A Tempting To Confess

Loughlin Tatem is a fresh, new voice on the Caribbean literary landscape. His novel, A Tempting to Confess, shows the peculiarities of Caribbean life and culture. He, in his own unique and highly humorous style, presents the rich gradations of Caribbean expressions which shape the English language in a way that offers colorful insight into Caribbean people's love-relationships, frustrations and hopes. In a rich study of Caribbean social issues, Tatem reveals the complexities which give rise to a Caribbean people's strengths and weaknesses which influence the decision making processes of the West Indian men and women. Tatem's characters (particularly Betty and Slader), are compelled to live with the ever-present and often haunting requirements and demands of a brand of religious faith which, over many generations, has permeated the psyche of Caribbean people, often giving rise to torturous internal conflicts. A Tempting to Confess takes its readers into an arena where the interpretations of the Judeo-Christian concept of morality (amply portrayed in the person of Sister Scoffield), clashes brutally with Caribbean cultural norms and way of life. In A Tempting to Confess, Tatem traces the growth and pains of a small Caribbean community, through the eyes and emotions of a West Indian family in a tiny village.