Fire
in the Canes. New York: Soho Press, Inc.,
1995. 272 pages. $22.00
Glenvill Lovell has produced a masterpiece
that the Caribbean can be proud of. His first novel, Fire
in the Canes, is well written with enough local color and Caribbean
focus to make it credible. His characters are fully developed, realistic,
and consistent throughout the book. His combination of fiction and nonfiction
is well executed.
The story begins in 1894, about fifty years
after the emancipation of slavery in the West Indies. The residents of
Monkey Road, descendants of former slaves, are struggling to make a livelihood,
but the plantation system overwhelms and represses them. The author's
skillful blending of the past and the present enables the reader to get
a clearer picture of slavery and its effects on the descendants of slaves
in the West Indies.
In his epic-like work, the author introduces
two dominant characters, Peata and her daughter Midra, to the tenantry
village of Monkey Road. These two characters are portrayed as a sensuous,
liberated woman and her beautiful, yet sinister daughter. They are the
moving forces in the novel, for through their feminine appeals, they quietly
arouse the people of Monkey Village, which sets the stage for their ultimate
freedom. The enigmatic shape-shifter Prince Johnson, the descendant of
a runaway slave and wood-carver, equips Midra with the tools—the
masks—to lead her people to freedom.
The author develops the book by using stories,
a typical pastime of the former slaves, flashbacks and flashforwards.
The techniques enable him to combine history with the present to build
a convincing, though painful story filled with betrayal, murder, and the
supernatural. One example of the flashback is seen in the story of Dove,
Peata's lover and Midra's father, whose love for Africa made him abandon
his family and set sail for Africa. Midra longed for her father and developed
a great affinity for everything that pertained to Africa; thus, she was
the perfect candidate to Prince, the embodiment of Africa with its superstition,
its beauty and its desire for freedom. It is significant that Midra is
drawn to Small Paul and Pa Daniel, the two other characters that best
embody the African spirit. At the end of the book, Dove returns from Africa
to his family and practically dies in their arms, symbolically linking
the two worlds.
The constant battle between the plantation
owners and the residents of Monkey Road could be the nucleus of the novel.
Those young, ambitious men, like Brandon, tried to stay away from the
plantation, but it was almost impossible to make it on their own, even
with the trades they had learned during their apprenticeships. They eventually
returned to the backbreaking jobs on the plantation, drowning their sorrow
in alcohol, or left for the Panama Canal. Brandon, like others, had to
leave for the Panama Canal where he worked in another form of slavery
to provide the money needed to free them from the shackles imposed by
the plantation owners.
The theme of departure and return is strong
in the book. Dove left and returned. Brandon left and returned. Their
experiences seem to satisfy a longing, and prepare them for the inevitable.
For Dove, it was death; for Brandon, it was accepting living with Midra
and Prince's spirit.
Fire in the Canes
is a refreshing change in the canon of West Indian writing.
St. Croix |
Copyright © by Valerie Combie