From Publishers Weekly
As Styron's mournful but potent debut novel opens, Adelaide Abraham has just arrived on the fictional Caribbean island of St. Clair. Addy, as she's called, is attending the funeral of her childhood nanny, Lou Louise Alfred and she's staying not in a hotel, but with Lou's family. For, as becomes clear, Lou was Addy's family back when Addy was a disturbed and unruly child and her parents' marriage was breaking up. In the course of the three days Addy spends on St. Clair, she learns something about the resentful family Lou left behind. Bitterest is Derek, Lou's younger son, who felt his mother abandoned him when she left to take a job caring for a wealthy white girl. Most disturbed is Lou's father, who thinks Addy is a white property owner who used to accuse him of stealing. Interleaved with Addy's encounters on St. Clair are her memories of the years Lou cared for her. These scenes are vivid and incisive, making it painfully clear that Addy's parents artists and intellectuals were too self-involved to manage Addy. In contrast to the direct narration of these sections, the story of Lou's family is told thirdhand, through Addy's reports of her conversations with Lou's sister and sons. While these are carefully rendered, learning Lou's life this way is, as Addy says, like "racing through time on a bullet train, monumental events melting down to smears of color." Styron (daughter of writers William and Rose Styron) beautifully juxtaposes Addy's past and the present on St. Claire, dealing deftly with a series of ironies. Although some readers may find Addy slow to catch on, Styron's gift is to make the reader feel real grief for her characters and real relief for Addy when she begins to make a peace with herself and her parents.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
When Adelaide Kane Abraham travels to the Caribbean island of St. Clair to attend the funeral of her beloved nanny, the realities of grief brush up against the political conditions that sent Louise Alfred to Connecticut to care for her. Adelaide's first lesson occurs immediately, when she discovers that Louise's kin are less than thrilled to meet her. Indeed, some folks including the children Lou abandoned when she took the job with the Abrahams are downright hostile. As she begins to probe, Addie discovers that she barely knew Louise; shamefully, she had never even considered the conditions that sent her "black mother" hurtling north. As the truth about Louise's life unfolds, Addie is forced to deconstruct her ideas about race and class. The result is a resonant, wise novel, told simply and nonrhetorically. Although readers will close the book uncertain about the ways in which Addie will use her newfound sensitivity, one cannot help but be optimistic, sure that she will somehow change herself, if not the world. A terrific debut by a stunning writer who is also the daughter of novelist William Styron, this novel is highly recommended for all libraries.
- Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, New York Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
