> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Schwarz-Bart-La-mulatresse-Solitude/32678

[A Woman Named Solitude] by [[Andre Schwarz-Bart]] is the next. This one was definitely outside of my usual box. I was attracted by the title, since I have always liked Soledad as a name, and intrigued by the description on the cover: 'A beautiful, heartbreaking story of slavery and the survival of the human spirit.' The book was originally written in French. Certainly a grim topic, but perhaps something I should confront more often. My overall reaction? Ambivalence, uncertainty, confusion, mixed feelings. I'm not sure I like the book well enough to keep it, but I feel like maybe I should make another attempt to wrap my brain around it. I have that same reaction to [A Canticle for Leibowitz] and [A Case of Conscience].

The novel begins in 1755 among the Diola people of West Africa. Part 1 is the story of the young girl Bayangumay coming into adulthood and marriage. The story does an excellent job, from what I can tell, of portraying something of the culture and mindset and general ways of perceiving the world of this young West African girl. It ends with her capture and transport on a slave vessel to the island of Guadeloupe (a French colony). The second part of the book tells the story of her daughter, Solitude. The first chapter is still narrated essentially by Bayungamay. The second chapter is from her daughter's perspective--in this chapter the mother's name is Man Bobette and the daughter's is Rosalie, because of course these things are dictated by the owners. The third chapter is split between the child Rosalie and Louis Mortier, the general plantation manager (de facto slaveowner). It is at the end of this chapter that the heroine names herself Solitude after a series of masters and their marks of ownership. The rest of the book covers the slave revolt, brief independence of the island, and the eventual return of white authority and the arrest and execution of various 'ringleaders' including Solitude.

The opening quote and epilogue make it clear that this story was based on real people and events, including Solitude herself. The information about the author makes his motivation and inspiration clear--he survived the Nazi genocide of Jews of WWII and married a woman from the island of Guadeloupe.

I am not sure if my lack of appreciation stems from my lacking the appropriate literary background or the appropriate cultural background. Most of my reading about slavery (whether fiction or not) relates to its practice on the mainland, here in the United States, so a French island is certainly a different perspective on the ugly underbelly of colonial history. There isn't much in the way of character development or scintillating dialogue. And no plot as such, just vignettes that appear largely unconnected. The choppiest part of the book is the accounting of the revolution and temporary freedom on the island. Solitude somehow becomes a folk legend, but it doesn't seem particularly plausible and the narration isn't particularly coherent.

The author did an excellent job portraying the people and the era and making it feel viscerally real and immediate. I was deeply moved by some of the descriptions. For example, in a scene involving the public torture/execution of a slave woman who dared kill her baby (and thus steal profit from the owners):

'The child had looked in amazement from the old man's placid face to Man Bobette's tight, impassive features, and suddenly discovered that they were both observing the scene with the same eyes: two little land crabs darting this way and that, searching, biting the air roundabout. It was very hard to look at the world with such eyes. When you examined it coldly in this way, the claws of your eyes turned back into your head and tore it to pieces.'

Later on, as Rosalie was trained to become a house servant: 'But at other times she would stiffen her neck with rage and let the crabs fly at Man Bobette, or thrust out her belly and hurl the crabs at the big house...' Such imagery!

The book does a good job showing some of the chilling sensibilities and casual atrocities involved in this peculiar institution, and the conflicts it creates within the black communities. Rosalie is given to the manager's daughter when they are both still quite young, perhaps five or six years old. The girl already has four other personal slavegirls. And here is one exchange:

''Didn't To-Souls know that niggers didn't feel pain as white poeple do?...But runaway niggers, Mademoiselle went on in her sweet gentle voice, didn't seem to feel anything at all. There was sorcery behind it, no other explanation was possible. Whatever you did to them, they just smiled or calmly insulted you, as though you weren't worthy of their anger.' It gives whole new levels of meaning to the cluelessness that comes with white privilege.

In essence, this book is a portrait of slavery and its effects on the black people who suffered under it. But it is very unlike most novels in terms of tone, style, plot, etc., at least in my experience. So while I liked the prose, I didn't care for the storytelling. ( )

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. At first glance,the summary on the back of the book seemed promising (SPOILER ALERT): "Conceived aboard a slave ship and bound for the Caribbean, Solitude was born into slavery and sold on the auction block, a black chattel of a corrupt society-- until she heard the ringing of rebellion on the island wind."

The story is based on legends of a real woman named Solitude. The historical facts themselves are fascinating, and the book poignantly depicts the devastating impact of slavery on slave, master and society. Also brilliantly described are the psychological effects of captivity on the slaves.

There was just something missing, and I couldn't fully engage in the story. My edition is translated to English from the original French, so something may have been lost there. But I think what was lacking, for me, was character development. I felt very removed from the character of Solitude throughout the story. Perhaps this was intentional on the part of the author, a means to depict the emotional distance at which Solitude kept others in order to survive, and maintain her as an enigma.

Perhaps a reread in the future will yield a different experience. But for now, this novel just left me wanting something more. ( )