Narrative
Temekoe
Not translated into English
Edgar Cairo · 1969
Synopsis
In a courtyard in Paramaribo where Creole families live in hardship, a son tells of his father, Nelis. Poor, hard-working, a man of duty and ideals, Nelis adores his youngest boy; but little by little, on coming home from work, he becomes taciturn, unable to say what he thinks, and the bond that united them comes undone despite the love they bear each other. The narrator tries to understand this estrangement: a hard childhood in the countryside, a son raised in the city, or the legacy of a long oppression.
Context
Published in Suriname in 1969, in Sranan, this first book was rewritten ten years later in Surinamese Dutch, then again in 1988 in a language closer to standard Dutch, with the subtitle the story of a father and a son; it was reissued in 2024. Partly autobiographical, it sets out the theme the author called the sorrow of existing: a lack of self-esteem and confidence that drives one to withdraw, and that would dominate all his work. In Suriname, however, his most widely read book remains a 1976 novel about the torments of a family around winti.
Who it is for
For those who like childhood stories in which the love between a father and his son is lost without anyone wanting it.
Prizes and reception
Rewritten three times by its author and reissued in 2024, it is the book with which he entered literature.
Sources for this page 2
The pages consulted to check this page.