New Book Deals with Regrets and Reconciliation

By Neil Armstrong

[Garfield Ellis passed away this morning (March 16, 2018) at a hospital in Toronto so I am re-publishing this story that was first published in the North American Weekly Gleaner in April 2016. A Memorial Service will be held on March 24, 4:00-8:00 p.m. at Covenant Funeral Home, 2505 Eglinton Avenue East, Scarborough.]

Authors Marlon James, left, and Garfield Ellis at an event at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library on Feb. 18, 2016 where James was interviewed by Cameron Bailey, TIFF's artistic director. Photo credit: Eddie Grant

A new novel, The Angels’ Share, is a story about the search for redemption and the discovery that redemptive peace comes with acceptance and forgiveness.

That’s according to its author, Jamaica-born, Toronto-based Garfield Ellis, who describes the writing of it as being an on-and-off process.

He started it ten years ago, then stopped to work on something else, and went back to it.

“In terms of the setting for the book, when I decided where to set the story, it was after I went to Calabash one year and heard somebody say that the people of that community would never see themselves in the novels that read at Calabash. And so, I decided that the next novel I write I’m going to set it in southern St. Elizabeth.”

Ellis says he had the idea of a father and son story and trying to explore the kinds of decisions that men make in their lives and how they affect their sons.

“And perhaps, in a way, trying to get my own son to understand the decisions that I make.”

He says this is a theme in the book where it is very difficult for a father, who does not live in the same home as his son because he made a pragmatic decision somewhere early in his life, to try to have his son understand why he did that.

This, even though during the whole time it hurts his son so much not be a part of his father’s life, says Ellis, about exploring the estrangement between father and son.

The book did not require a lot of research like his other books, but he was very meticulous about the setting.

“The setting of the book is a road trip and so I drove the entire trip. I took photographs of the landscape, I went to Appleton Estates and did the whole tour and took photographs. For me, setting is very important,” says Ellis, who always wants his books to feel authentic.

Everton Dorril, a rising star at a Jamaican beverage company, immediately fears the worst when his stepmother, Una, calls one morning to tell him his father, Nigel, is missing.

Everton soon discovers that his father has run off to track down a woman he has been in love with for thirty-five years.

An “outside” child born to his father’s mistress, Everton deeply resents his father and hates the idea of jeopardizing the most important moment in his career to go find him, but feels he has no other choice.

Everton discovers that his father, frightened and unhappy with the failings of the past, is seeking closure and reconciliation.

The theme of memory is prevalent in the book and according to Ellis, “when you’re coming to terms with your mortality it’s the memories that keep you.”

He says memories are important and it is futile to try to go back in one’s life to fix some memories.

“So part of it is also acceptance, understanding what memories are and trying to create as many memories as possible.”

Ellis, who is the author of five published books, says there a lot of things in this book, “that when I look at it again, I say to myself I have no control over this book. This book is in and of itself its own thing.”

He says the scene in which Angela’s name is defined as being Spanish for “angel” was written before the book’s title, The Angels’ Share, was decided and everything works out perfectly.

The angels’ share is the term used for the natural process of evaporation and fermentation when rum is left to age in massive copper casks at the Appleton Estates and, “no matter how we fill it, when we get back years later, 10 or 15 percent is missing from the top.”

Some years ago, a friend of Ellis in his late 60s had a major surgery and for a while did not expect to live through it. After his recovery, he asked him what regrets he felt while he was laying there on what he thought would be his deathbed.

His reply was, “airs” – moments during his life as a diplomat, aristocrat and lawyer when he had acted superior or aloof to others.

“When you’re aging, when you come face to face with your mortality and you get scared, what do you do?”

The book has also become an exploration of Ellis’ own regrets regarding an elder son who lived with his mother away from him.

“I was supposed to now try to understand how he thought and whether or not it is important to him and what he felt.”

He says it happened as it should and there are always countless opportunities for things to work out within that time frame and “you can’t regret things because they happen the way they should.”

Ellis launched his book, under the patronage of Lloyd Wilks, Jamaica’s consul general at Toronto, at the Consulate General of Jamaica in February.

From left: Paula de Ronde, Garfield Ellis and Olive Senior at a Literary Event at the Consulate General of Jamaica in Toronto on Oct. 9, 2014.

From left: Garfield Ellis, Cherita Girvan-Campbell and Olive Senior at a Literary Event at the Consulate General of Jamaica in Toronto on Oct. 9, 2014.

 The book is published by Akashic Books and is endorsed by Marlon James, winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, who was recently in the city for a Toronto Public Library event.

[Garfield Ellis launched his novel, 'The Angels' Share,' at the Consulate General of Jamaica on Feb. 25, 2016.]