Broken Gourds

Broken Gourds is inspirational folklore. Written in the tradition of Steinbeck's Cannery Row, this inspirational folklore is a story of humanity mirrored in the events of one small farming village of Jamaica. In the story, the author considers the role of the intuitive mind in the form of a lowly healer whose mission is to empower the oppressed while fostering harmony and hope. As the story develops, his success attracts the temptations . . . greed, hate, lust, and jealousy . . . that power positions bring. These he must struggle to overcome. Broken Gourds is an inspirational folklore of change and permanence, love and hate, peace and pestilence. It is, indeed, a story of life. Those very elements, which rocked that multi-ethnic community a century ago, are still at the very core of all society, of life, today.

The author, Beresford McLean, was born in rural Jamaica and later lived in Kingston where he completed and subsequently taught high school for three years. His first piece of writing won a contest in the local newspaper in Jamaica. In 1970 McLean migrated to the United States and supported himself through college by cooking in various New York restaurants and hotels, including the Waldorf Astoria. He complemented his undergraduate science curriculum at Herbert Lehman College with advanced creative writing courses. McLean subsequently gained a graduate degree in physics then worked as an engineer for twenty years in Texas and California. He retired from engineering to focus on writing. Broken Gourds, his first book, reveals his particular understanding of the intricate political and cultural underpinnings of his native Jamaica.