Title: Who's Your Daddy?

Author: Geoffrey Philp

Publisher: Peepal Tree Press

Reviewer: Paul H. Williams

The title and the little boy on the cover make you think of 'jacket', the name Jamaicans give to children who are given the 'wrong' fathers. But Who's Your Daddy, the title story of a collection of 20, set mainly in rural Jamaica and Florida, has absolutely nothing to do with illegitimate children. That particular story is about children alright, two emotionally and psychologically disturbed young men, one ending up shooting the other over a girl.

"I didn't answer him. He'd never understand. Now he doesn't deserve an answer. All I was thinking about as the cops put the handcuffs on my wrists was the spot where Susan had touched me," the young killer said.

Criss-crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Philp spins tales of teenage homophobia, infidelity, religious hypocrisy, betrayal, impending death, father/son relationships, vengeance, egomania and greed in this 161-page paperback, his second collection of stories.

Philp writes without fear or favour. He tells his stories with honesty, throwing away the pen of pretentiousness to weave simple, but poignant plots with a down-to-earth style, which is refreshing. No apology is in order for graphic phrases and words that the stories are replete with.

You will get your share of expletives, but so what? What are expletives anyway, but mere fillers?

And your heart will be filled with joy as unbridled laughter will rock you when you read 'Sunday Morning Coming Down', 'Bobby Bijani and the Rolling Calf', 'Sister Faye' and the 'Dreadlocked Vampire' and 'The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy', which is not for the strait-laced reader.

It's about a man called 'Jesus' who turned up out of the blue at the home of a woman and her son, Macky. "Jesus Christ, Macky!" the frightened woman exclaimed. "Woman, don't take my name in vain," the brown, curly-haired stranger admonished.

After a brief and uncomfortable introduction, and a whispering in the ear, the woman, Darlene, agreed to put up Jesus for the night, in Macky's room, much to Macky's chagrin. He slept with a knife in his pants in his mother's room, while his mother slept on the sofa.

fascinating writer

He woke up to find his mother gone, and Jesus praying in his dead father's clothes under a mango tree, which his father had planted. "After I'd eaten, I looked out the window. Jesus was still praying. I washed the dishes, dried the dishes, and put them in the cupboard and he was still praying. Someone had to stop him, for I needed to confess," Macky said.

Geoffrey Philp is a fascinating writer, without a doubt, but he seems to be even more of a fascinating man, as he was born in two places. The back cover note says, "Geoffrey Philp was born in rural Struie in Jamaica." The 'about-the-author' note at the end of the book says, "I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and I attended Mona Primary and Jamaica College."

The line between fiction and fact seems blurred, as I am also tempted to call this book of totally entertaining stories a collection of 'faction'.