Island Beneath the Sea
Well I'm officially in love with Isabel Allende. She writes beautiful, lyrical, romantic historic fiction with incredibly real characters. It brings the history alive, and her tendency to branch out and explore the lives of secondary characters allows for a lot of sympathy as well as multiple reactions to the events she writes about.
Island Beneath the Sea follows Zarité (aka Tété), a woman born into slavery on Saint-Domngue. She lives through the Haitian Revolution before moving with her master to New Orleans, where she eventually achieves freedom for herself and her children.
Tété is a wonderful character, strong and fierce and intelligent. She makes incredible sacrifices for the sake of her children, doing everything in her power to keep her family together. Her resilience is astounding, as is the naivete of her master, who is sure that the two of them have a bond that goes deeper than owner and property (mostly because he's the owner and has the luxury of delusion).
I loved the huge cast of characters, and the ways they kept moving in and out of each other's lives. It made for a very rich story, one with many twists and turns and a very satisfying ending. Justice is done as much as it can be in the circumstances. But almost more than that, I love Allende's way with language, which is so easy to get lost in.
I'm chomping at the bit to get my hands on the rest of her books. She brings history alive in the most magical way, and I want more of it.
Island Beneath the Sea follows Zarité (aka Tété), a woman born into slavery on Saint-Domngue. She lives through the Haitian Revolution before moving with her master to New Orleans, where she eventually achieves freedom for herself and her children.
Tété is a wonderful character, strong and fierce and intelligent. She makes incredible sacrifices for the sake of her children, doing everything in her power to keep her family together. Her resilience is astounding, as is the naivete of her master, who is sure that the two of them have a bond that goes deeper than owner and property (mostly because he's the owner and has the luxury of delusion).
I loved the huge cast of characters, and the ways they kept moving in and out of each other's lives. It made for a very rich story, one with many twists and turns and a very satisfying ending. Justice is done as much as it can be in the circumstances. But almost more than that, I love Allende's way with language, which is so easy to get lost in.
I'm chomping at the bit to get my hands on the rest of her books. She brings history alive in the most magical way, and I want more of it.
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