Out of darkness
MJ Stone
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Return to Arcadia, by H. Nigel Thomas (TSAR Books), 300 pp.
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A slave owner's son wrestles with the guilt of his existence in H. Nigel Thomas's Return to Arcadia
Joshua Éclair is emerging from amnesia, but he has good reason to want to delete the life of trauma that has shaped his forgetting. Joshua is the son of a white plantation owner who raped one of his black servants. He was the despised child of his biological mother, and was eventually adopted by the plantation owner's wife after Joshua's father died when he was five. As the sole heir of the plantation, on the fictional Caribbean island of Isabella, Joshua looks back on his life and sees nothing but an endless string of lies.H. Nigel Thomas's Return to Arcadia is a compelling look at a 50-something light-skinned man who is coming to terms with a life of brainwashing. As Joshua's memory awakens, he is forced to confront all the baggage that he had been hoping to lose in his brain's recycling bin.
The guilt he feels about the death of his biological sister is especially distressing. As he recalls how his adopted mother, Averill, wanted to bleach Joshua of all his blackness, he is haunted by ancient pain. Joshua was told to reject his black lineage and was forbidden to see his sister, Bita, because her blackness exposed the web of lies that Averill had spun around the child.
Thomas has composed a beautifully paced narrative that exposes the pain and suffering inflicted upon Joshua - a cruelty that he continues to carry around as an adult, as flashbacks of his childhood remind him of who he really is.
"Before the end of that same August, Mommy sought to purge him of any love he had
for Bita. It was clear she wasn't reassured by the answers he gave...'Mommy you are asking me to disown my sister, to believe that she was born cursed. But I cannot disown my own sister. It was not her fault that she was born black...'
'I cannot forget Bita. I will not forget Bita. Ask me to give up anything else, but don't ask me to forget Bita.'
'But Joshua, you must.'"
Thomas's prose is crisp and lean and exposes the ghosts and taboos of contemporary Caribbean reality, recalling the sadism of slavery and colonialism that continues to haunt those who deal with the brutalities and bigotry that cast a shadow over their lives. It is certainly not light reading, but Return to Arcadia is a gripping story that draws the reader deep into the struggle of one man as he comes face to face with the demons that he's been desperately trying to hide from.
| Thanks...But What The Hang? |
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Hey...a book review! While I can honestly say that i appreciated it again the question has to be asked why there cannot be at least on additional sheet added to Hour. the additional four pages would make a big difference for your oh-so-faithful readers. Maybe there could even be a permanent book column! Or, dare we hope, another regular columnist from the ranks of your writers?
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Reuven De Souza
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