An Absence of Ruins

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Originally published in 1967, An Absence of Ruins is 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.