SOURCE: A review of Dear Future, in African-American Review, Vol. 32, No. 3, Fall, 1998, pp. 506-8.

In the following review, Hathaway provides a positive evaluation of Dear Future.

In a 1992 interview (Ariel 24.1 [1993]), Guyanese author and editor Frank Birbalsingh discussed with his countryman Fred D'Aguiar the relationship between art and politics in D'Aguiar's first two volumes of poetry, Mama Dot (1985) and Airy Hall (1989). Birbalsingh remarked on D'Aguiar's ability to “record the continuing suffering and deprivation of the Guyanese” people, but he was particularly struck by “the absence of any instinct to blame. Your quiet recording of the human toll of Guyanese politics suggests deep and genuine affection for the victims—a firm bond of unspoken solidarity with them. But you don't cry out.” D'Aguiar replied that, “in writing about politics, I felt I should try and step back from any emotional attempt to lay blame or responsibility. I felt there are...