Finished reading My Father's House: In Search of a Lost Past by Matthew Carr. The author is the eldest son of Bill Carr, a lecturer at the University of Guyana from 1966 until his death in 1991.
Matthew Carr, along with his mother and three siblings, had followed Bill Carr first to Jamaica where he lectured for 6 years at the UWI Mona Campus, thence to Guyana. They stayed in Guyana only 10 months and were sent packing back to England.
Bill Carr established himself in Guyana as an outstanding lecturer in English Language and English Literature, and as a competent dramatic actor at the Theatre Guild. He was less known as a PPP activist and Mirror newspaper columnist who wrote under the name Little Boy Blue. He however had his demons, principally alcoholism, and there was hardly a rum shop in and out of Georgetown that he hadn't visited.
I knew all these things before reading this book. I was shocked to discover within its pages that Bill Carr was a compulsive wife beater and a violently abusive father.
Matthew Carr retraces his steps back to Guyana five years after his father's death, visiting his grave and meeting Bill's Guyanese wife and friends to search for answers regarding Bill's actions and motivations.
