View from Mount Diabolo

This novel in verse won the 2001 Jamaican National Literary Award. In carefully crafted rhyming quatrains, the poem tells of both individual and national tragedies as it explores the transformation of Jamaica from a sleepy rural society to a postcolonial urban one on the brink of collapse. It is a prophetic work of exasperated love and the abandonment of old romantic ideals for the harsh glare of reality. Yet, it still manages to please with its wit, ingeniousness, and wry humanity despite the dread in its themes.

Ralph Thompson was born in America but has lived most of his life in Jamaica. His poetry has appeared in such journals as The Gleaner, Jamaica Journal, Kyk-over-Al, Carib, The Caribbean Writer, and London Magazine. His books include The Denting of a Wave and Moving On.