Book Review: Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay

Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay is the 2015 second prize winner of the Burt Award for Caribbean Literature.

Gone to Drift is the story of Lloyd, a Jamaican youth who refused to accept that his grandfather, Maas Conrad, was dead when he did not return from a fishing trip after several days. Both family members and neighbours alike implored twelve year old Lloyd to cease his search and dangerous investigations. He defies them and continuously goes to great lengths to trace his grandfather’s steps. Lloyd finds some very ugly truths that he had suspected.

Eventually, with the help of a young female scientist, he learnt that Maas Conrad was last seen at Pedro Cays, a group of islands that was not his usual fishing location and that his disappearance might be connected to his disapproval of an ongoing Dolphin trade.

Parallel to this story, the writer narrates a first-person account of Lloyd’s adult life and subsequent tribulations.

This book was a memorable read. It was able to highlight an important current environmental crisis without detracting from the main storyline which was Lloyd’s determination to find his grandfather. Social issues regarding survival and the compromise that one sometimes has to make to keep afloat was also addressed.

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