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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
lush and memorable prose!, October 1, 2002
This review is from: My Love, My Love: The Peasant Girl (Paperback)
Agwe and Asaka, the gods of water and earth, are angry and drought empties the land as their quarrel overtakes the French Antilles. A peasant girl, abandoned as a child in the curve of a mango tree, finds safety in the home of an old peasant couple, but as her beauty grows, she dreams of wishes borne on the wings of butterflies and the love of a rich creole man's son whom she nursed back to health after a car accident. Her belief that their union is sanctioned by the gods, sends her on a journey as difficult as it is enlightening. But a promise to Papa Gé who guards the door of Death, is one that all souls must keep and Désirée must choose between her love and her life. Set in a land where "Misfortune sits at your table and won't leave until He sees your bones," Rosa Guy's haunting, tragic tale inspired by "The Little Mermaid" is the basis for the Broadway musical, Once On This Island. The author of thirteen other novels, Rosa Guy is a masterful storyteller whose prose is as lush and memorable as the original Hans Christian Anderson tale is old. -- Sheree Renée Thomas
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful but Brutal, September 18, 2000
I love Caribbean fiction and I don't really know why. It's probably the way Caribbean authors tend to blend the beautiful with the brutal. In MY LOVE MY LOVE, drought drives a group of peasants from their village. They are following their cattle to a different place, when a four year old child falls. Seemingly with-out a second thought, her mother abandons her, placing her in the crook of a tree, and continues on her way. For this heinous act, Agwe, God of Water raises a violent hurricane to vent his fury. The child survives to be adopted by an elderly couple and she lightens their years, if she strains their resources and their patience, as children will. Island gods are very real on this island. Pounding rhythms at vaudun ceremonies allow the gods to come among their worshipers. They sometimes borrow bodies to enact their jealousies, posing and posturing and sapping the strength of the chosen, sometimes to the point of death. Frighted by the demon of death, TiMoune flees one such ceremony and sets out on a journey to the city to be re-united with with a rich boy she nursed after his car crashed into a tree. Her TonTon had already made the hazardous journey to the city to search for the boy's family, and as a result, the boy had been rescued in a helicopter while Ton Ton Julian was left to return home on foot. Such is the disregard for peasants on this island. TiMoune sets out to find Daniel Beauxhomme, armed with the rightousness of youth and faith in her gods (especially her personal loa Agwe). She believes that "...the life you save, like the infant you bear is yours to care for, always." She WILL be Daniel's wife. On her journey, she discovers life beyond her peasant village, encounters levels of class she never imagined, and experiences petiness and jealousy, yet she exercises great patience while keeping her dream alive. Early on, she meets another orphan and instructs her in the ways of the world, setting her on the road to her own village where, she assures the child, a love couple is waiting just for her. She equips the youngster with her own wishing cage and teaches her the ways of orphans, dreams and butterflies. Finally, TiMoune reaches her destination and her patience is rewarded. She dutifully nurses the grande homme back to full health, where the best doctors have failed, and of course, they fall in love. At the rich boy's behest, TiMoune is clothed in luxury and she is presented at a ball to the island's elite where the Italian count proclaims her his 'black Madonna' while kissing her feet and an African diplomat desires her, hailing her as a descendant of an African queen. Of course, when the girl Daniel has been engaged to since birth returns from France, the allure of the exotic fades and TiMoune is cast off. Despite advice to accept the diplomat, TiMoune rejects her suitor (and others), so deep is her faith and love for Daniel. This book became the basis for the Broadway musical ONCE ON THIS ISLAND. It is a lyrical beautiful show that maintains many themes of the book, including the peasants' helplessness at the whim of the gods and the rich, and class distinctions between those of light and dark skin. Accented is the belief that even the worst storm will be followed by a sunny day and the show remains mostly up-beat and bright. It differs from the book in that it has a happy Broadway ending and I find I prefer the book's bleak hardness, although I love them both.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply the best., March 10, 2002
I have read the book and was also in the play--well. The high-school version, at least. I simply can't get sick of this beautiful story...like a modern-day romeo and juliet, with a twist! Pick this up, you WON'T regret it. Let two worlds meet... ...TONIGHT.
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