Wednesday 25th August 2010
The novel relates a familiar story: thanks to Doodsie’s determination and sacrifices, her daughter, Angel, born of an impoverished provincial family receives a college education and returns to her family alienated by her inevitable politicization, her own growth mirroring the struggles of Grenada to gain political autonomy. The rise of a dictatorship and its overthrow by a socialist government, led to the American invasion of the island. Angel had returned home to teach but enters the struggle against the dictatorship and eventually the American invaders.
Collins's characters think and speak in patois but the strain imposed by the language didn’t abate for me. It came across as irritating, and it was not as though anything of worth was being said. The feminist and political themes overshadowed any sense of a story.
I began reading this book on 24th August 2010. I found the early chapters interminably dull and clichéd in their depiction of Caribbean life. The work became of greater interest once Angel had began at High School and then at University - but it is still rather run of the mill. Still, I've got about four chapters still to read, so it may improve.
Saturday 28th August 2010
Finished the book this morning, before I got out of bed, and it did not improve.
Unconvincing, irritating drivel!
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