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WINDWARD HEIGHTS

Name: WINDWARD HEIGHTS
Author: Maryse Condé
ISBN: 1-56947-161-4

by Maryse Condé & translated by Richard Philcox ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 18, 1999

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WINDWARD HEIGHTS ($24.00; Aug. 18; 364 pp.; 1-56947-161-4). Guadeloupian-born novelist CondÇ (The Last of the African Kings, 1997, etc.) rises above her usual accusatory lushness in this rich reimagining of Emily Brontâ’s Wuthering Heights: the lavish tale (recounted by several narrators) of “a mulatto girl as poor as a church mouse . . . madly in love with a black boy even poorer than herself.” For once, CondÇ’s tiresomely explicit condemnations of racial and ethnic prejudice and injustice are subordinated to a real story, dominated by vivid characters (her Heathcliff, the Byronic-demonic RayzÇ and his several hot-blooded sons are especially flamboyant romantic figures)and enriched by frequent illustrations of the “voodoo” religion of Santeria. A Third World “Duel in the Sun”: over the top, as always, but nevertheless one of its author’s most involving and satisfying novels.

Pub Date: Aug. 18, 1999

ISBN: 1-56947-161-4

Page Count: 364

Publisher: Soho

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE STORY OF THE CANNIBAL WOMAN
by Maryse Condé & translated by Richard Philcox

- BOOK REVIEW
WHO SLASHED CELANIRE’S THROAT?
by Maryse Condé & translated by Richard Philcox

- BOOK REVIEW
TALES FROM THE HEART
by Maryse Condé & translated by Richard Philcox

- IN THE NEWS
Maryse Condé Dies at 90

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I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN

by Jacqueline Harpman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1997

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I Who Have Never Known Men ($22.00; May 1997; 224 pp.; 1-888363-43-6): In this futuristic fantasy (which is immediately reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale), the nameless narrator passes from her adolescent captivity among women who are kept in underground cages following some unspecified global catastrophe, to a life as, apparently, the last woman on earth. The material is stretched thin, but Harpman's eye for detail and command of tone (effectively translated from the French original) give powerful credibility to her portrayal of a human tabula rasa gradually acquiring a fragmentary comprehension of the phenomena of life and loving, and a moving plangency to her muted cri de coeur (``I am the sterile offspring of a race about which I know nothing, not even whether it has become extinct'').

Pub Date: May 1, 1997

ISBN: 1-888363-43-6

Page Count: 224

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ORLANDA
by Jacqueline Harpman & translated by Ros Schwartz

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.