I don't really know anything much about Trinidad, but I did enjoy this book and found it interesting in terms of insight into that society (or at leasI don't really know anything much about Trinidad, but I did enjoy this book and found it interesting in terms of insight into that society (or at least the book's interpretation of that society) during the 30's and 40's. The book is of course funny, as it is an effective satire of a society caught between oral and written culture, western civilization just cutting through. The protagonist rides this wave almost by force, taking the opportunity and rides it to the end. There can be an argument made that he exploits the people who seek him, as the mystic masseur, but i've written my thoughts on in this in my copy of the book, and would rather you read it and figure that out for yourself. Needless to say, it's as much to say about western capitalism as it does about human nature.
One word of warning: if you don't like it when characters or narration use a broken version of grammar, then this book is not for you. The dialect is sometimes jarring, sentences like “Ah, sahib. I know you just come to comfort a old man left to live by hisself. Soomintra say I too old-fashion. And Leela, she always by you. Why you don’t sit down, sahib? It ain’t dirty. Is just how it does look.’", and that's a very light example, but you get the point. I think the funky dialect is obviously to give it more of an oral and historical context/feel.
The ending falls flat a little, but i think that's the point and i didn't feel like it ruined the experience for me too much. The pace completely changes, but with where the protagonist, Ganesh, is towards the end of the book, its as if the narrator is doing the reader a favor. I won't throw out any spoilers in that regard, so you'll just have to read it and see for yourself what i'm talking about.
I read this book for a world literature class, and even though I had to read it within a week and a half among four other classes, I feel like someday there might come a time when i don't mind picking it up again.
My more specific rating would be three and a half stars.
I enjoyed the writing as the story went along, as opposed to the beginning few chapters. BecaMy more specific rating would be three and a half stars.
I enjoyed the writing as the story went along, as opposed to the beginning few chapters. Because the narration is so tied to the feelings and thought of the protagonist, Mary, that the writing in the beginning is very jarring and stylistically somewhat immature. But by the end, her passages about landscape and thought is simply astounding. Whole paragraphs that carry meaning and visuals in such a simplistic yet effective manner, definitely the strengths of writers from the Modernist era and afterward.
I honestly despised Mary and her husband, Dick, for differing reasons. Mary to me is so insecure, so disturbed due to her past that she's almost self destructive (something that culminates to the climax of the book, and the result is expressed clearly in the beginning). Her attitude in general makes me want to shove a foot in her face and douse her in cat urine. Dick is pretty spineless, which also makes him a bit annoying but at least there's some sympathy there.
But the way Lessing utilizes these characters and the setting to get her ideas across i think is particularly effective and well done. She does a lot of writerly no-nos here, i have counted how many times she has told versus shown, but lost count after a while because I was too occupied with the reading. Which is a good sign, and a good example of how writers can break the rules and get away with it, for sure. Her narration could easily fall completely flat, be sympathetic or run into some other danger, but she runs a fine line and the book succeeds because of it.
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