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EARTHQUAKE by Andrew Salkey

EARTHQUAKE

By

Pub Date: May 5th, 1969
Publisher: Roy

No great shakes. Spending the summer with their grandparents, three Jamaican youngsters play games, hear Gran' Pa's stories, and befriend a local prophet. Marcus of the Rastafarian Brethren stresses peace and love in his ""Back to Africa"" preachings, warns them to repent, but won't commit himself about the possibility of an earthquake. Several tremors set Ricky, Doug and Polly to thinking, and Doug to dreaming, and when the quake occurs, they rescue Marcus--just like in Doug's dream. Gran' Pa tells about the really big 1907 earthquake, Marcus recovers and resumes his missionizing, summer's almost over. Shaggy, L'il Abner-like drawings have (a little) more life than the meandering story, and Marcus sounds like a de-raced Garvey.