In this critical investigation of one of the Caribbean's most distinguished artists, the work of Stanley Greaves is explored to explain his use of Guyanese physical reality and the various visual resources, including traditional African and Amerindian art and contemporary European surrealism, from which his work draws. Retrospective discussions of the different media in which Greaves worked cover sculpture, ceramic, figure paintings, and folk art. Also analyzed is his response to the years of political dictatorship and social collapse in Guyana in the 1980s, a political reality that emerges in his work.

In these essays, Rupert Roopnaraine--who has been called a Caribbean Hazlitt--displays his sharp antennae for the spirit of the age and a prose style that is both elegant and intensely alive. A wide range of his interests are represented here, including literary and art criticism, political analysis, social commentary, memoirs, and tributes. Taken together, the material provides an overview of Roopnaraine's 30-year political battle for democracy, social justice, racial harmony, and the creation of a cultivated civil society in Guyana and the wider Caribbean.