From Publishers Weekly
In her masterful new novel, the Guadeloupeansp ok author of Segu and Children of Segu sifts through the dreams and realities of an archetypal family to reveal the destiny of a people. Albert Louis, great-grandfather of the story's narrator, escapes the abject poverty of the island nation of Guadeloupe to work on the Panama Canal. Despite racism and oppression, he amasses a fortune as an undertaker--but his obsession with money earns him the scorn of his neighbors. His sons receive a legacy of privilege and pain: one exiles himself to France, ostensibly to study, with catastrophic results; another embraces politics; a third renounces his wealth and proclaims himself a man of the people. In the next generation, the beautiful and intelligent Thecla divides her passions between affairs and politics, involving herself in every place she even briefly calls home, be it the Paris, New York, Jamaica or Haiti of the '60s and '70s. But she is somehow unable to love her daughter Coco, the narrator, who looks for affection in family photo albums and anecdotes. As she travels the globe with Thecla, Coco courageously uncovers the world of her forebears, learning to treasure their history as well as that of Guadeloupeans in general. Conde's vast skills as a storyteller rest in her intensely vivid characterizations, and her gifts for nuance, humor and analysis command the reader's attention and respect.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Already a best-selling award winner in France, Conde's ( I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem , LJ 7/92) novel now debuts in its English translation. This multigenerational story tells of one Guadeloupe family's struggle against poverty and racism. The family achieves wealth, but the dream of equality eludes generation after generation and leaves its dreamers broken and withdrawn. A contemporary descendant, Coco, narrates the story, which moves from Guadeloupe to Harlem and Paris against the historical backdrops of the construction of the Panama Canal and the deaths of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. True to the manner of Caribbean storytelling, the spirits of the deceased continue to haunt and influence the living, but Coco finally comes to terms with her family's past and her identity. Of interest to general readers as well as students of Caribbean literature.
- Joanne Snapp, Virginia Commonwealth Univ., RichmondCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
