The Children of Sisyphus by Orlando Patterson

Dinah is a prostitute who lives with a Rastafarian fisherman on the Dungle, the rubbish heap where the very poorist squat. She refuses to accept his passivity and patriarchal attitudes and leaves him. But she is no more satisfied by the secure life she takes up with Alphanso, a dull police constable...

review:

"Orlando Patterson has the ability to make you experience the mysticism of the Rastafarians at their meeting on the beach and the initiation of Dinah in the Revival Zion Baptist of God Church. Orlando Patterson takes us by the hand into a tour around the Dungle with raw descriptions that do not look to shock but to open your eyes to the whole reality of Jamaica. There are caribbean beaches, patties, rum and lush descriptions of landscapes in this novel, but a slice of real life in the poorer parts of Kingston."