Jennifer Davis CareyBesprekingen

This is the inspiring story of a young woman who was born in Barbados to a family who, for many generations, has worked the fields and served in the home of wealthy landowners. Dellie moves to Brooklyn NY in search of a better life, only to find there are challenges and hardships in this strange and very different land. She realizes what she learned as a child from her Grandmother is the key to strengths she will need to get her through.

Near the Hope by Jennifer Davis Carey is a story which celebrates the wonder of storytelling through the ages and shows how special the relationship can be between a young girl and a grandmother. The story is set early in the twentieth century and moves from Barbados, Dellie’s home land to New York where she goes to create a new future.

You feel the conflicting pull of family loyalty and personal growth and fulfillment that young people must face when striking out on their own successes and freedoms..

The struggles and challenges Dellie faces are not just hers as a dark skinned immigrant woman in a new country, but are experienced by most all of the immigrant groups. They grapple to find housing, food, fair pay and friendship and often find it with each other.

This historical fiction book was filled with information about the era, and brought to life the hardships and small celebrations of those who travel far to find freedom from servitude and to make a better life for themselves. I give this book a 3.5 star rating.½

This story is set in the early years of the 20th century about a young woman from Barbados who follows her sister to New York City for a chance at a better life. She endures lost love and race/class struggles. Interesting insight into life in Barbados and early immigrant life in New York City. I learned from this book but felt more like I was being told about the protagonist's life rather than being able to live it through the author's eyes.

I received this book from Library Thing for review. It's the story of a young woman who immigrated from Barbados in the early 1900's seeking a better life. Dellie makes it to New York and soon realizes that life is not much better in the U.S. Dellie works hard to better herself but is faced with many obstacles. I liked the book but didn't love it. The story just felt kind of stilted at times and wasn't a smooth read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Dellie’s bravery is truly inspiring. As a very young woman, she had the guts to leave Barbados and build a new life in America. She soon realized that she had traded one type of adversity for another but she persevered through her wittiness and strength. I would love to hear more about Dellie and the author’s family but my only suggestion would be for the author to relax – you obviously have a fascinating story to tell so be more confident and tell it without the stiffness! Overall, excellent debut!

I received this book from Librarythings early reviewers. I seem to be on a roll with immigrant stories lately. What I really appreciated about Jennifer’s story was that there was not a lot of dark tragedy. There were challenges and loss but she did not sensationalize these events. I appreciated learning about the community of immigrants from the islands in New York as well as life on Barbados. The theme of family was strong and kept me interested in the story as well as the historical events of the times. A very nice tribute to her Grandmother’s life.

A beautifully written novel about a young woman leaving Barbados and coming to Brooklyn in the early 1900s, a true story recreated by her granddaughter.

On the cover of Near the Hope is a photograph of Dellie Standard, attractive, hopeful but hesitant before the camera. She is the woman at the center on this novel. Her story is simple, much like that of other young women who came to this country. What sets it apart is the grace and wisdom with which her granddaughter tells her story.
Read more: http://wp.me/p24OK2-13z

This historical fiction was written based on family history of the author Jennifer Davis Carey's grandmother. It tells the story of a family group immigration from their home island of Barbados into the United States thru Ellis Island.
Dellie Standard is a hardworking seamstress who has followed her mother's demand of leaving the only home and a new love to chase her fortune in a new world.
It is a fortune that brings her love and loss and shapes her into a solitary lonely sad woman. Even though she is surrounded by family friends and a marriage of convenience she still must battle with racial prejudice and isolation.
I feel the book was well written and enjoyed the almost poetic descriptive telling of the story. It weaves you thru emotions of heartache elation and anger, giving you a better comprehension of what life brought to those brave enough to immigrate from island life to a huge new country.

Near the Hope tells the story of a young woman who leaves her home in Barbados and emigrates to New York in the early twentieth century. The language is rich and the descriptions of the the settings are lush. Although there isn't a lot of action in the plot, it wouldn't have mattered if the character development had been better. The tension between the American Negro and West Indian immigrant communities was interesting, but didn't draw me in because the characters and their relationships never became important to me. I would have liked to see Pendril, with all of his strengths and weaknesses more fully developed, but as it is, once Dellie left him behind in Barbados, I didn't care if he ever surfaced in the novel again. I feel that Near the Hope had the potential to be a very good work of fiction, but missed the mark.

This is the story about a woman who immigrated from Barbados in the early 1900s, seeking a better life, only to realize she had gone from the frying pan into the fire in a way. Here in the States, the "Great One" aka white people still ruled and the people of color were still changing the Great Ones' chamber pots.
"I didn't leave one hell to jump into another. At least at home, I understand the boundaries. Here, I haven't seen one yet. These people here are without limit."
It's an interesting read and I was interested in it because my own grandmother was a seamstress from Puerto Rico trying to survive in New York a few generations after this one.

Dellie makes it to New York and through her eyes, we see how hard it was to find a job, a place to live, all that jazz, in this time period, and something else I appreciated was the look at racism from her POV. I was amazed that some West Indians looked down on the American Negro, considered themselves not the same even though they were facing the same struggle: prejudice. The whites of course, lump them all together.

Dellie believes the cause of the American Negro is her cause too. I admire many things she says and does in this story.
"For this colored woman, this Negro woman. Whatever the difference is between the two. 'Tis sure my eyes can't see it. Show them what we can do in this country. To show them we can do any kind of work... And this colored woman is tired of scrubbing floor for a few raw-mouth pennies each week and standing out early-early so the matron can look over before she point to me as worthy to mop up for her. Check my hands to see if they are clean enough to hold a soggy sponge."
That's what Dellie declares when she hears white seamstresses have gone on strike due to poor working conditions. She declares it a chance for the American Negro woman and herself. This was another twist in the story I liked, this bit of history. Though her visit to the factory is brief, it leaves a strong impact. It's an educational moment, seeing what these women faced.

It doesn't quite work out at the factory, but yet again, readers see an incredible and brave side to Dellie.

Other things readers will take away from this novel is life in Barbados in the early 1900s, how the workers were disappearing, running off to Panama, how the white people were worried, and there are little bits of culture one will pick up from men on stilts, parades, weddings, and food. There's also some tame romance that could have used more development.

Quibble: I can tell it's a first novel. It doesn't have a good flow. It's a bit stilted and the dialogue is very formal with few to no contractions. In between the drama--the factory, the greedy landlady, etc, the story was tedious at times.

ear the Hope by Jennifer Davis Carey is in between a biography and historical fiction account of her grandmother's life. The story starts in Barbados in 1909. It is a very hot day and Dellie and her mother are outside picking up weeds. Dellie tells her mother Cal (short for Caroline) to go in and cool off. Her mother started to hear drums and someone who was dead calling her.

What follows is a funeral and wake. Dellie’s grandmother, M’Ma comes to help prepare the body with rosemary water. Just before her mother passed away, she made Dellie promise to not stay on the island but to join her sister in New York. But Dellie didn’t want to she wanted to marry Pendril. Pendril was working on ships, saving up money to buy land and stay on the island. But she been warned by her mother and grandmother never to go to the Big House where the Chandler’s lived. When she decided that she had to, something happens that scares her to the bone and she goes to America. She goes to New York and deals with culture shock and we learn about New York starting from 1910. The research is accurate and the book tells of the apartment dwelling of that time and the organization for the West Indies people called the Lodge.

This book besides the compelling story of Dellie is rich in historical details of that that time period in New York. It weaves the customs of the Bayan (people with roots in the Bahamas) and shows the struggle to make a living both in New York and the Bahamas. The different foods of the Bahamas is an adventure in itself, especially the breadfruit.
I strongly recommend this wonderful book to anyone interested in the folkways of the Bayan and in New York history in the times around 1910. This book is a mix of sadness, disappointment and hope.

I received this book as a win from the LibraryThing but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings expressed in this review.