Rosa Guy's My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl is an interesting read compared to the Trinidadian-American's other Haiti-inspired novel. Taking the story of The Little Mermaid and its tragic ending, Guy brings the reader to the "Jewel of the Antilles" in a tale exploring Haiti's color, class, and ecological devastation. Guy purposely describes this story as a fable in the title, and that's quite clear based on her changing the characteristics of Vodou and class in Haitian society (and it's many allegedly dichotomous features: urban versus rural, black versus mulatto, humanity versus nature) to offer a disturbing but powerful statement on color, Haitian social and economic decline, and last, but certainly not least, its relevance to the rest of the black world. In some key respects, this novel also bears many commonalities with other sympathetic black writers of Haiti, actually bringing to mind the peasant characters of Roumain's masterpiece, the tortured life of Coralie in Paulette Poujol Oriol's novel, and General Sun of Alexis. As a fable with magical realism, betrayal, intense natural beauty, a touch of the exotic via 'Vaudun,' and an assertion of racial pride, Guy deserves accolades for this Haitian-inspired work. Nonetheless, by adapting a folktale to a complex society like Haiti, and focusing on a sixteen-year-old woman consumed by passion for a 'grand homme' mulatto, in a world where the two never can intersect for long, it pales in comparison to Guy's other Haiti-inspired novel, a tale that is actually far more engaged in African-American women's anti-imperialism and solidarity with Haitian plight and saw the commonalities in their experiences. Since US-based black women and their relationship with Haiti attracts less attention than US African-American males in relation to Haiti (is this part of the patriarchal tendencies of previous forms of black nationalism?), Guy stands out for me and her Comedians-inspired novel is the superior tale.
No comments:
Post a Comment