Island Beneath the Sea (2009 in Spanish/2010 in English)
3.0 Stars out of 5
Isabelle Allende
English Translation: Margaret Sayers Peden
457 pages (hardcover version)
Isabel Allende has written eighteen books of fiction plus four
of non-fiction. “Island Beneath the Sea” is her 15th. As a
Chilean-American (born in Peru to a Chilean diplomat; lived in America since
1989) she gained early notoriety by writing in the magic-realism genre (see “The
House of the Spirits” – 1982); so much so, that “magical feminism” is a term
that has been coined to reflect Allende’s particular use of sagas that feature
strong willed women spread out over several generations. Sadly, “Island Beneath
the Sea” is a reasonably interesting book of historical fiction concerning late 18th
century slave life in Haiti and Louisiana but it contains little “magic” of the
fantastic or artistic variety.
“Island Beneath the Sea” is the life story of Zarite born a
mulatta slave in Sant-Domingue. For all but those closest to her, Zarite is
known as Tete. Tete is sold as a young teen to a beautiful courtesan known as
Violette, another woman of mixed race (a “quadroon”), but one that had never
been a slave. Violette has fairly high status in Saint-Domingue amongst the
wealthy land-owners from France. One such owner in particular, Toulouse
Valmorain adores Violette and relies heavily upon her for advice as he prepares
to marry a young woman from Cuba. He buys Tete from Violette in order that the
young slave might care for his bride to be at his sugar plantation (Saint
Lazare) near Le Cap. Valmorain at times seems to have mixed and self-contradictory
views towards slavery, but in the end, he very nearly never fails to regards
slaves as slaves and not as humans.
Tete cares for Valmorain’s new wife as she slowly falls into
madness and gives birth to a young boy. Even before his mad wife dies, Valmorain
forces himself on Tete and fathers two children, first a boy and then a girl by
Tete. Valmorain takes the boy from Tete as an infant but allows Tete to raise
the girl. As Valmorain starts to sink into a dissolute life, so does
Saint-Domingue start to fall apart as a colony. The brutal treatment of
Africans bears bitter fruit: a slave rebellion that causes France to lose
control of their island colony to various factions, but most notably to one led
by Toussaint Louverture. As the rebellion rises to a fever pitch of revenge and
violence, Valmorain flees his plantation for Le Cap. He displays very little
courage or later gratitude as his life is saved by Tete. She is near death as
she nears Le Cap still caring for Valmorain and his children (legitimate and
illegitimate). Valmorain and Tete eventually manage to escape Saint-Domingue
(now Haiti) for New Orleans where Valmorain sets up a new plantation using
stolen funds. He continues his abuse of Tete never really understanding her or
thinking of her as a human until his own death nears.
Allende has woven an interesting historical tale of life in
late 18th century Haiti. She is able to describe with considerable
horror the life of a sugar plantation slave: brutally short and lacking in any
sense of humanity. As one reads this book, one is quickly filled with loathing
for the white French that so casually used and abused the Africans they
kidnapped from their homes. Her descriptions of the short life these poor
people led as they worked and died in the cane fields is sadly the high point
of the novel. It is enlightening and depressing to learn of the active tortures
they endured at the hands of the overseers, but even more so as they have their
humanity stripped from them right along with their freedom. How anyone in
modern America can look back at slavery and come to the conclusion that the
slaves (or workers as such apologists would like to refer to them) had lives
worth living is completely beyond me.
Allende is clear in the degradations suffered by the slaves
of Haiti, and reaches whatever subtlety she does achieve in “Island Beneath the
Sea” (btw: Island Beneath the Sea is the slaves’ concept of Heaven) when she
writes of the life-long struggle Tete makes in order to live as a free woman.
Even more important to Tete is that she is able to obtain the freedom of her
daughter; the daughter to Valmorain as well; a daughter he thinks of as no more
than property and an embarrassment to his white Louisianan wife. But these
points aside there is no real nuance to this story or to the characters. Tete
is somewhat well described as is Valmorain, but they are quite frankly two-dimensional;
neither shows any real character development nor any real understanding of
their situations. Their story and that of those around them simply does not
dwell on the nature of Man vs. slave; it merely describes them.
There is value in reading such a description but this
subject material offered a rich topic on which much more might have been built.
Instead of dwelling on the clothing of the various characters or their too rich
diet, some thought could have been spent on what they thought. As noted, there
is no magic in this book, there is no novelty in how it is told or in the
characters. Allende comes close in her descriptions of Tete’s devotion to dance
and the hallucinogenic state she enters when she dances. Tete feels she is “mounted”
by her voodoo Goddess Erzulie, and there is almost (almost) a sense of the
magic felt by Tete. But again, these few moments also really only are described
to the reader, not felt by the reader. “Island Beneath the Sea” follows Allende’s
career-long focus on woman and family stories, but its melodramatic elements
simply do not add up to much. “Island Beneath the Sea” has some value in
introducing a description of slave life in Haiti and New Orleans, but it falls
far short of great fiction, or even of Allende’s best work.
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