Nicole Dennis-Benn

This is well crafted, but it is overwhelmingly depressing. Almost the opposite of a positive feminist agenda, we see a family of women who seem to strive to survive by exploitation. That's exploitation of each other and other women. Margot works at a hotel, and has slept her way into a position of some responsibility. She then moves on to act as a madam for the hotel and provides the tourists (white) with a string of local (black) beauties. There is abuse of various forms, homosexuality is frowned upon and those partaking ostracised. You could argue that these women are only trying to survive by any means possible, taking advantage of the situation they find themselves in. It is grim and depressing, but so well written that I never thought once of stopping. Just don't expect any sign of redemption at the end, there isn't any. Good but I would not describe it as enjoyable.… (más)

Patsy's mother Mama G "found" Jesus when Patsy was still a girl. She gave all her pension money to her church and refused to shop, clean, cook, or give her daughter any attention. Patsy's stepfather gave her attention, so much attention that she got pregnant. That baby was cut out of her.
After that, Patsy's only love was Cicely. They discover sex together. But Cicely left Jamaica for new York, and Patsy didn't hear from her for a long time.
Looking for love, Patsy "goes" with any boy who wants her. Roy falls in love with her and calls her Birdie. He gives her a baby, too.
But at 22, Patsy is not ready to love a baby. when Tru, short for Trudy Ann, is 6 years old, Patsy follows Cicely to New York, who has finally written to her, gushing that they can be together, and how wonderful it will be. Patsy leaves Tru behind, with Tru's father and his wife, promising Tru she will soon be back.
Patsy gets to New York and Cicely picks her up and takes her to her upper middle class home.
But Cicely has lied to Patsy: she is married to a cruel man who wants Patsy out of their basement guest room ASAP.
One night he beats Cicely, and when Patsy intervenes, Cicely lashes out at her, protecting her husband. This is when Patsy realizes the terrible predicament she is in: no job, no place to live, no money or papers to go back to Jamaica. And worst of all, she has to live with the lie she told her little girl, that she would be back, when she never had any intention to.
This is heartbreaking, and while it is fiction, it's representative of so many immigrants' lives, who come to the U.S. believing the stories their friends who preceed them here tell, too embarrassed to tell the truth about how cruel life is in the U.S.… (más)

Strong novel that tells it as it is in a resort community in Jamaica. The life of locals like Margot, Thani and their mother Delores tell what it’s really like in paradise. Written using the local dialect we are slapped in the face with the reality of poverty to a family. Delores is a horrible mother who sells her daughter for money. The theme of sex as a commodity is prevalent in this novel, Margot desperately tried to save her younger sister by selling herself in a job at a resort. She sinks into depravity as she is misused by powerful people. Thandi is their hope out of there as she is smart and sent to private school but even as she tries to lighten her skin, she is pulled into her inevitable future by poverty and her family.
A powerful novel that shocks one into the truth behind a resort area.… (más)