The novel is sometimes held together only by echoes - of fish bespoken for the Minister's dinner, fish dropped by a pedestrian avoiding collision with the Minister's car, fish to be cooked for a ...birthday celebration; and, also, of sharks like the one that bit Craig after having him "in mind" (132) and warning him in advance to stay home. The context of Trinidad and Tobago's recent history that includes the 2011 State of Emergency frames the events of the work, proliferating various experiences of blackout - the silent dark of curfew, the loss of electricity at the TV station, the collapse of the Minister of All Things Legal who suffers a stroke. "Curfew Chronicles" unsettles comfortable habits of thought regarding our state of existence, our beliefs about social order and the bases on which we can feel safe, on the irrelevance of nearby strangers to our lives, on how far up the food chain to venture in search of predators who feed off social crises.
