Forewarned is forearmed: a carnival of masculinities

Abstract

[Extract] If you think you are going to get an exotic travelogue about the alluring Caribbean isle in Malcolm Knox's award-winning novel Jamaica, you're sorely mistaken. If it wasn't enough that the whole rhetoric of exoticism has come under charge in the last decade to warn you otherwise, let this review forewarn you. In the true vein of the carnivalesque, Jamaica tells its readers much more about the grotesque (and — thank God — usually concealed) bloated underbelly of uppercrust but ordinary starchedsuit- and-cufflinks blokey Australia than it does about the charms of a romantic, coconut-oil scented, captivating, alluring, picturesque, and [insert more exoticist synonyms here] Caribbean tourist-destination.