The Wedding Gift - Marlen Suyapa Bodden

The Wedding Gift is Marlen Suyapa Bodden's debut novel.

Alabama. The Allen Plantation. 1840's. Sarah is born to her slave mother Emmeline. Three months later the plantation owner's wife gives birth to her daughter Clarissa. They have the same father. The two girls grow up on the same land, but live very different lives.

What I quite enjoyed was the two viewpoints Bodden used to tell her story - that of the slave Sarah and that of Theodora, the owner's wife. It was an interesting and thought provoking look at enslavement - from two perspectives. While Sarah is property according to the law, is Theodora any different? Her husband treats her badly, but society, obligations and other ties prohibit her escape. Neither woman is in control of their life.

Bodden has done her research - many historical facts are woven into her narrative. At times though, I felt like getting that information across overshadowed the story at the cost of character development. I did not find myself as drawn to Sarah as I thought I would. Instead it was her mother Emmeline who was my favourite.

But I did find myself caught up in Sarah and Theodora's stories. Would Sarah run? Or stay with Clarissa? Would Clarissa marry for love or to add to her father's wealth? There are many supporting characters whose stories I found myself wanting more - especially the midwife Miss Mary.

However, I was disappointed with the ending  - it was abrupt, jarring and just didn't fit for this reader. While it was an admirable twist, I just didn't feel like it belonged with the story I'd just immersed myself in. The second reveal at the end was telegraphed long before it was finally spelled out. I found it somewhat annoying that Bodden held this back - I found myself backtracking and rereading to see if I had missed something.

I also admit to being spoiled - two of my favourite books are slave narratives - Allende's Island Beneath the Sea and Hill's Book of Negroes. It was hard not to compare Bodden's work with these two stellar novels. For a first novel, I think Bodden did a good job and will continue to grow as a writer.  Her passion for her chosen subject did shine through - she is a human rights lawyer and a descendant of slaves herself) Read an excerpt of The Wedding Gift.

Marlen Suyapa Bodden is a lawyer at The Legal Aid Society in New York City, the nation’s oldest and largest law firm for the poor. She drew on her knowledge of modern and historical slavery, human trafficking, and human rights abuses to write The Wedding Gift, her first novel. Marlen is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Tufts University. In 2012, the University of Rhode Island awarded Marlen an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

You can find Marlen Suyapa Bodden on Facebook and on Twitter.

The House Girl - Tara Conklin

 The House Girl marks Tara Conklin's debut novel.

The story is told in two narratives - that of Josephine a 17 yr old house slave in 1850's Virginia and Lina - a class action lawyer in 2004 New York.

The opening chapter belonged to Josephine and I was immediately captivated. She is planning to run - and it won't be the first time.

“Mister hit Josephine with the palm of his hand across her left cheek and it was then she knew she would run.  She heard the whistle of the blow, felt the sting of skin against skin, her head spun and she was looking back over her right shoulder, down to the fields where the few men Mister had left were working the tobacco.” 

Lina's law firm is looking for the "perfect plaintiff" to be the 'face' of a lawsuit being brought, seeking reparations for descendants of American slaves. She stumbles across Josephine's name through her father's work. He is an artist and there is great controversy concerning who really painted a series of paintings attributed to Josephine's 'Missus' - Lu Anne Bell. Was it Lu Anne or was it the slave Josephine?

Lina's narrative follows the search for the descendants and I found this part of the story extremely interesting. Lina is also going through her own personal difficulties - she has her own family issues that have been left untended for many years. I wanted to like Lina more than I did. Although she is a high powered lawyer, she is still a petulant child with her father. And given that she is highly intelligent and quite adept at research,  I cannot believe that she never sought to confirm the details of her mother's life and death. By the middle of the book I found myself speed reading through her sections.

It was Josephine's story that grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go. I know it's a fictionalization, but Conklin has based her novel on facts. Heartbreaking facts. Additional narrators are introduced through their letters - that of a slave doctor and a young woman whose home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. I enjoyed these sections very much as well.

I chose to listen to The House Girl. The reader was Bahni Turpin. She was excellent - her interpretation of Josephine chillingly brought her story to life. The cadence and tone she used for Lina was completely different of course, but I found it matched what I thought of Lina - a bit whiny. The accents used for other characters - especially that of Lu Anne Bell were excellent and believable.

This one is poised to be the darling of book clubs everywhere. There is a reading group guide. I did enjoy this debut effort, but there are other books dealing with slavery (and in a deeper manner) that I would recommend ahead of this title. Still, it was an entertaining listen. Listen to an excerpt. Or start off reading an excerpt of The House Girl.

You can find Tara Conklin on Facebook and on Twitter.

Island Beneath the Sea - Isabel Allende

Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden.

Stunning, breathtaking, just an absolutely fantastic read. I started Island Beneath the Sea last night and literally could not put it down. I've just turned the last page and am wondering why have I never read Isabel Allende before!?

The novel opens with a prologue in which Zarité expresses her love of dancing.

"..he invited me to lose myself in the music, the way you do in a dream. Dance, dance, Zarité, the slave who dances is free...while he is dancing, he told me. I have always danced."

Zarité or Teté as she comes to be known, was sold as a slave when she was only a few months old. In 1770 she lives on the island of Saint-Domingue. She is sold again to plantation owner Toulouse Valmorain to look after his wife. Life in the French colony is becoming more and more unsettled. By 1793 the island is extremely dangerous - the blacks have rebelled and are massacring the whites. Valmorain, his family and Teté escape to Cuba and then to Louisiana.

The brief synopsis I've provided doesn't even begin to touch the rich, sweeping saga Allende has written. The story that Allende has woven is simply mesmerizing. But is is the character of Teté that captured me completely -her strength, fortitude, endurance and spirit. Teté is a resilient woman, facing seemingly unbearable situations with quiet dignity. Her life and that of Valmorain are inextricably intertwined as she bears two of his children - the products of repeated sexual violence, beginning when she was eleven. Despite the violence visited upon her, she has an unflagging love for her children and hope for her own future.

But it was the descriptions of the treatment of the slaves that brought tears to my eyes many times. The cavalier and cruel actions by the whites was appalling. Indeed, there were over 60 classifications of mulattoes, based on the amount of white blood.

The supporting characters were no less captivating. Tante Rose, the local healer and voodoo leader, the freedom fighters, including Gambo, Teté's lover and Violette,the mulatto courtesan desired by many. Parmentier, the local white doctor who has secrets of his own. Each one of their stories are rich and vibrant as well.

The Island Beneath the Sea is historical fiction at its' absolute best. The detail was fascinating. I had no idea of the roots of the island we now know as Haiti, the slavery that started long before it reached America and the long war between Spain and France over this small piece of land. Descriptions of the social lives and customs of this time period were incredibly illustrated.

The title? Slaves chose to kill their children and send the to 'the island beneath the sea' rather than have them live as slaves.

Allende's ability to weave factual events with fiction is truly spectacular. Highly, highly recommended.

Read an excerpt of Island Beneath the Sea.

The Kitchen House - Kathleen Grissom

Every so often a book just reaches out and grabs you. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom was one of those books for me.

It's 1791. Lavinia is 7 yrs old and her entire family has perished on the boat from Ireland to America. The captain takes her to his own plantation as an indentured servant. She is sent to live with the slaves who run the kitchen house. Abinia, as she comes to be known, is welcomed into the hearts and homes of Mama Mae, her daughter Belle (who is the captain's illegitimate daughter) and their extended families. They love her as one of their own, despite the fact that she is white.

As Lavinia grows, she is taken to the big house to help with the captain's wife, who is battling an addiction to opium. It is here that Lavinia finally has to acknowledge the chasm between black and white, master and slave. And where her place is. As she grows older, circumstances conspire and she is forced to make difficult choices that have grievous repercussions. This is s a very bare bones synopsis as there is so much more to this book.

Grissom forced me to break one of my cardinal rules. I never, ever, read ahead in a book. I got so caught up in the story, the characters and the hurtling plot that I was reading way too fast to take it all in. I had to find out what happened, then go back and slowly take the journey to the event.

Grissom's descriptions of the settings, social life, characters and dialogue truly had them jumping off the page. Indeed, Grissom herself says that "For the most part, Lavinia and Belle dictated the story to me. From the beginning it became quite clear that if I tried to embellish or change their story, their narration would stop." I became invested in each and every character, loving some and hating others, but each evoking emotion is this reader.

The Kitchen House is told in alternating chapters from Lavinia and Belle's viewpoints The same event takes on a very different hue when seen through another set of eyes.

Slavery is a main theme of the book. But slavery in many different forms - addictions, societal expectations and mores as well as racial. But so is strength, again in many forms.

I literally could not put The Kitchen House down. It's destined to be a keeper in my library. Read an excerpt.

Kathleen and her husband restored an old Virginia plantation tavern. In researching it's past, she found an old map with a notation - Negro Hill. This was the impetus for The Kitchen House. She is currently working on a novel called Crow Mary - about a young Saskatchewan Crow woman traded to in marriage to a fur trader. Noted on my 'ones to watch for' list.