5 Books Every West Indian Woman Should Read This Summer
photo courtesy of Tiara Jade
written by Tiara Jade
While travels to the Caribbean may be limited this summer, a good book can have the same effect. The warm days and hot sun call for a comfy lounge chair, a cool drink and a read that will transport us into a different time and place. The Caribbean women who have written these five books explore captivating themes that our community can relate to; identity, race, trauma, love and loss. Masters of their craft, each story is carefully told, letting us feel alongside our characters and learning something new. No matter what genre you prefer, these West Indian reads will have you fully immersed from the first few pages until the final word.
Booklist
1. The Swinging Bridge by Ramabai Espinet
The Swinging Bridge tells the story of Mona, an Indo-Trinidadian film researcher based in Canada. When Mona finds out her older brother Kello is dying from AIDS, she is forced to confront her family’s past and look deeper into her heritage. Kello asks Mona to return to Trinidad and help him reclaim the family property their father sold years prior so the family could immigrate to Canada. Throughout the book, Mona reflects on her life, particularly her childhood and teenage years in Trinidad. From these memories, Ramabai Espinet explores the expectations placed on girls and women, racial politics in Trinidad and the displacement the family faced after relocating. Mona’s journey ultimately leads her to create peace within her family and attain the freedom she longly desired.
2. Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
Land of Love and Drowning takes places in the early 1900s when the Virgin Islands are transferred from Dutch to American rule. The shipwreck of an important vessel leaves two sisters and their half brother orphaned and uncertain of what’s to come. Each of the siblings possesses a special quality that ultimately makes or breaks them. The story follows the family over several decades as they face love, loss, betrayal and their family curse. The history of the Virgin Islands is echoed alongside, providing context and background on the island's changes and the difficulties faced by those occupying it. With strong characters and magical elements, it is a beautifully told story that holds your attention from start to finish.
3. TRAUMA: a collection of short stories by Elizabeth Jaikaran
In Trauma, Elizabeth Jaikaran brings to life the traumatic stories of several Guyanese women. Topics such as rape, homophobia, domestic violence and suicide are often considered taboo and swept under the rug in Guyanese culture. The short stories are based on real narratives from the authors family as well as some she connected with for the book. Each story is told with a gentleness yet a potent and blunt dose of painful honesty. Such traumas are sadly still faced by many Guyanese and West Indian women today. Handed down to us as a result of the silenced trauma our mothers were sometimes forced to bear. Elizabeth accompanies her narratives with pockets of background information and statistics that provide further context to Guyanese society. The book honours the strength and sacrifice of Indo-Guyanese women from past, present and future.
[Additional Read: Tiffany Manbodh’s Forget Me Nots: A Journey of Sexual Abuse and Healing]
4. Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi
Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix, Haitian-Dominican Zuri Benitez lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn and is witnessing the gentrification of her beloved neighbourhood. As wealthy families move in, the changes keep on coming— including the arrival of the Darcy family. Zuri wants nothing to do with the Darcy boys Darius and Ainsley, despite her older sister quickly falling for Ainsley. The boy's arrival to the story ignites the exploration of race and class, in particular it addresses how wealth can create divides even within the same race. Zuri is an aspiring poet and the inclusion of her writing adds dimension throughout the story. Ibi uses a similar structure reminiscent of the original Pride and Prejudice while giving it a fresh voice and a strong lead character. Zuri’s pride in her culture and neighbourhood can’t be dimmed. She fights to keep her place in the transforming of Bushwick before all is lost.
5. Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad by Krystal A. Sital
In Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad, Krystal Sital tells the secret past that has haunted the women in her family for decades. The book is essentially a memoir written in the perspectives of her mother and grandmother, with certain conversations recollected from her own memory. When Krystal’s grandfather ends up in the hospital after a bad fall, her grandmother shows little urgency to save his life, something everyone around her seems to not understand. With the can of worms open, Krystal learns of the heartbreaking abuse her grandmother suffered at the hands of her grandfather as well as the ways her father has failed her own mother. Krystal is incredibly descriptive in her narratives, putting you right there in the Trinidadian countryside, feeling the pain and resilience of generations of West Indian women.