SOURCE: “Temporizing Laughter: The Later Stories of Austin Clarke,” in Fac. Des Lettres & Sciences Humaines, 1989, pp. 127–31.

In the following essay, Ramraj examines Clarke's harsh depiction of the abuses West Indian immigrants often face, and concludes that Clarke's militancy intrudes upon otherwise skillfully written and conceived stories.

Austin Clarke's early stories about West Indian immigrants in Toronto are uncompromisingly blunt depictions of their harsh experiences. These stories are informed by a passionate authorial anger that Clarke makes no effort to control or keep out of his work. Clarke is now perhaps the harshest, bluntest, angriest, most Célinesque of the Caribbean writers who address in their fiction the experiences of English-speaking West Indian immigrants whether in North America or Britain. His early protagonists are themselves angry and outspoken individuals—if only when talking among themselves. They acknowledge that they are victims of a biased system, mention openly their abuses...