Editorial Reviews
From Publishers
Weekly
Clarke, considered one of Canada's finest political
novelists, but less well known in the U.S. (a memoir, Pig Tails 'n
Breadfruit, was published by the New Press in 2000), gets a new launching in
this country with this eloquent, richly detailed novel, awarded Canada's
Giller Prize. A murder takes place in the 1950s on the fictional Caribbean
island of Bimshire (a stand-in for Clarke's native Barbados), where the
culture of English gardens and cricket contrasts sharply with the legacy of
slavery. The murderer is Mary Gertrude Mathilda, a respected elderly black
matriarch. But the identity of the victim is less clear. In the 24 hours
covered by Austin's tale, Mary is determined to tell the police about the
lifetime of degradations that led up to her homicidal rage, and Sgt. Percy
Stuart, a black member of the police force, is determined to stop her. Percy
is in love with Mary, but his life has been a continual compromise with the
still-lingering plantation system. Nobody represents the system better than
Mr. Bellfeels, the white manager of the sugar plantation at the center of
the villagers' lives. When she was 13, Mary was, in essence, bartered to
Bellfeels by her mother, who was his previous mistress. For 38 years, she
bore his groping and his children. Though he has helped their son,
Wilberforce, become a doctor, Bellfeels has never shown Mary herself any
kindness. At times, Clarke loses confidence in his characters and has them
deliver forced sociological truths-for instance, when Mary gives a lecture
about Christopher Columbus. Most of the story, however, unfolds through
brilliantly written dialogue, a rich, dancing patois that fills out the
dimensions of the island's painful history and its complex caste system.
Like Texaco, by Martinique writer Patrick Chamoiseau, Clarke's novel, by
harnessing the genius of Creole, shows how art can don a liberating face.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Clarke was born in Barbados and immigrated to Canada in
the 1950s. His new novel won Canada's prestigious Giller Prize and is
certain to be met with critical acclaim in the U.S. as well. Readers will
need some patience with the first few pages, but that soon turns into
complete absorption in this digressive but endlessly fascinating, even
charming monologue delivered by one Mary-Mathilda, an old woman living on a
big plantation on a West Indian island.
Customer Reviews
Avg. Customer Review:
Run-soaked Caribbean cadences, August 4, 2003
|
Reviewer: Peggy
Vincent from Oakland, CA |
Almost mimicking the sense of time on a West Indian island, this
mesmerizing novel begins slowly and then warms up with the Caribbean head of
noon's overhead sun. Now an old woman still living on a big island
plantation, Mary-Mathilda, in the process of confessing something having to
do with the 'hoe' of the title to the local cops, reminisces about her past,
chronicling the plantation's history as well as her own. The novel explores
the brutality of plantation life not in the fields but in the Big House
where as a girl, Mary M caught the manager's eye and became his mistress,
the mother of his only son. Separated from her own people by her comforts
and privilege, she is also separated from the white establishment by the
barriers of racism, servitude, and sexual exploitation.
Rum-soaked Caribbean cadences, August 1, 2003
|
|
Reviewer: Peggy
Vincent from Oakland, CA |
Almost mimicking the sense of time on a West Indian island, this
mesmerizing novel begins slowly and then warms up with the heat of noontime
Caribbean overhead sun. Now an old woman still living on a big island
plantation, Mary-Mathilda, in the process of confessing something having to
do with the 'hoe' of the title to the local cops, reminisces about her past,
chronicling the plantation's history as well as her own. The novel explores
the brutality of plantation life not in the fields but in the Big House
where as a girl, Mary M caught the manager's eye and became his mistress,
the mother of his only son. Separated from her own people by her comforts
and privilege, she is also separated from the white establishment by the
barriers of racism, servitude, and sexual exploitation.
Enriched with native tongues, June 27, 2003
| |
Reviewer: The
RAWSISTAZ Reviewers |
Austin Clarke's Giller Prize winning novel THE
POLISHED HOE takes place on the fictional island of Bimshire in the "Wessindes."
During one long night of confession and reflection between Bimshire lawman,
Sarge, and Miss Mary Gertrude Matilda, a kept woman on the Bellfeels
plantation, Clarke's characters ruminate about the lives they have led. Mary
calls the police station and tells them she must confess her crime. Sarge
comes to the Great House where Miss Mary resides to record her statement,
but is caught in a whirlwind of memories about the woman he grew up with,
his own experiences and transgressions, and the contempt circulating the
island regarding Mister Bellfeels.
Enriched with native tongues and a sort of
stream of consciousness writing, this is a novel that brought to mind some
of the great writers of all time. The prose was lilting, and I often found
myself caught in a reverie as the characters related memories from their
lives. It is not a book for the drama lovers who live for fast paced reads;
rather it seems to have been written for those who love narration,
historical fiction, and carefully crafted characterizations.
Reviewed by CandaceK
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
I wanted to love this book but I didn't, January 25, 2003
| |
Reviewer: Booknut
from St. Albert, AB |
I wanted so much to love this year's Giller
Winner. Austin Clarke was the underdog against such big hitters as Wayne
Johnston and Carol Shields but I found The Polished Hoe to be a long
rambling tale with an unsatisfying climax.
Mary Gertrude Mathilda Bellfeels, a plantation field
worker who luckily or unluckily caught the favor of the plantation manager
Mr. Bellfeels becomes his mistress and bears him his only son. As a reward
she lives and raises her son (he grows up to become the village doctor) in
the Great House and no longer has to work other than being little more than
a [mistress] to a man you come to truly hate.
The novel covers one long night of Mary giving
her statement to a Sargent who has loved her from afar since they were both
only 10 years old. In the build up to her crime, what she did and why she
did it, we get the story of her almost 60 years on the plantation through
anecdotes of the horrors of black life in the village of Bimshire in the
West Indies where blacks are still treated like slaves even if they work for
a wage.
The problem for me was that this book rambled
over the same territory continually and although some of the history was
compelling this novel lacked a continuity or a narrative that kept you
wanting to read on. The carrot is that you know she's probably killed
someone with that hoe she used to use in the north field but you don't find
out who and why until the last 10 pages of the book and by then I just
wanted to be done.
This is a good book for a sense of place, time
and culture but don't look for a great love story or a novel of suspense in
The Polished Hoe.
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