Book Review: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

´So between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all´.

I am terribly disappointed in my reading choices for having a practically non-existat knowledge about Carribean literature, both in terms of authors and topics. Although it may sound fake to pretend and promise in 12 months it will be much better, I will anyway do my best to correct it.

For now, I had my first important lecture from this realm: Wide Sargasso Sea by Dominican- British writer Jean Rhys. Published in  the 1960s, the book is important not only from the point of view of the topic, but also from the literary novelty as it is set as a postcolonial adaptation of Brontë´s Jane Eyre. But even for someone who never read this classical novel or did it too long ago to remember the details, Wide Sargasso Sea has a strong literary point to prove anyway. 

Antoinette Cosway, the main character in the book is a kind of mad woman in the attic - and she will be even re-named Bertha. Mr. Rochester is the man who left England for the dream of the Carribbean, while Antoinette herself dreams passionately about England. Antoinette, rejected by a mother with a complex mental illness history, will end up being herself caught into the social web of mental stigmatisation. (Right now I am in process of reading Rachel Aviv´s Strangers to Ourselves, that may fuel some clinical examples to the story of social construction of mental illness in general).

The ambiance elements are very strong, with traces of patois and various local legends intertwinned to and adorning the main narrative. To this, adds on the racial intricacies in a place taking over from the colonial era, but dominated by racial categorisations of skin shades and race-based social differences. It is also a world of black magic and ancestral traditions dislocated by the new world while reinserted into the modernized contexts.

From the literary point of view, personally I was delighted by the literary style, the point-counterpoint smooth translation from a chapter to another, the dialogues between characters and the small intrigues adding a special narrative dynamic to the story. 

May be that Wide Sargasso Sea was among my first Carribean novels to review, nevertheless one that left me a strong impression and made me even more curious to understand more about this realm. My Carribean challenge is now on!

Rating: 4.5 stars