Into and Out of Dislocation - Hardcover

Giscombe, C. S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865475415 ISBN 13: 9780865475410

Publisher: North Point Press, 2000

Synopsis

A thought-provoking meditation on the connections between landscape, race, and family

It was on his third or fourth trip there that the poet C. S. Giscombe grew aware of the space Canada had staked out in his imagination. Giscombe later spent a winter with his family in British Columbia, and his time there provides a lens through which he interrogates his preoccupation with Canada's otherness. Giscombe writes that "border crossings are always sexy. And racial." And so this book is filled with both actual and metaphoric exploration--and his travels serve as points of departure for a series of riffs on racial, national, physical, and psychological borders.

At the heart of this book is the author's ambivalent pursuit of John Robert Giscome, a man who may or may not be a relative. John R., as Giscombe calls him, was a black Jamaican explorer who flourished in British Columbia during the last half of the nineteenth century. Giscombe documents the places that John R. passed through, and he uncovers stories about mining, pioneer life, and even cannibalism. Giscombe likes to imagine John R. as a "self-aware outsider," and that status comes to seem more important--more interesting--than any historical truth.

Into and Out of Dislocation is an intriguing and wryly told travel memoir by a writer Henry Louis Gates called a "major figure in contemporary African American letters."

About this title

About the Author

Born in Dayton, Ohio, C. S. Giscombe is the author of several books of poetry, most recently Here and Giscome Road. He lives with his wife and daughter in State College, Pennsylvania, where he teaches English at Pennsylvania State University.

Reviews

In a book part travelogue, part memoir, poet Giscombe embarks on a quest to plumb the mystery of America's vast northern neighbor, Canada, while researching the legend of John Robert Giscombe, the noted black Jamaican pioneer who crisscrossed the region during the last half of the 19th century, and who may or may not be related to the author. With his wife and daughter in tow, Giscombe goes on a winter sojourn into British Columbia, dogging the explorer's trail and pondering his own evolution from a crisis-filled childhood to a more emotionally stable African-American manhood. Giscombe's evocation of Canada, during both John's time and the present, is deeply affecting; he renders its people, history and culture with remarkable clarity and detail. He finds newspaper accounts of John's exploits and accomplishments, and retraces his steps through old mining towns, pioneer settlements and historic wilderness sites. An avid reader and film buff, Giscombe also presents an eclectic list of books and movies that have shaped his own view of the world as he has confronted racial prejudices and his handicap of a missing arm. Despite occasional spots where it becomes chaotic and unsettling, his stream-of-consciousness style provides many reflective gems, especially on the issues of race and culture. What makes this book such a substantial achievement is not so much Giscombe's confused start-stop search for his predecessor's essence, but his probing of our human ability to adapt to and endure the sometimes monumental challenges of otherness. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: North Point Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0865475415
• ISBN 13: 9780865475410
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304