Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine - November 2021

BOOK REVIEW BY J. WYNNER
A Well-Oiled Story
Fortune, by Amanda Smyth. Peepal Tree Press ©2021. Paperback, 266 pages. ISBN
9781845235192
Irish-Trinidadian author Amanda Smyth’s third novel, Fortune, is based on true
events that occurred during the oil-rush in Trinidad in the 1920s. It is a well-oiled
novel that ends with a single spark from a car’s starter ignition triggering the 1928
Dome Fire in Trinidad. Related photos are at the back of the book.
In this environment the author has fictionalized her story and the main characters:
Sonny Chatterjee, owner of Kushi estate; Eddie Wade, a Trinidadian recently
returned from the US oilfields and a man sure of himself and very much wanting to
make a fortune; and Tito Fernandes and his wife Ada.
Fortune seems a book just awaiting an author, a book that just had to be written.
Although born in Ireland, Smyth was drawn to Trinidad. Such is the subtlety of
her writing that the pages are dominated by oil, even when there is no talk of oil —
one can see the oil, smell the oil, even feel covered in oil and taste the oil — the land
on the Kushi estate in Siparia saturated with it.
NOVEMBER 2021 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 26
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“Buried deep in South Trinidad, Kushi was a cocoa plantation of fifty acres; it had
belonged in the Chatterjee family since 1905…. There was talk of oil running free
like honey along the path to Sonny’s door.”
Smyth is a fine writer. She writes in a leisurely style and knows how to engage her
readers. Like all good writers she makes writing look so easy. It all seems so
effortless — the way she captures her characters and socioeconomic groups as well
as the various beauty spots and places of interest.
“The bamboo tunnel reached some 70 feet high; its poles of yellow came together
like long fingers clutching a mass of tiny green leaves… the soft dead leaves, staring
at the bamboo roof… it looked like the vaulted ceiling of a church.”
Eddie is rescued by Tito when Eddie’s truck breaks down on the Southern Main Road
after one of his visits to Sonny who “had a reputation as a difficult and ignorant man.
So far, no one had persuaded him to let them test the land, let alone drill on it.” But
Eddie is determined. Tito and Eddie hit it off immediately and before long Tito, a wellknown
successful Port of Spain businessman, is an investor in Eddie’s oil venture.
“When Tito Fernandes and Sonny Chatterjee eventually signed a 12-month
contract for the mineral mining of Kushi estate, Siparia, in exchange of 25 percent
royalties, Eddie felt mostly relief… Eddie thought how long he had waited for this,
and how suddenly, in this last week, it had materialized, as if the hands of angels
had put it all together.”
Eddie is wined and dined by Tito at the best restaurants, clubs and bars in Port of
Spain. He accompanies Tito and his family to their weekend beach house. Tito even
takes him to his tailor to be refitted with new suits. And Eddie eventually becomes
a regular at Tito’s home in upscale St. Clair where he lives with his wife and young
daughter Flora.
At one of Eddie’s visits to Tito’s home, “Ada looked glad to see him… Now and then,
Eddie saw Ada looking at him and he wondered what she was thinking. He looked
at her, too — at her legs, her ankles, her breasts. She was thing of beauty, out of his
range. He felt a strong current running between them.”
But as the saying goes two is company, three is a crowd. And the strong current
envelops Eddie and Ada.
The reader can see Eddie and Ada’s love affair going nowhere and thinks, “It
cannot last. Who’s going to be the one to walk away? How will it end?” Unlike in
Smyth‘s first novel, Black Rock, there is no twist at the end. There is only one
straight, long — very long — road with nothing in view. But still readers are held in
suspense wondering how the relationship will end. How is the author going to
resolve this affair?
When Tito eventually sees the lovers together he is hurt to the core and bears his
pain valiantly. He keeps his humiliation and rage to himself. There are no questions
asked, no angry words, no bitter confrontation, no scene, no explosion.
But soon after, the affair ends when another explosion occurs.
This book is available from Peepal Tree Press at www.peepaltreepress.com and from
online booksellers.