"Lord, you make your people see hard things, you make us to drink the wine of astonishment."

The Wine of Astonishment was something else, I see why it is a 'Caribbean classic'. Earl Lovelace managed to a simple story with a simple narrative and turn it into something beautiful. The examination of a society struggling to rid itself of colonial (e.i. white) ideals. I loved the historical narrative of the Baptist church in the country, trying hard to survive. I wonder how the explosion of the Pentecostal Movement in America (1906) affected Spiritual Baptish Church in Trinidad and Tobago. The explanations of the feeling of the spirit and the church experience seem very similar to that of the Pentecostal movement. (The Azua Street Revival was started by an African American).

I enjoyed Eva's narration immensely. She was a very perceptive character whose insights added to all of the characters around her. She was able to see and perceive them in a way that allowed the reader into the mind of those characters. Bolo, Bee, and Ivan Morton played their roles well. They were all examples of different ways of adapting and dealing with a country in evolution. Seeing how the characters clung to the old way of doing things or embraced colonial (e.i. white) ideals was an interesting one. The unwavering belief that things would eventually get better and God would make a way really really touched me deeply.

Lovelace's writing is simple and yet so lyrical. I love that The Wine of Astonishment is not written in standard English. It allows Eva's narrative personality to stand out.
"We have this church in the village. We have this church. The walls make out of mud, the roof covered with carrat leaves: a simple hut with no steeple or cross or acolytes or white priests or latin ceremonies. But is our own. Black people own it. Government ain't spent one cent helping us to build it or to put bench in it or anything; the bell that we ring when we call to the Spirit is our money that pay for it. So we have this church."