A Lark in West Indian London

             Photo by Howard Grey/Bridgeman Images

The plot, roughly, involves the “lark” or quixotic idea of buying a home together. Each of the novel’s main characters has encountered variations of racist and predatory rental markets, and together they scheme to find a literal and figurative place of their own. From its opening scene, The Housing Lark poses the question of whether the lark can become a reality: Will these motley folks, male and female, black and Indian, from Trinidad and Jamaica, prostitutes, housecleaners, factory workers, and hustlers, be able to achieve this milestone of upward mobility? More than any other of Selvon’s novels, The Housing Lark explores the possibility of unity in difference.

Adapted from Dohra Ahmad’s introduction to The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon, which will be published by Penguin Classics.

Read more:  The New York Review of Books