ralentina reviewed Wild Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Inadequate notes on a great book
5 stars
A classic I had read before, when I knew even less about colonialism, It's a fantastic book, pointing its fingers at the patriarchy and colonialism in one gesture, and managing to be more insightful and original of much of the contemporary pop postcolonial stuff. There are no good guys in the story, with most characters being troubled, grotesque and unhappy. History is not being kind to anyone in the book, not even the privileged white man (Rochester), who is tricked into marriage and clearly would not have come to Jamaica, if he has been free to choose. And yet there are oppressors and there are oppressed, and then those oppressed by the oppressed - still in no way purer or 'nicer' than the other. The writing sometimes verges on the obscure, but given that madness is a theme, it seems fitting. It also does something very clever with its orientalising …
A classic I had read before, when I knew even less about colonialism, It's a fantastic book, pointing its fingers at the patriarchy and colonialism in one gesture, and managing to be more insightful and original of much of the contemporary pop postcolonial stuff. There are no good guys in the story, with most characters being troubled, grotesque and unhappy. History is not being kind to anyone in the book, not even the privileged white man (Rochester), who is tricked into marriage and clearly would not have come to Jamaica, if he has been free to choose. And yet there are oppressors and there are oppressed, and then those oppressed by the oppressed - still in no way purer or 'nicer' than the other. The writing sometimes verges on the obscure, but given that madness is a theme, it seems fitting. It also does something very clever with its orientalising of both the Carabbeans and the UK - each turned into a (magic, sinister) place that doesn't really exist, by the fantasy of Rochester and Antoinette, respectively.
