Secrets - Hardcover

James, Kelvin Christopher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679424091 ISBN 13: 9780679424093

Publisher: Villard, 1993

Synopsis

The author of Jumping Ship and Other Stories recounts the story of Uxann, a shy country girl in Trinidad, whose sheltered existence will be destroyed by the rites of passage into womanhood. A first novel. Tour.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A first novel from Trinidadian-born James (the story collection Jumping Ship, 1992) that turns the coming-of-age of a young Caribbean woman into a disturbing fable--one that movingly evokes the loss of innocence in a lush tropical demi-paradise. James again displays his lyrical gifts in a story that makes the island setting as palpable a presence as his protagonist, young Uxann. Uxann, innocent and dutiful, lives with her father, Seyeh, on a small farm outside the local village. Her mother went off with another man, and now Seyeh carefully protects Uxann from worldly influence. Uxann, a diligent and accomplished student at the local convent, delights in studying, taking care of the farm animals, and keeping house for her beloved father. But it is inevitable--her classmates are already falling in love, getting pregnant, and having to drop-out--that Uxann's innocence cannot endure. In a series of sometimes less-than-credible twists and turns of plot, Uxann painfully and then tragically is expelled from Eden into a horrifying world where old secrets are revealed and new disasters wreak havoc. Her father arranges for her school-friend Keah to help with the housework to earn money against a debt her family owes; Uxann's initial reservations are overcome by her pleasure in having company in the house. But sexually experienced Keah, the designated serpent in the story, soon seduces Uxann's father; Uxann finds out, and in despair gets drunk, which leads to her being unknowingly-- and unconvincingly--impregnated by her equally drunk father. A son is born, and Uxann, noting the resemblance to her father, is driven to madness and murder. ``The natural order,'' the routine of the farm, will be her only comfort. A stunning tragedy of carefully calibrated horror and pulsating sensuality that is more a tropical murder of the innocents that a conventional rites-of-passage novel. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

This first novel from Trinidad's James skillfully depicts an adolescent girl coming of age on a Caribbean island.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0679424091
• ISBN 13: 9780679424093
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 197