jamaica, like Everard's Big Doc Bitteroot (p. 119, J-45), this less successful novel begins with the return to Kendal of 21-year-old Mike Johnson, set on avenging the financial and spiritual destruction of his father by a former employee in his trucking business. Matt Southern, the culprit, now owns not only all the trucks but the town's one ""Great House,"" its store, and its inhabitants as well. In a series of tepid encounters, Mike falls in love with Matt's step-daughter (""I like to be myself,"" she says, and, ""Interesting! We have the same ideas""). They court by the river because ""for them, the river more than anything else, provided them a halo of togetherness."" Threatened, Matt frames Mike and almost succeeds in getting him out of the way, but the boy is vindicated in a final courtroom scene, ""gravelly voiced"" Matt is exposed, and Mike is on his way to eminence as a trucker. Customs and flavors of Jamaica are incidentally conveyed here, but the minor characters (in whom the color rests) are simple caricatures, the villain two dimensional at best, and the lovers, like the plot, formal and lifeless.

Pub Date: Sept. 7, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION