Okay, Black Shack Alley… this is a really good read, and though it can feel slow at times, I appreciate how Zobel brings us from the narrator’s life as just a small boy at the age of five all the way into his adolescence, without ever making the narrative feel rushed or forced. The simple yet eloquent style of prose that Zobel employs makes the story all the more engaging- I felt as if I was growing up alongside the narrator, witnessing the ways that his thoughts and perceptions change with age and maturity. So many aspects of his childhood, although foreign to me in most senses, evoked strong memories from my own, especially in his carefree escapades with friends or the imaginative worlds (like the shrimp world he dreams up by the river on p. 55) he builds. Zobel beautifully captures this simplicity of childhood, before all the harshness of the world comes crashing in to taint things.

Obviously, José is aware of the inferior position that black people hold in society as a child- but growing up in Black Shack Alley, this is just how things have always been, and at this point he hasn’t known anything other than life on the plantation and subservience to the békés. This is quite an emotional novel, with touching moments of love and joy interspersed among the heaviness of oppression that characterizes this place and time period. The seemingly casual (or perhaps just desensitized) manner in which Zobel recounts instances of black people being exploited, whether it’s the békés “doing what they want” with the women in the cane fields, or the pitiful wages and food that José and his community are forced to live off of, is a product of Zobel’s own personal experience, and offers a very necessary window into the past.

One scene I find particularly difficult, yet also revealing of José’s character, is when the teacher at the lycée disregards his work as “plagiarism”, deeming it too good to be have been written by a student (particularly a black student). Rather than lash out in frustration, José vows to work even harder with a quiet determination, secretly pleased that the teacher is so impressed with his words. As he progresses to the more advanced stages of his schooling, José starts to notice the distance between himself and his former peers- not in a prideful manner, but with a deep sadness, as he realizes his dear friends will remain trapped in a cycle that he barely managed to escape himself. A heavy cloud of guilt seems to hang over this latter half of the narrative- José mourns the friends he has left behind, as well as Jojo and Carmen, who might never make it out of Petit-Fond, and above all the life that he will never get to provide for M’man Tine after all she has sacrificed for him.

My question- how did you perceive the ending of this novel- hopeful or melancholic? Or something else entirely?