Boysie Singh is a bad man but one that women love. His childhood sweetheart loves him and bears his child but he lives with Popo, an ex-prostitute. When he meets Doris she sees a way into society but she needs to smarten him up. Each woman thinks she can control Boysie Singh and each is destined to suffer before making her escape.
This is quite a slow-burner of a novel. It is written in a Trinidadian patois and it does help to have a little understanding of Panjabi as well, however the language is lyrical and the story so compelling that the reader is hooked. Boysie is a very unlikable character but is based on those 'bad boys' that the girls can't keep away from and the setting in 1950s Trinidad is evocative and vibrant. ( )