RazorOye
carry all the groceries in in one trip
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well, it should go on my "What are you reading (again)?" list
This is probably my 6th or so time reading it. I think it's incredible. I don't think you need to have read Jane Eyre to really get what's going on. I have a pdf with relevant passages from that novel that give you the requisite background to understand what you need to understand about Antoinette/Bertha
I like it for a number of reasons. First, I think it's a beautifully managed setting. It's gorgeous, but the beauty is although menacing and threatening. It has a very Gothic-esque macabre shade to it. Paradise, superficially, but malevolent and hostile. I just love the setting. And the man made buildings are also hanging on for life, typically falling apart or in ruins.
I also absolutely love the sadness surrounding the character of Antoinette. One tragedy after another and she's just trying to hold on to a fleeting sanity. She's perpetually marginalized from her childhood. A mixed race girl in a segregated, patriarchial society. A family now-rich-once-poor-once-rich in an economically hierarchial society, post-emancipation (but not really). She doesn't belong anywhere and constantly seeks safety, never able t find it. And when she thinks she has the best chance at it, it's taken away.
The depiction of the relationship is also heart wrenching. There are some excellent descriptions of a relationship in which someone invests himself/herself and his/her own happiness in someone else. That's a precarious and vulnerable place to be. And it doesn't always work out.
It also helps if you understand 'death' can also mean sexual climax - le petit mort. There's a seminal scene in which this meaning is key to understanding the male's oppressive dominance over Antoinette.
Setting is amazing. Characterization is deep and conflicted. Relationship is complex and feels real despite being overtly surreal.
There's also the class commentary, and a bit of historical background on the various islands and places and how slavery worked and colonization operated will probably help. If you can get the Norton Critical Edition, it has a lot of helpful footnotes.
It's a beautiful book.
But don't watch the movies. They turned it into softcore porn. I know at least one of the versions is NC-17.
I'm happy to share additional thoughts when you get around to it.
I first picked it up years ago, when my wife and I were dating. She loved the feminine main character and felt that the struggles and vulnerabilities she went through were real - some she'd experienced.
Definitely recommend - glad it's on your list.
