Thirty-two years have passed since the collapse of the Grenada Revolution. As wounds slowly heal, discussions about it have become more reflective, and David Scott’s Omens of Adversity is a timely example. The book could not have been written before this historical moment in which the fervor that has historically characterized debates about the revolution’s unseemly demise in which several leaders of the revolution were executed is beginning to fade. Drawing on the revolution as a significant global event that helped define an entire generation of Caribbean women and men, Omens of Adversity, as the subtitle suggests, tells us something about the nature of tragedy, time, memory, and justice.

The first part of the book, “Tragedy, Time,” calls for a shift in our conception of time from the teleological frame that has characterized Marxism and its Hegelian roots to a more cyclical conception. Here the Grenada Revolution becomes one...

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