26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
THE BARBADIAN IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE IN BROOKLYN, NY..., September 25, 2004
This review is from: Brown Girl, Brownstones (Paperback)
This is a worthy and ambitious debut novel about the Barbadian immigrant experience in Brooklyn, New York, by a little known African-American author, whose own parents emigrated from Barbados during World War I. The author herself grew up in Brooklyn. She attended Brooklyn College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1953, a time when most Americans, much less a black woman, did not attend college. This drive to succeed is a testament to her Barbadian heritage.
It is from that heritage that the author drew in creating her characters and developing their rich mix of personalities, as she re-created the early Barbadian immigrant experience in post-depression era Brooklyn. The book focuses on the Boyces, a nuclear family consisting of Silla, the ambitious, hard working, ever striving mother, Deighton, her charming, pie-in-the-sky dreamer of a husband, and their two daughters, Ina, the older and more passive one, and Selina, the bright, rebellious one. The novel follows the fortunes of the Boyce family from the late 1930s until shortly after Word War II. It tells of their lives, their hopes, and their dreams.
The book beautifully details the experience of the early Barbadian immigrants in Brooklyn and their adjustment to their new environment. They brought with them their own ideas, their own ways of doing things, and a work ethic that is hard to beat. Quite frankly, Barbadians revitalized areas of Brooklyn that were dormant. Theirs was an almost traditional immigrant experience, but for the racism that they were to encounter here. Still, they did not allow that to stand in their way from getting ahead and going for the American dream.
This book neatly encapsulates that immigrant experience through the Boyce family. One gets a very good sense of what the experience of the Barbadian immigrant was like through the interactions of the Boyce family with others in their community, as well as with each other. While Silla Boyce typifies the Barbadian community in terms of goals and work ethic, dreams and desires, with its focus upon material acquisition, her husband, Deighton, does not. Their separate dreams and desires conflict and act as a catalyst for a tragedy that would mar intra-familial relationships.
It is also a coming of age story, as Selina struggles to find her place in the new society and rich community her people are creating. She also struggles to find her place in the larger community, as well, stepping out of the insular one into one where racism is a factor. She is also interested in exploring her roots and heritage. Still, being who she is, the reader believes that Selina will not founder. Though Selina would hate to admit it, she is the one who is most like her mother, a fact of which she is not cognizant throughout most of the novel. She is truly her mother's daughter, in thought and deed.
This is a richly satisfying novel. The author captures the "Bajun" way of speaking in all its rich, expressive cadence. While some may find this "Bajun" dialect, which is interspersed throughout the novel, difficult to follow or distracting, it is this richness of language that give this book its very distinctive feel. Moreover, while the author may sometimes get too bogged down with overly descriptive detail, she paints a vibrant picture of a segment of society that has too long been ignored in literature. Those who like reading about the immigrant experience will enjoy this book, as will those who are interested in discovering worthy authors that have receded from public memory.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The black immigrant experience, December 3, 2000
This review is from: Brown Girl, Brownstones (Paperback)
This book deals with an aspect of the African American experience which gets very little notice outside of the black community, namely that of the black immigrant. We hear a lot about immigrants from Europe who came here and helped build america. However, immigrants also came here from places like Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Panama, etc. Most whites will identify themselves as irish, polish, italian, german, etc ancestry. However, African Americans seem to be allowed only one ethnicity. It's as if in the darkness only one variation can be discerned. Like most immigrants, the Barbadians described in this book are highly motivated towards material success for themselves and their children. As seen in this book, sometimes this quest occurs at all costs even at the expense of outward expressions of love and affection. For example, Silla is referred to as 'the mother' throughout. As in many families, the ambitions of the parents for their children don't coincide with the children's as seen in the conflicts between Selena and her mother. Unlike white immigrants, their ambitions also run afoul of racism.
I found the narrative sometimes overly descriptive, especially in the preoccupation with sunlight and shadow. The brownstones and the streets often seemed like dark and brooding places.
My maternal grandparents were from Bardados, while my paternal grandfather was from St. Eustacia. I also grew up in Brooklyn (in a brownstone). Therefore, the landscape and the characters were very familiar. In fact, Claremont Sealy and Clive Springer are probably my cousins! A most enjoyable and thought provoking book. I look forward to reading more of Ms Marshall's book.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To all the misguided souls..., August 20, 2003
This review is from: Brown Girl, Brownstones (Paperback)
To all of the misguided souls who slammed this beautiful book, I feel sorry for you. Brown girl, Brownstones is a wonderful book for so many reasons but too many to go into now. Paule Marshall's piece is unique in that it gives a voice to a community so often left out of fiction writing: the Caribbean community in the United States. As a first generation Caribbean-American who grew up in Brooklyn, I was blown away the first time I read this book and found such startlingly familiar portrayals of the culture I claim. The dialogue flowed naturally and, although the chracter portrayals of some (esp. Deighton and Silla) might strike some as too extreme, my own experiences and even the testimony of sociological studies show that Marshall was right on the mark. The fact that the book didn't have a bang up ending is totally natural in that the book is a coming of age story of a young woman (how many people have a conclusive grip on who they are at 18) who must figure out her multipe identities as a young woman, a Black woman and and Afro-Caribbean woman not tied to her parents' homeland but not completely of this country either. Marshall's work is too poignant to be dismissed at first glance. I would encourage all those who couldn't find the beauty in Brownstones the first time to give it a second chance. To dismiss this book is not only dismissing the premiere work of Paule Marshall but also to miss out a rare glimpse into the dynamics of a community that is within our gates.
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