Date: 22 June 2014
Location: Jay & Gina
The reaction to Wide Sargasso Sea was mixed, some not liking it, some saying it was a good and interesting book, and some in between.
Most agreed that the book was problematical and was not an easy read, for several reasons:
- Most importantly you could not tell who the narrator was in each part of the book. Was it necessary to keep the reader off balance like this?
- Some discussion expressed confusion about Antoinette’s insanity: did she grow up in a mentally ill condition because of her genes? Did the traumas and the continual anxiety and mistrust surrounding her in her early life drive her insane? Was it parental abuse and neglect? Or was she sane until her husband entered her life and drove her into insanity?
- Concerning her husband, was he a sympathetic character? This question required some attention to the situation that brought him to the islands. As a second son he could not inherit the family estate in England, and so he was shipped off to acquire an estate by marrying a Creole—not that arranged marriages are always a bad thing, but in this case difficult adjustments were demanded of him in climate, topography, vegetation, the rundown condition of the estate, and most of all in the person of Antoinette (who had to make major adjustments of her own, to be sure). Given all this, some found him generally likable but others found him to be a reprehensible and unpleasant character.
- Why couldn’t the characters just talk to each other? It is frustrating to read about people whose problems would go away if they would just communicate. (But see fourth paragraph below.)
- The use of the N word was disturbing, especially to anyone who lived through the times of racial abuse.
Some discussion focused on the effectiveness of Sargasso Sea as a prequel to Jane Eyre. As I recall we came to no definite resolution on this point.
On the positive side (mostly my opinion), this book gives a powerful depiction of a society full of colonial stresses, exacerbated by its recent history of slavery. The Blacks are—understandably—inclined to hatred, violence, and revenge. The Creoles, as former slave owners, live in fear of an uprising and in mistrust of their servants. Furthermore they have lost everything. The recent English immigrants are naïve and obtuse. They can’t understand or sympathize with the Creoles, who thus feel alienated from both Blacks and English. And then Voodoo and zombies add to the stresses of the political-social system, and they provide an eerie atmosphere of lurking terror.
The terse style of the book draws the reader into its pervasive paranoia. Much of the book gives such sparse narrative that you can hardly tell what the setting is or what is happening. Similarly the dialog is often very brief, maybe just one remark or question with one response, but the words are loaded with facts and feelings that go unsaid. Mistrust and despair of being understood make meaningful exchange impossible for the characters. The reader must deal with this technique of minimal expression/heavy suggestion. You don’t quite know what to believe, but you know it is bad news. Dealing with this style, trying to figure things out but being not quite able to—this draws you into the paranoia.
I found the book to be disturbing, disquieting—not a fun read, but interesting, informative, challenging. A strong book, one to be taken seriously.
— John