florcardone

I picked this book up thinking, despite the disclaimers of many of you, thinking that A High Wind in Jamaica might be a good companion to Treasure Island. A tale of pirates and the adventures of children captives that would be entertaining to another kid. Hmm, well not so much. Most children would be able to recognize themselves in the imaginative exploits and musings of the Bas-Thornton and Hernandez children, but there are some elements of the story that would require a mature middle schooler or high schooler's understanding. The setting of the novel is colonial Jamaica a generation or two after the emancipation of British slaves, that and a few other references make me think the 1850s. The book, first published in 1929, has a great deal of racism in the beginning. Hughes isn't being malicious, but in portraying how imperialism-minded whites perceived blacks at the time he makes this book a difficult one to recommend to any classroom. The racism is the big hurdle, but there's a reason A High Wind in Jamaica was the first book reprinted as a New York Review Book Classic, Hughes is a brilliant writer. The worlds of the children and the adults are sharply delineated; at every situation Hughes highlights how much the adult and children misunderstand one another, usually to the adults' detriment. Hughes somehow remembered and could explicate the unconscious cruelty and single-minded nature of a child's thoughts. The children are in tears over their lost pet, Tabby: "The death of Old Sam had no such effect: there is after all vast difference between a negro and a favorite cat." Hughes later points out how, unknown to their parents, the children had given that cat first place in their hearts, with second and third perhaps going to each other. And the book has barely started. Hughes puts most of the emphasis on Emily, but all 7 children are well-rounded and their different perspectives all contribute to the book. Margaret, at 13 is by a couple years the eldest so she isn't heard from as much. There are a lot of adult themes in this book and the perspective is so direct and immediate that its more unnerving then other books (or movies even) that show the terrible things that children can be capable of. But, that same close perspective makes you understand them so completely one can't judge them too harshly. Don't get me wrong, the book is funny. A group of pirates, purposely made by Hughes (as he says in the introduction of this edition) of the later, less blood-thirsty, sort, end up with a handful of children aged 3 1/2 to 13 to take care of, who do you think is going to take the upper hand? I have another scene, again from early on which helped make the book - Having come into port, Emily sees a group of "beautiful young men" "mincing" as they disembark. She turns to the Captain and asks "Who are they?" he says, distractedly: "'Oh, those?--Fairies.' 'Hey! Yey! Yey!' cried the mate, more disapprovingly than ever. 'Fairies?' cried Emily in astonishment. But Captain Jonsen began to blush. He went crimson from the nape of his neck to the bald patches on the top of his head, and left. 'He is silly!' said Emily." Very silly indeed. This book can be pretty harrowing there are several pretty shocking scenes, but everything is filtered through a child's perspective so none of it terribly graphic; most of it is only hinted at. The deaths of a house cat or a pet monkey end up weighing a great deal more than rape and murder to young children unacquainted with the particulars. And that, compared with the general rosy innocence granted to children, is what most disturbed readers of the book when it first came out, it was a bestseller anyway.* So, I won't be reading this to the nephew any time soon, but this is not a book that's not to be passed up if you're like me and enjoy reading young adult and children's lit. Because, that's what this is - for grown-ups! That kind of idea could go places. *It took awhile in America because, according to, again, Hughes himself, the country was caught up in reading The Cradle of the Deep and wasn't going to digest two seafaring youngster stories at once. The Cradle of the Deep by actress Joan Lowell was a fictitious memoir along the lines of A Million Little Pieces. In 1929 the offended body was The Book-of-the-Month Club, not Oprah, but you get the idea.

2023-06-21 06:42