SOURCE: A review of No Telephone to Heaven, in Women's Review of Books, Vol. 5, No. 2, November, 1987, p. 13.

In the following excerpt, Smilowitz outlines Cliff's approach to the question of a Caribbean identity in No Telephone to Heaven.

Jamaican-born Michelle Cliff's latest novel, No Telephone to Heaven, touches on some of the themes of Summer Lightning. Cliff herself has lived outside of Jamaica for many years, and she writes knowingly about life in the "borrowed countries"—as she calls them—of American and England, about classism, and the clash of generations as it exists in Jamaica. This novel focuses, however, on what may be termed the pre-emptive concern of the entire region's literature: the question of a Caribbean identity.

The main character, Jamaican-born Clare Savage, is a divided person, as her name aptly signifies. ("Clare" or "clear" means light skin.) Her family has moved to Brooklyn, New York, where...