He Takes a Lot of Pride in His Fling With a Demon Lover

By his own account, he grew up on a plantation in Trinidad as the scion of a notable family, then traveled the world extensively, moved to New York 20 years ago, became an American citizen, earned a doctorate from Columbia (in science education), fathered a large number of children with a large number of women, and finally wrote lauded works of fiction. So you would think Kelvin Christopher James would be hard to impress.

That would not be true. Instead, the dreadlocked writer is eager to show off the view from his Century City hotel and is thrilled to have the sights pointed out to him. UCLA, the Mormon Tabernacle, 20th Century Fox and the building that was the centerpiece for “Die Hard” all elicit cries of delight.

“This is why people live in Los Angeles,” he says, in his light melodic Caribbean accent, gesturing to the view. (Well, it was a pretty day.)

The author is in town to promote his second novel, “A Fling With a Demon Lover” (HarperCollins, 1996). In “Fling,” almost-40 Sassela Jack accepts an offer to take a friend’s place on a three-week trip to a small Greek island. Once there she immediately runs into Ciam, the handsome twentysomething Caribbean she has been flirting with back home.

As Sassela intends to dump her old unsatisfying lover when she returns, as Ciam is very handsome and charming, and as she is, after all, on vacation, Sassela accepts Ciam’s offer to skip her planned junket and join him in his own island shack.

What follows is an idyll of sex and sightseeing, but also something more. Sassela is fond of Ciam, but he alternately pleases and irritates her, at once considerate and selfish. A mysterious and magical threat hovers in the most unlikely form, a 10-year-old local girl who is not what she appears, bringing the story to an odd twist. By the end, the phrase “demon lover” takes on a different meaning entirely, a play on words that delights its author.

“How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” anyone? The comparison with Terry McMillan’s latest bestseller is undeniable, but James is ready with a response.

“Mine was finished in ‘94,” he insists. “Terry wrote her story in summer ’95. After she went down there [to Jamaica]--she wrote down autobiography. There is no comparison, no way close. I wrote literature that will last forever in the world. I’m not disparaging her. I wrote my way with my language and I think it’s really a superior book. It’s the same story, but I think the language elevates it way up.”

The character of Ciam naturally rings a few bells, particularly if you spend any time with the author himself. Which he freely admits.

“Ciam--that’s me,” he says. “There was a time when I was exactly like that Ciam guy. Sassela--that’s me, too. I was exactly like her.”

In James’ first novel, “Secrets” (Villard, 1993), the protagonist was a 13-year-old fat girl living in the country. With “Fling” he relished taking this challenge one step further, and tackled the voice of a fully adult woman, addressing all her issues, social and sexual.

You can’t talk to James long before his pride shows itself (little things tip you off, statements like “I think my prose is superior to anyone else in America right now, I don’t see anyone else who makes beauty with language as I do, and I want applause for it”) and if cornered on it, he would no doubt be proud of his pride.

Blame his mother, who taught her sons that “Bein’ a James, you are better than most people,” he says. “We grew up knowing this as a family, kind of arrogant and superior.”

James explains that in Trinidad, it’s the white people who are referred to as having color. Mixed blood is the most valuable, partly because darker skin handles a hot sun better. But an additional reason feeds right back into both James’ personal and world views, and his pride.

“I have the hybrid vigor,” he states (his maternal grandmother was white). “Genes from both sides and that is genetic superiority. Mixed is better--who are you going to be racist against?”

Indeed, James says he is working on a science fiction novel in which a virus comes from space and “all the pure people die and all the mixed people live.”

James says he has finished his next book and is in the process of completing a 600-page tome inspired by his grandfather, who taught his mother how to be a Yoruba priestess. James’ mother is the primary influence in his life. Among other things, she gave feasts for their village. This charitable attitude affected her son, who today funds writing scholarships in Harlem, and declares he gives away one-third of his income to charity.

“All my life, people have taken care of me, given me breaks, let me slide through,” says James. “I have to be extremely generous because life has been extremely generous to me. I have to be extravagant to show up life--one upper! People might say ‘he’s just a [jerk] trying to buy popularity.’ That’s true! But the bottom line is I’ve really helped some people.”

Scholarships aside, James says he also helps support numerous children of his own. He says his children follow his lead at being independent and irreverent, especially in his attitude toward rules and authorities.

“So I help them out at school by going in to their teachers. They see me and say, ‘If that’s the father, thank God we have the son, the sons are not that bad.’ ”