Hello dear readers,
How are you all doing now that ‘meteorological’ summer is
over? I heard someone use that term on
the news and found it amusing since summer really doesn’t end until the equinox
on September 22 at 2:49 pm. We are great
up here in beautiful Stowe awaiting the leaf peeping season and all the
additional visitors to town. While we
are enjoying the wind down of the golf season I am still trying to finish this
book. Hopefully I don’t give up!
Here are some of my thoughts on Sugar
Beach and Liberia .
- I am
so happy to be living in the
- I am not enjoying this book, especially the writing style. The use of slang and words that I am not familiar with, or that just won’t stick in my head is difficult reading. Do you read in varying voices? Maybe it’s just me but when I read a British or Southern author I read with an accent.
- Rogues,
heartmen, negee, political adversaries don’t threaten our peace in
- I did
not realize that our good old
How about some questions about the book:
Ø
How did you feel about the history melted in
with the story of Helene and her family?
Did it make the story more realistic?
Ø
What do you think of the Cooper’s ‘adopting’
Eunice so that Helene would have a sister to help protect her?
Ø
At the end of Part 1 – Helene reflects: ‘For six years, Eunice had been my sister, a
Bassa girl living in the same house with me, sleeping in the same room, sharing
the same secrets. We were the same, yet
we were different. In my sheltered
existence I had never dug deep enough to wonder how much native Liverians
resented us. I had been shocked at the
level of hatred expressed when those people started chanting as cousin Cecil
was killed, who born soldier? Country woman.
Who born minister? Congo
Ø
How does Eunice become Bassa again after living
with the Coopers?
For now, that is all the reviewing and contemplating I will
do with this book. Be back soon with
some additional reflections. Til then I
hope you all are enjoying the BOM for September, the Sandcastle Girls.
Happy Reading,
Barbara
Comments on The House At Sugar Beach:
ReplyDeleteFirst it was good to rejoin the group. The House At Sugar Beach, while my least favorite so far, was interesting. I am glad that our leader continues to find books that I normally would never read. I Was aware of the history of Liberia but only in context of US History, and remembering news from the Doe/Taylor turmoil. I was not aware of the ongoing attachment the original slave colonists had with the USA. What I was most fascinated with was how the former slaves became the elite oppressors of the original native people's. I thought the author realized the irony of all that in her own subtle way. Her reporting from Mississippi was most telling. Not sure why or how Barbara but you have a knack for picking books that share a common theme...how humans of all ethnic, racial and social backgrounds band together and find ways to exert their concept of social order, they always feel their group is better than the "others". It is so human, and at times both depressing and yet fascinating. They say power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Anyway despite difficult reading at times (I agree with that observation), I am happy that I pushed through it. On to the next! Murray Rider!