KIM DiSMONT ROBINSON


attention outside news reports about rebellious teens."1 In "Song for
Man," Barry presents a complicated, intelligent teen nicknamed Man
who camouflages pain behind laughter, clever words, and motorbike
pack racing. The reader gets a sense of the root of Man's pain when, in
a mocking imitation of his mother, Man tells her where he got his name
despite his childish behaviour: "It was you, Mama, the first time you
told me I had to look after myself when you went out with your
boyfriend. Don't you remember? You said you weren't old, you were
only thirty and you had a right to a life too? You don't remember that?
That was the first time anyone called me Man"(135). Man takes a drink
to steady his nerves after his outburst, then goes to join the gathering of
pack-racers a clan Barry describes as "space travellers" sitting "solidly
astride their bikes, as though fused to them" like "modern-day centaurs,
half human, half iron horse." Man dies in a bike crash that night, in a
story that offers a critical understanding of the psychology behind some
of the more destructive elements of Bermudian youth culture.
 In her portrayal of Man and his clan as "modern-day centaurs," an
almost cyborg-like image, Barry offers a critique of a deteriorating
Bermudian familial structure which is ripping at the seams. Bermudians
and other Caribbean people are who our children are becoming; a
society increasingly linked to technology, increasingly worldly,
increasingly cynical and increasingly lost. Shaped by images of sex
and violence from American videos with no counter vision being offered
from home, Man and his whole generation are becoming colder human
beings as much a product of technology as they are of warped human
context. Local politicians, schools and religious institutions address
the "youth problem" the way most countries do with statements that
suggest an utter lack of comprehension. This is a concern everywhere,
but in this instance Barry utilises literature as a gift, as a way of lending
voice to these so-called rebellious youths whose disrespect serves as
a reminder that their culture did not spontaneously erupt Bermudian
youth culture is part of a clearly defined continuum which implicates
the entire family structure.
 The third writer, Nelda Simons, uses the Bermudian cultural practice
of writing letters to the editor as a wickedly satirical way of poking fun
at personal and public politics in her story "A Summer of Letters."" In


 1I Barry, Angela. "Song for Man." Palmetto Wine. Devonshire, Bermuda: The
Bermuda Writers' Collective, 1990. 123-140.
 1 Simons, Nelda. "A Summer of Letters." An Isle So Long Unknown. Devonshire,
Bermuda: The Bermuda Writers' Collective, 1993. 7-32.