Jane Clifton

One of the people that ripped him off going, oh, well, I only got $1,000, and so-and-so went to Florida.

So we're always getting more complexity than just a standard, I was conned out of $5,000.

every character has a tiny little role to play in each infraction.

And all the various side characters that lead Betty, for example, into worshipping Kali and the goddess of fire, and moving out of her community of churchgoers and Presbyterians.

I thought that was interesting.

And I would say the location is a character, you know, because I find myself wanting to put the book down and just look at a, you know, look at a map of Trinidad.

I just felt, I felt transported.

He seems to have an incredible amount of integrity and passion and honesty.

How far can we go, I think, in the spoiler alert here in terms of just letting people know his interests sexually?

Yeah.

So he's in Trinidad.

Basically, it's illegal to be gay, and that is what he is.

And so that gets revealed while he's on a beach, and he sees – and you think that – I mean, really, we think that he's going to fall in love with Miss B, as he calls her.

And they seem to have little flirtations, and he references –

you know, loving her and she loving him, and they even have a go of it one time.

But he realizes and admits to Miss Betty that he's gay, and he walks a treacherous line.

Being gay in Trinidad becomes a very, you know, precarious position to be open about.

Well, I again come back to the whole idea that she's speaking from an Indian Trinidadian perspective.

And that there would be other people who weren't Indian who are Trinidadians who are more from the African slave heritage.

And so it really made me curious because...