4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Thirst For Rain: A Venezuelan Perspective, December 4, 2000
Rosslyn Carrington's A THIRST FOR RAIN: A Venezuelan Perspective
Well-written and fascinating, this novel is set in the island of Trinidad and focuses on two women, Myra and her daughter Odile, who suffer the ravages of machismo and single parenthood. They represent the depressing role in which so many women in tropical countries suffer and how the legacy of fatherless children is repeated from generation to generation. Although Myra had indulged in irresponsible sex, she did everything she could to prevent Odile from repeating her mistake by encouraging her to focus on her studies to assure a better future for herself. But the call of sex is powerful and young people are weak and more vulnerable. Unlike Myra, her daughter loses her baby and there is hope that she'll go back to her studies and make something of herself.
In tropical countries, there are also many Slims and Jacobs, Myra's two lovers. Slim is an irresponsible womanizer. He gets her pregnant and treats her with extreme machismo. He also has his eye on Odile and would have made her pregnant if he had the opportunity. Jacob, on the other hand, is an introvert and disabled by his former exploits as a stick fighter. He moves from his small village in the eastern part of the island to its capital where he lives in the past, not caring for the present or the future until he meets Myra. He timidly courts her and eventually becomes her lover. He provides Myra the emotional support and respect which Slim so blatantly denies her.
Written in disarmingly plain English, A Thirst for Rain brings back memories of my country, Venezuela, where a vast majority of the population experiences daily the depressing situations described by the author. Countless women are abandoned by machista and irresponsible men, who father their children and then leave them to fend for themselves and their families. This dire situation forces these hapless women to sell their bodies for a pittance in order to alleviate their abject poverty. Women instinctively know that there are many men ready and willing to offer money for sex. They also know that after satisfying their carnal desires, the men will discard them in that incessant search for sex so characteristic of the Latin male.
Like Myra, the majority of our Latin American women live in a world of anxiety, incomprehension, and insecurity. Many are unaware of the AIDS virus and the danger it poses. Some think that if they get it, luck will save them. Others have a more fatalistic attitude and believe that death will solve the innumerable and unbearable problems, which assail them. While some of these women hope for a stroke of luck or a miracle, others believe it's their destiny or God's will for them. They will eventually enjoy their rewards in heaven. We have a hint of this idea when Myra, after an arduous workday, sits on a park bench with a beer in her hands and with her eyes shut perhaps dreaming of a better world. These moments provide her with a momentary escape from a dreary and debilitating existence.
Myra is conscious of the fact that she has not modeled the best example for and consequently does not have the moral authority to question her daughter's rebellious behavior. However, she has a small ray of hope that her daughter will be different from her by studying hard and graduating and thus saving herself from the fate, the shipwreck, her mother is in. Odile, like so many of us, looks at the world from her own limited point of view without considering the consequences of her actions. She allows her carnal instincts to guide her and like her peers gets involved in the world of sex, which appears to her to be marvelous, exciting and addictive. Little does she realize that this world is like the vortex of a black hole in space, which will suck her into its center with little possibility of escape. Her attraction to this world probably occurred when she listened to her mother's cries of pleasure as she and Slim fornicated. Odile perhaps thinks that she has the right to enjoy the same sexual pleasure. Why not? Her mother's screams of passion and desire perhaps incited her to check it out by immersing herself in the pleasurable world of sexual activity. Although she doesn't fully understand it, she's attracted like an insect to candle light and the possibility of self-destruction.
The tension between mother and daughter grows as their pregnancies begin to show. Like the moon, we have a dark side that we wish no one to see. When the inevitable happens, that dark side is revealed and we must face that revelation. We look for the most infantile excuses to cover our tracks, but we are unable to accept those truths that hurt us, that wound us, that make us feel responsible for our failings. First, it is difficult for Myra to confess that she's pregnant. Not knowing that Odile is also pregnant, Myra feels that she's at a disadvantage. She suffers days of anxiety and regret. Finally, the confrontation between mother and daughter opens a wide chasm between them, so wide that both are isolated and become strangers to each other. When Myra knocks on the door of Odile's room and asks her permission to enter, something she has never done before, she realizes that Odile has a right to privacy, which she had all along denied her. Myra is jolted into accepting the fact that she must ask permission to enter her daughter's room. She never thought that such a thing would happen. Myra had forgotten that everyone has to have his or her own space. Perhaps Myra thinks, like most of us, that our children will never grow up because we will always be older than they are.
I really enjoyed this first novel by Rosslyn Carrington, not only for reminding me of the daily indignities that so many women suffer every day in so many countries, but also of the irresponsible machismo of many men who contribute to women's suffering. I devoured every page and on finishing the novel, I felt that I personally knew Myra, Odile, Jacob, Rory, Slim, and Sebastian. I said to myself: "Damn, I wish I could tell a story like that!"
Jose Francisco Perez Venezuela November 11, 2000
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like a Painting, September 3, 2000
One of my favorite reads this year.
A mother and teenage daughter facing the same dilemma struggle alone, each ignorant of the other's predicament. Set in an apartment yard in Port of Spain, we meet Odile and her mother, Myra, Jakob, the noble stick-fighter, Myra's father, and my favorite, the young boy Rory who loves Odile with all his heart.
Like a fine painting evokes the soul of a place, A Thirst for Rain let me feel Trinidad and it's people. Carrington shows us it's colors and smells, it's trees, flowers, streets and buildings. Through her wonderfully-drawn, touching characters, we get to share their lives.
My only criticism of this book is that I didn't want it to end, I wanted more. However, it is obvious that Carrington is such a talented writer we are sure to get much more of her in the future.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
