The polished hoe: A novel [Hardcover]

Austin Clarke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2002

When an elderly Bimshire village woman calls the police to confess to a murder, the result is a shattering all-night vigil that brings together elements of the African diaspora in one epic sweep. Set on the post-colonial West Indian island of Bimshire in 1952, "The Polished Hoe" unravels over the course of 24 hours but spans the lifetime of one woman and the collective experience of a society informed by slavery. As the novel opens, Mary Mathilda is giving confession to Sargeant, a police officer she has known all her life. The man she claims to have murdered is Mr. Belfeels, the village plantation owner for whom she has worked for more than thirty years. Mary has also been Mr. Belfeels' mistress for most of that time and is the mother of his only son, Wilbeforce, a successful doctor. What transpires through Mary's words and recollections is a deep meditation about the power of memory and the indomitable strength of the human spirit. Infused with Joycean overtones, this is a literary masterpiece that evokes the sensuality of the tropics and the tragic richness of Island culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Clarke, considered one of Canada's finest political novelists, but less well known in the U.S. (a memoir, Pig Tails 'n Breadfruit, was published by the New Press in 2000), gets a new launching in this country with this eloquent, richly detailed novel, awarded Canada's Giller Prize. A murder takes place in the 1950s on the fictional Caribbean island of Bimshire (a stand-in for Clarke's native Barbados), where the culture of English gardens and cricket contrasts sharply with the legacy of slavery. The murderer is Mary Gertrude Mathilda, a respected elderly black matriarch. But the identity of the victim is less clear. In the 24 hours covered by Austin's tale, Mary is determined to tell the police about the lifetime of degradations that led up to her homicidal rage, and Sgt. Percy Stuart, a black member of the police force, is determined to stop her. Percy is in love with Mary, but his life has been a continual compromise with the still-lingering plantation system. Nobody represents the system better than Mr. Bellfeels, the white manager of the sugar plantation at the center of the villagers' lives. When she was 13, Mary was, in essence, bartered to Bellfeels by her mother, who was his previous mistress. For 38 years, she bore his groping and his children. Though he has helped their son, Wilberforce, become a doctor, Bellfeels has never shown Mary herself any kindness. At times, Clarke loses confidence in his characters and has them deliver forced sociological truths-for instance, when Mary gives a lecture about Christopher Columbus. Most of the story, however, unfolds through brilliantly written dialogue, a rich, dancing patois that fills out the dimensions of the island's painful history and its complex caste system. Like Texaco, by Martinique writer Patrick Chamoiseau, Clarke's novel, by harnessing the genius of Creole, shows how art can don a liberating face.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

This novel, by a Canadian writer born in Barbados, explores the brutality of plantation life, not as it was experienced in the fields but in the subtler cruelties inflicted on a worker named Mary, who, as a girl, catches the manager's eye and then becomes his favored mistress and the mother of his only son. Forced into a life of loveless "fooping" but also one of material comfort and privilege, Mary is separated both from her own people and from the white establishment, and spends decades in her "home-prison" contemplating the "ritual and arrangement of life on the Plantation." With an obvious affection for Caribbean cadence and its rum-soaked asides, Clarke unfolds Mary's story through the meandering statement she gives to the police after she has taken gruesome revenge on her "master" using the hoe of the title, the very tool that his attentions enabled her to drop.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 462 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Allen Publishers (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887621104
• ISBN-13: 978-0887621109
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,790,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enriched with native tongues, June 27, 2003

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Polished Hoe (Hardcover)

Austin Clarke's Giller Prize winning novel THE POLISHED HOE takes place on the island of Bimshire (also known as Barbados) in the "Wessindes." During one long night of confession and reflection between Bimshire lawman, Sarge, and Miss Mary Gertrude Matilda, a kept woman on the Bellfeels plantation, Clarke's characters ruminate about the lives they have led. Mary calls the police station and tells them she must confess her crime. Sarge comes to the Great House where Miss Mary resides to record her statement, but is caught in a whirlwind of memories about the woman he grew up with, his own experiences and transgressions, and the contempt circulating the island regarding Mister Bellfeels.

Enriched with native tongues and a sort of stream of consciousness writing, this is a novel that brought to mind some of the great writers of all time. The prose was lilting, and I often found myself caught in a reverie as the characters related memories from their lives. It is not a book for the drama lovers who live for fast paced reads; rather it seems to have been written for those who love narration, historical fiction, and carefully crafted characterizations.

Reviewed by CandaceK
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rum-soaked Caribbean cadences, August 4, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Polished Hoe (Hardcover)

Almost mimicking the sense of time on a West Indian island, this mesmerizing novel begins slowly and then warms up with the Caribbean heat of noon's overhead sun. Now an old woman still living on a big-island plantation, Mary-Mathilda, in the process of confessing something having to do with the 'hoe' of the title to the local cops, reminisces about her past, chronicling the plantation's history as well as her own. The novel explores the brutality of plantation life not in the fields but in the Big House where as a girl, Mary M caught the manager's eye and became his mistress, the mother of his only son. Separated from her own people by her comforts and privilege, she is also separated from the white establishment by the barriers of racism, servitude, and sexual exploitation.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good read albeit a circuitous one, August 17, 2004

By 

S. Charles "Lucian Reader" (CaribbeanAbroad.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Polished Hoe (Hardcover)

I am always interested in Caribbean fiction. This is definitely not a quick read on the train ride home. This book brings the horror of the slavery and post-slavery era home. Up close and personal. By telling the stories of the characters in his book, Clarke forces the reader to take a bigger bite of what has already left a bad taste in the mouth. The struggles of the "heroine", Mary Matilda, her mother and grandmother as well as the other characters in the book are painstakingly painted. I must say though that I found the pace a little slow at time. Clarke shifts between time and place, stretching dialogue and story to the near breaking point.

Altogether a good read but be patient. Reminds me of "A Hundred Years Of Solitude".

Sherman

CaribbeanAbroad.com