This brief quick-paced novel is very readable as we follow Dalphus Congozas mixed fortunes from birth in north-western Jamaica through his experiences in Cuba and his return to the community of his birth in rural Jamaica. Although the story has several clearly defined characters, the plot centres on the life and career of a rural Jamaican, Dalphus. His struggles against the circumstances of his birth, and his ambition and partly successful efforts to overcome them constitute the main thrust of the novel. Although I material/economic terms, Dalphus was a success, the scars of his childhood remain to haunt him in at least two ways, first his ambition is to throw off the scars and the negative features of that childhood, and to succeed in spite of them. Second, and in contradiction, some of the values that he disdains, and which contributed to the dysfunctionality of his family become part of his own value system.