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A review by scorpstar77
Even in Paradise by Elizabeth Nunez
3.0
Émile first meets Corinne and her father in Trinidad when he's a teenager and Corinne is a child, but he's impressed with her even then. He likes her father, Peter Ducksworth, but even as a teenager he recognizes the man's flaws. He notes that, though Ducksworth is a native Trinidadian and seems not to have a hint of racism about him, he's still a wealthy white man and Émile feels weird about hearing him using traditional Trini turns of phrase. Ducksworth is about to move his family to Barbados because of their amazing beaches, and Émile heads off to Jamaica for college, where he becomes best friends with another Trinidadian with Lebanese roots. His friend, Albert, becomes besotted with a white woman named Glynis...who turns out to be Corinne's older sister, another of the Ducksworth girls, and Émile does not have the same warm feelings toward her that he does toward Corinne. But after a whirlwind romance, Albert and Glynis determine to marry, and Albert asks Émile to accompany them to Barbados to introduce the idea to Ducksworth. Wanting to make his friend happy, and also curious about seeing Corinne again, Émile agrees, thus unwittingly embedding himself in a hotbed of familial jealousy that reminds him strongly of King Lear. Glynis and the third sister, Rebecca (recently eloped with a man who is very rude to Albert because of his Lebanese heritage), seem to be conspiring to drive a wedge between their father and Corinne (who they believe receives far more of their father's love than they). Meanwhile, Émile and Corinne are slowly falling in love.
Émile's comparison of the situation to Lear is no accident - the author compares the two stories often, and the three sisters even have the same first initials as the sisters in King Lear. It's not quite as tragic a tale as Lear, but it's not a happy story, either. It does, at least, have a happy ending for the hero and heroine of the tale. It is a pretty captivating family drama - I was sucked in from early on - but the comparisons to King Lear were heavy-handed. I always like getting an inside look at different cultures from my own - in this case, a little bit of 3 different Caribbean islands, each of which has its own character. A good story, a solid story, if not a literary masterpiece.
Émile's comparison of the situation to Lear is no accident - the author compares the two stories often, and the three sisters even have the same first initials as the sisters in King Lear. It's not quite as tragic a tale as Lear, but it's not a happy story, either. It does, at least, have a happy ending for the hero and heroine of the tale. It is a pretty captivating family drama - I was sucked in from early on - but the comparisons to King Lear were heavy-handed. I always like getting an inside look at different cultures from my own - in this case, a little bit of 3 different Caribbean islands, each of which has its own character. A good story, a solid story, if not a literary masterpiece.