An Absence of Ruins [Paperback]

Originally published in 1967,An Absence of Ruinsis a poignant portrayal of a man shaped by the colonial education of the Caribbean intellectual class. Orlando Patterson offers a devastating critique of middle-class intellectualism through the self-condemning perceptions of the main character, Alexander Blackman, and the vibrant reality of the world he is unable to embrace—the world of the Jamaican working class. An intensive and inward portrayal of what the world looks like to a man who has been shaped by the deeply entrenched consequences of colonialism, this novel is full of sardonic humor and a nihilism that emerges as a kind of integrity.

“A very moving book about integrity preserved through an honest appraisal of its apparent loss.”  —GuardianOrlando Pattersonis the John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University and the author of the novelsThe Children of SisyphusandDie the Long Day. He is also the author of numerous scholarly works, includingFreedom in the Making of Western Culture, for which we won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.This Fanonian novel was, at the time of its publication and for a time after, misunderstood due to the decolonizing ferment of its era. Now, with a clearer perspective and a key introduction by publisher and academic Jeremy Poynting, An Absence of Ruins can be seen in a new light for its poignant portrayal of a man shaped by the colonial education of the Caribbean intellectual class. Invaluable to academics and those with an interest in postcolonial nationhood, this novel proves itself a brave and intense critique, full of sardonic humour and a nihilism that comes to appear like a kind of integrity.