Chapter 2 Summary

"No Telephone to Heaven" This chapter begins with a searing poetic description of the life of a devalued slave in "this land", followed by the description of the truck driving up the mountain having NO TELEPHONE TO HEAVEN written across its sides. Narration describes how no-one in the truck knew why the words had been painted on the truck by its former owner, a drug dealer who took his profits from ganja sales to a new life in London. Narration comments on possible meanings of "no telephone to heaven" (see "Quotes," p. 16), and then discusses the different sorts of heaven and/or God the people in the truck attempted to worship and felt betrayed by. Narration also details the different frustrations and suffering (being a servant, being far from home, living in a society torn apart by constant violence) experienced by the Jamaican...