02620cam a2200325 i 4500 506903833 TxAuBib 20211019120000.0 210505s2021||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2021004726 9781571311917 HRD 25.00 1571311912 HRD 25.00 TxAuBib rda Downing, Antonio Michael, 1975- Saga boy. Saga boy [BOOK] : my life of blackness and becoming / Antonio Michael Downing. First US edition. Minneapolis, MN : Milkweed Editions, 2021. 330 pages, [8] unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Growing up as a clever, willful boy in a tiny village in the tropical forests of Trinidad―raised by his indomitable grandmother, Miss Excelly, and her King James Bible―Antonio Michael Downing is steeped in the legacies of his scattered family, the vibrant culture of the island, and the weight of its colonial history. But following Miss Excelly’s death, everything changes. The eleven-year-old Downing seems to fall asleep in the jungle and to wake up in a blizzard: he is sent to live with his devoutly evangelical Aunt Joan in rural Canada, where they are the only Black family in a landscape starkly devoid of the warm lushness of his childhood. Isolated and longing for home, Downing begins a decades-long journey to transform himself through music and performance. A reunion with his birth parents, whom he has known only through story, closes more doors than it opens. Instead, Downing seeks refuge in increasingly extravagant musical personalities: “Mic Dainjah,” a boisterous punk rapper; “Molasses,” a soul crooner; and, finally, an eccentric dystopian-era pop star clad in leather and gold, “John Orpheus.” In his mid-thirties, increasingly addicted to escapism, attention, and sex, Downing realizes he has become a “Saga Boy”―a Trinidadian playboy archetype―like his father and grandfather before him. When his choices land him in a jail cell, Downing must face who he has become. Provided by publisher. 20211019. Downing, Antonio Michael 1975- Authors, Trinidadian Canada Biography. Authors, Trinidadian 21st century Biography. Blacks Canada Biography. Musicians Canada Biography. Autobiographies.