Isla de Jamaica, 1753. Deirdre, la hija de la inglesa Nora Fortnam y del esclavo Akwasi, lleva una vida protegida en la plantación de su madre y de su padre adoptivo.
Pese a los orígenes poco claros de la joven, los muchachos de la isla beben los vientos por ella. Deirdre, sin embargo, no siente el menor interés por ninguno de ellos, hasta que el joven médico Victor Dufresne pide su mano.
Tras una espléndida ceremonia nupcial, la pareja de recién casados zarpa hacia Saint-Domingue, en La Española. Los sucesos que allí acontecerán transformarán sus vidas por completo.

Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

Though listed as women’s fiction or romance, this novel is written very much in a literary style with literary conventions as opposed to genre ones. I say this up front because if a matter-of-fact, omniscient point of view that slips in and out of the various characters within scenes bothers you, The Island of the Red Mangroves might not be your cup of tea, especially since not all the main characters are likeable throughout most of the book.

That said, the style is effective in conveying a time where the social and legal consequences of being black are serious, and even life-threatening, in a vivid manner without disrupting the narrative. This is crucial because if the reader is sickened enough to stop reading, the understanding offered about this time would be lost.

This is not an easy read. Nor does it make light of the tenuous nature of a society built on declaring people sub-human because of skin tone. There’s a very real sense of both the delusions necessary to support a slave-based economy, and how some reject those delusions but still work within the system lest they be set outside it. I learned more about how the different European colonies approached the issue of slavery, and how those differences could be both better and worse for the slaves in question at the same time.

As to the characters, there were few I could connect to completely because of their ties to the system of slavery and the choices they made to support it, but seeing the different perspectives helped bring the complexity of the time to life. Doug and Nora, the parents of Deirdre, work inside the system of slavery to treat their slaves like family. At the same time, they still don’t give them freedom and jobs, though whether this is due to economics or the need to be a part of society rather than actually supporting the situation, I’m not sure. The delusions are so pervasive even those who find slavery repugnant buy into parts of it.

Victor is probably the character I could comprehend the most, and having grown up at school in Europe, he does not give in to the generally accepted rules governing race relations for all he can’t overtly fight them. He does act on his convictions and refuses to accept the myth that skin color changes a person’s rights for all that he has to be careful not to be too overt in his opinions.

The two main characters, Deirdre and Jefe, lost my sympathies early on for their unthinking arrogance and the (to me) abhorrent choices they made. They are often thoughtless and foolish and while I could live with them making a bad choice out of ignorance or delusion, they knowingly do wrong and think nothing of it as long as they’re not caught. Jefe is a free black while Deirdre is a mixed blood presented as the white daughter of Doug and Nora even though most on her home island know her history. This puts both of them in a tenuous position with real consequences they largely ignore. Jefe matures noticeably through the story, Deirdre less so, but their narratives form a crucial piece of the tale and the situation.

This brings me to Bonnie, who has led such a horrible life and did things against her inner convictions in the name of a choice that should not have been denied her. She is the most genuine of the characters, which is both engaging and frustrating as she refuses to see what’s clear to the reader and the other characters.

There are many leading characters to choose from with a rolling point of view that is sometimes distancing but also moves in to reveal the inner hopes and dreams of the characters. This allows the book to bring home the complexity of the times and race relations when the tensions were running high though some chose not to realize it. I was rarely confused in the transitions between characters, and though I might not have liked all the characters, I can see how each narrative brought something to the overall.

Though a slow read with rough writing at times beyond the literary style, this book proved a good glimpse into a troubling time through the eyes of people on all sides of the conflict. It’s a powerful story with the ability to open the reader’s eyes to what is often seen through simple, right/wrong perspectives and I’m glad I read it.

P.S. I received this title from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review. ( )

Isla de Jamaica, 1753. Deirdre, la hija de la inglesa Nora Fortnam y del esclavo Akwasi, lleva una vida protegida en la plantación de su madre y de su padre adoptivo. Pese a los orígenes poco claros de la joven,los muchachos de la isla beben los vientos por ella. Deirdre, sin embargo, no siente el menor interés por ninguno de ellos hasta que el joven médico Victor Dufresne pide su mano.
Tras una espléndida ceremonia nupcial, la pareja de recién casados zarpa hacia Saint-Domingue, en La Española. Los sucesos que allí acontecerán transformarán sus vidas por completo... ( )

Isla de Jamaica, 1753. Deirdre, la hija de la inglesa Nora Fortnam y del esclavo Akwasi, lleva una vida protegida en la plantación de su madre y de su padre adoptivo. Pese a los orígenes poco claros de la joven, los muchachos de la isla beben los vientos por ella. Deirdre, sin embargo, no siente el menor interés por ninguno de ellos hasta que el joven médico Victor Dufresne pide su mano. Tras una espléndida ceremonia nupcial, la pareja de recién casados zarpa hacia Saint-Domingue, en La Española. Los sucesos que allí acontecerán transformarán sus vidas por completo…

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