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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This woman tells BIG tales!, December 26, 2004
Another big sweeping story from Sharon Maas, also the author of "Of Marriageable Age" and "The Speech of Angels".
The first part of this story is an open time capsule of life and growing up in Guyana; the second, much darker part tells of the horrors of child prostitution in India.
One could perhaps fault the writer for dwelling too long on the first part, but someone with an interest in anthropology would find it an invaluable tool in uncovering what made Guyanese people tick a few decades ago.
Skillfully mixing personal experience with humor, romance, tragedy, and every other emotion in her arsenal, Ms. Maas shoots from the hip, blasting out the story in bursts, and then without warning, stopping to reload and admire the view.
Her colorful characters live precariously, as the author is in the habit of killing people off at a moment's notice, or alternately, fixing the potholes so that everything fits smoothly into place.
The vivid descriptions of the brothels and the broken young girls who are unable to speak of their personal hell can bring tears to your eyes, but you still won't be able to tear yourself away.
Being a Sharon Maas novel, nothing ends how you think it should, and eternal happiness is never guaranteed.
Recommended to people who have already read "Of Marriageable Age" and enjoyed it as much as I did.
Amanda Richards, December 26, 2004
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A novel of color and growth, April 7, 2004
This is not Guyana-born Sharon Maas's first published novel, although I suspect some, if not most, of this was written before the publication of her well-received Of Marriageable Age. Yes, she could have used a great editor here, somebody to whisper in her ear that the novel will gain strength by what is left out. Consequently this reads like the first novel of a gifted novelist put before the public without benefit of the sort of judicious trimming that lends focus to a work of art. The setting is Guyana and India, the central character Rita Maraj, whom we meet as a child, a girl at once black and Indian whose language is English, a girl fascinated with life--all of life--ants and horses, tadpoles and dogs, a girl who is a bit "quirky," as she terms herself, a girl who hates remembering dates and doing numbers, but a girl who loves words with the passion of a lexicographer, a girl who can tell a tale like Scheherazade. This girl could be Sharon Maas herself who has a gift for story and for character; indeed one is compelled to associate Maas's heroine with Maas because knowing only the two from Guyana, one knows no others. And besides the life that Maas depicts growing up in Georgetown is so enthrallingly vivid that it had to be lived. There is a child-like simplicity to the narrative that I found attractive, a kind of fairytale quality that pits the innocence and goodness of Rita against the world. This is especially accentuated in her relationship with her stepmother, Marilyn, whose shallow personality and unrelenting stupidity are matched only by half sister Isabelle's unmitigated self-absorption. Certainly Maas is not neutral about her heroine. She has given Rita the integrity that her father, her stepmother, and her half sister lack. Even more, we know that in Rita's soul there is a sense of something more important than the bourgeois values that so dominate the lives of those around her. Not far into the novel Maas breaks away from Rita and takes us to India where we meet a boy named Kamal who lives in a palace protected from the ugliness of the world by his all-controlling grandmother, Rani, a corpulent woman whose hand moves throughout the day with slow deliberateness from food trays placed around her to her mouth. In Kamal one is reminded of Siddhartha, and indeed the little boy longs to leave the palace, and one day manages to sneak out, and indeed sees some of the same deplorable sights that long ago opened the Buddha's eyes. Of course Kamal and Rita must meet. But Maas, who loves to tell a story and build and build upon that story toward a culmination, returns after a few chapters to Rita. (Part II, which is about Kamal is only 56 of the 485 pages.) We watch her grow into a teenager and then into a young woman, and we learn the source of her inner strength. It comes from her maternal grandmother, Granny, a venerable woman who lives up river, a woman who sees reflected in the black river not only the stars but the wisdom of the ages, a woman who tells Rita, "Mixed up blood is fine. Mixed up religion, no." She also gives Rita some diamonds (yes, there is a lot of a woman's fantasy life imbedded in the novel, but Maas does not give in to the easy illusions associated with that genre) and tells her, "Be like this creek. When it is still and its surface unbroken it reflects the truth...and you will know your way." One wonders whether Granny is more Zen or Taoist, but one knows it doesn't matter. I would like to have seen more complexity in the men. We know Ronnie Maraj, Rita's father only slightly as one who acquiesces all too agreeably to Marilyn's demands. We see his love for others, for his daughters and for Marilyn even, yet there is much of the man that is missing. I was also a little disconcerted at how Maas abruptly kills off some of her creations as though somehow dissatisfied with them. Caroline is a case in point, like a painting began and then set aside, and then painted over with someone new. This an epic-like read of people and places exotic and different, but curiously so like our own. I could almost say that Rita Maraj reminds me of a girl I went to school with. I can certainly say that her concerns at Number Seven, Georgetown, Guyana are little different from those experienced by girls growing up in, say, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I could even say that Rita exchanges pelicans for peacocks.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finding One's Life Role!, March 31, 2004
Of Marriageable Age fans will be delighted with the maturing talent that Sharon Maas demonstrates in Peacocks Dancing. Her storytelling sense is even stronger in this new book, and her writing is sublime! The most appealing part of the book is the careful character development of the young people whose growing up is captured in the story. You will find yourself fascinated and sympathetic to all of them, and want to find out how their lives turn out. The story takes place in both Guyana and India during the last 30 years. The book revolves around the life of Rita Maraj who grows up as a semi-orphan first with her father (after her mother dies in childbirth) and then with her father and social-climbing stepmother. Rita is treated like an unwanted child, but her great imagination and fierce determination keep her moving forward toward something that she cannot define. Throughout the book, she comes to understand that she must act more in congruence with her instincts, and that they will serve her well. The book's structure provides a parallel tale of the childhoods and growing up of Rita, her half-sister Isabelle, Kamal (the heir of a princely Indian family), and Asha (a young girl who is taken on by a foster family). Their lives come to intertwine in unexpected ways, like vines growing up a trellis. By the end of the book, the trellis is covered with beautiful blossoms and leaves. Readers who are offended by inhumanity and sexual exploitation may find the book to be strongly flavored in those regards. The circumstances described do not appear to be exaggerated above what is happening somewhere to many people in the world, and should serve to expand your awareness of abuses that need to be curbed. A major theme of the book relates to what connects us to one another. You will see a variety of relationships, and develop your own ideas as a result. But the core is a selfless love that many people have trouble providing, seeking, or sustaining. Those who are fans of Buddhist philosophy will recognize many parallels to the life of Buddha in Kamal's experiences. I found that connection made the book more spiritually significant relative to all of the characters. The most powerful part of the book comes in the connection between Rita and her sister. You will be deeply moved by it. I can say no more without harming your enjoyment of the story. After you finish enjoying Peacocks Dancing, I suggest that you think about where you are too inhibited to pursue providing selfless love. Then, consider how you might try letting your true feelings go. Hopefully, that taste of selfless loving will provide the joy to encourage you to do more. Strengthen your capacity to love!
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