The House of Rougeaux
Jenny Jaeckel
The
House of Rougeaux follows the descendants of two children who are
left motherless on a sugar plantation on the Caribbean island of
Martinique in 1785 up until the mid-1960's. I loved the first section
of this book which follows Abeje, who eventually becomes a healer and
her brother Adunbi.
I
immediately felt something for these two characters. The hardships
and unfortunate circumstances of there lives pulled at my heart. The
author had a wonderful ability to transport me to the Caribbean and
the reality of their everyday lives. But, I didn't understand why the
story jumped from the 1800's to descendants living in the 1950's in
the United States and Canada. I think I would have enjoyed this book
much more if it had been chronological in order or even if it had
omitted the second and third chapter. I was also not a big fan of
extremely long chapters often followed by a very short one. It made
the story seem unbalanced to me. I liked the ending of the book which
followed one descendant Eleanor, who returned to Martinique to find
out more about her ancestors, Abeje and Adunbi. I think the author
has a gift and talent for creating beautiful prose and being able to
draw a reader into the characters. But, I was disappointed with the
structure chosen for the work.
Thanks
to Library Thing for allowing me to read and review this book in
exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment