"Antoni has a fine ear for cultural tensions and a wicked sense of humor."
— Ocean Drive Magazine
" As Flies to Whatless Boys by Trinidadian Robert Antoni is a tragic historical novel, accented with West Indian cadence and captivating humour, and provides an unforgettable glimpse into 19th-century T&T."
— Trinidad Express Newspapers
"If you are a smart reader who likes something different, this will make you happy."
— Spacebeer (Blog)
"A pleasure of a read. A lovely artifact of a book. A delight on many levels, and a deeply felt, deeply moving novel."
— Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud (Blog)
"A marvel of a novel, layered in histories, Robert Antoni's unique and engaging As Flies to Whatless Boys is an unforgettable and matchless work of fiction. A crowning achievement in an exceptional body of work by this amazingly talented writer."
— Edwidge Danticat, author of Claire of the Sea Light
" As Flies to Whatless Boys is an inventive, witty, comic romance that is as much about history and adventure as it is about language. With virtuosic attention to language, Robert Antoni delightfully explores the written word in all its forms—as letters, as e-mails, as reportage, as narration, as archives—to tell stories, to paint characters, to demonstrate the range and integrity of English and its dialects, and to edge us closer to ourselves as equally human beings."
— Earl Lovelace, author of Is Just a Movie
" As Flies to Whatless Boys is a brilliant novel that is rivetingly localized in a distant time and an untouched place, and yet somehow speaks vibrantly to this present age and to the universal human condition. Robert Antoni is a treasure of our literary culture."
— Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
"Like the preserved hummingbirds at its center, this novel is a tender and strange object, referencing something no longer with us, but maintained in its beauty as art."
— Tiphanie Yanique, author of How to Escape from a Leper Colony
"Robert Antoni is one of the great comic writers of the New World—that sweaty, sun-blasted, eternally baroque, dystopia where our tears, issued from laughter or sorrow or more often both, have the potency of overproof rum. As Flies to Whatless Boys is a mishmash merriment of an adventure story, an island of luscious prose in a sea of delight."
— Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul
“Antoni is an audacious storyteller, mining his very own language and ways of telling from the linguistic cornucopia of Trinidad. His story is moving and is also hilarious.”
— Lawrence Scott, author of Light Falling on Bamboo
"Robert Antoni doesn't make giant steps. He makes quantum—and sometimes hilarious—leaps past whatever we called metafiction to the same territory as Richard Powers and David Foster Wallace. But like those men and unlike nearly everybody else, he never forgets that at the core of it all you've still got to tell a rip-roaring story."
— Marlon James, author of The Book of Night Women
Antoni (Carnival, 2005, etc.) offers up a novel set in 19th-century and modern-day Trinidad. Some believe that John Adolphus Etzler is a con artist, but the charismatic inventor asserts that his new nature-powered machine, the Satellite, will free men from all forms of labor. Although his claims may be a bit too good to be true--in fact, the machine's public unveiling and demonstration isn't exactly stellar--British citizens of all classes are willing to fill Etzler's coffers and invest in his newly founded Tropical Emigration Society. Their dream: to establish a Utopian society in Trinidad using Etzler's apparatus. Among the emigrants is the Tucker family, including 15-year-old Willy, who narrates the story. While onboard the Rosalind, Willy contrives to spend his time with socially prominent 18-year-old Marguerite Whitechurch, who communicates through writing because she lacks vocal cords. They fall deeply in love and find creative ways to spend time together--at first furtively and then more openly as few appear to notice or care. Following the long voyage, Etzler (who spent a couple of days tied to the mast for an outrageous claim), absconds to South America and leaves the investors to travel by schooner from Port au Prince to Chaguabarriga, the site of their future community. To the men's dismay, Etzler's machine ends up stuck in the water, the schooner is damaged, and they discover that the plot they purchased is little more than swampland. The men try to salvage what they can, but more misery strikes--this time in the form of Black Vomit (yellow fever)--and Willy must wrestle with decisions that will impact the future. Although wearisome at times, the emotional influence of Willy's narrative--his loving descriptions of the people who surround him--is profoundly effective. Some may be discouraged by the characters' use of dialect, which initially is difficult to comprehend, but it's a crucial element of the story. It's the modern-day correspondence from T&T National Archives Director Miss Ramsol to writer "Robot" that provides many laugh-out-loud moments and endears Antoni (who pokes fun at himself) to the reader. Strikes strong emotional chords.
