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A review by theglamourgranola
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
4.0
Another lush Allende epic following Zarité, a biracial slave, though the late 18th /early 19th century in what is now present day Haiti to Cuba and eventually in New Orleans just before the Louisiana Purchase.
Poignant, beautifully written and well researched, the story of the violent Haitian Revolution is told through the experience of Zarité, her enslaved mother's rape on the ship after her abduction in Africa, her life as house and sex slave on a plantation and romance with a revolutionary. It's not an easy read, Allende doesn't hold back on the horrific, barbarous exploitation of Africans.
Juxtaposed within this is Toulouse Valmorin, a self proclaimed Humanist, but complicit in slavery. He rationalizes that it's okay to dehumanize an individual for the sake of Mother France, and believes himself to be of higher morals because he feels he is less cruel to his slaves. At the same time he turns his back on the cruelty of his overseer and rapes a 12 year old girl. In Louisiana he becomes obsessed with creating a slavery utopia, congratulating himself because he feeds them better than other slavers.
I wavered between 4 and 5 stars. You can get bogged down in all the of the military details with many secondary characters. I skimmed over those parts, it just wasn't very compelling and I just didn't care about investing in those characters who only made a brief appearance but got several pages of dialogue and description. Sometimes the narration felt detached, I didn't feel the depth of the character's emotions. Also, Allende really lost me in the end with the whole Flower and the Attic storyline. It was just gross and I had no compassion for her daughter's storyline.
All the way through, I loved Zarité, she's complex, indomitable and strong. A survivor.
Poignant, beautifully written and well researched, the story of the violent Haitian Revolution is told through the experience of Zarité, her enslaved mother's rape on the ship after her abduction in Africa, her life as house and sex slave on a plantation and romance with a revolutionary. It's not an easy read, Allende doesn't hold back on the horrific, barbarous exploitation of Africans.
Juxtaposed within this is Toulouse Valmorin, a self proclaimed Humanist, but complicit in slavery. He rationalizes that it's okay to dehumanize an individual for the sake of Mother France, and believes himself to be of higher morals because he feels he is less cruel to his slaves. At the same time he turns his back on the cruelty of his overseer and rapes a 12 year old girl. In Louisiana he becomes obsessed with creating a slavery utopia, congratulating himself because he feeds them better than other slavers.
I wavered between 4 and 5 stars. You can get bogged down in all the of the military details with many secondary characters. I skimmed over those parts, it just wasn't very compelling and I just didn't care about investing in those characters who only made a brief appearance but got several pages of dialogue and description. Sometimes the narration felt detached, I didn't feel the depth of the character's emotions. Also, Allende really lost me in the end with the whole Flower and the Attic storyline. It was just gross and I had no compassion for her daughter's storyline.
All the way through, I loved Zarité, she's complex, indomitable and strong. A survivor.