Vintage Rum and Coca Cola Ralph Boissiere 1956

This is a vintage book published in Melbourne 1956. There are a few tares and creases in the book and some age marks on the pages and I did find a page that was torn. Please refer to the photographs.

Dimension: 18 cm H x 13 cm w

The setting for De Boissiere’s second novel “Rum and Coca Cola” ( published in 1956) is the Second World War when thousands of American soldiers came to Trinidad to build and man military bases…The novel is, in a Caribbean context, a rare and largely successful attempt to create fictional models which give a panoramic view of their society…”The American military had in effect become the rulers. “Rum and Coca-Cola” is set at a time when the dollars from the American military presence changed Trinidad from a neglected and quasi-feudal British colony into a competitive market economy in which “we is all sharks, the stronger feedin’ on the weaker.” Both forces remain alive in Trinidadian society, the unfinished revolts of 1937 and 1970, and the individualistic consumer materialism which was fueled by the oil boom. Now that the boom has gone and social tensions rise, de Boissiere’s second novel seem more relevant than ever.There is not the same tension as in his first book “Crown Jewel”, because everyone had a job and many had two. The conflicts were of a more subtle sort – the breaking down of British prestige, the mockery of former British might, under American occupation.The novel is, in a Caribbean context, a rare and largely successful attempt to create fictional models which give a panoramic view of their society. It gives not merely a static or descriptive background against which characters perform, but a dynamic image of society created by the actions and social relationships of the characters.”Rum and Coca-Cola” was published first published without much remark four decades ago in Australia,