ISLAND IN THE SUN

by Alec Waugh ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 1955

A pleasantly prolix novel spends a fews weeks on the West Indian island of Santa Marta and the shifting status of empire Englishmen and natives who are no longer servile, the edgy relationships between the white, off-white and black create an uncertain climate. The new governor, a military man, is to prevent any overt demonstrations; Bradshaw, an American newspaperman, is indifferent to the consequences if he can get a story; David Boyeur, a dark-skinned demagogue, is looking for a new revenge for an old hatred and has control of the native workers; Grainger Morris, also colored, recently out of Oxford, is appointed by the governor as the new Attorney General; while the sugar barons are represented by the Fleurys- a fine old family- and it is Maxwell Fleury, their only son, who is running the plantation but given to many sullen resentments and sudden Jealousies. Bradshaw's article which reveals the mixed bloodlines in the Fleury family has vicious repercussions when Maxwell kills a man but does not admit to the crime, although he finds the patient vigilance of the police commissioner unnerving.And when Boyeur incites native hostilities to a pitch and calls a strike, Fleury finds a way to settle his score against Boyeur and to settle up- without a confession- even though it costs him his life... A somewhat long and leisurely narrative, Waugh sustains a safety of interest in numbers- more than one romance is resolved along with the troubled tension on this island- and it offers an attractive form of entertainment.

Pub Date: March 3, 1955

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1955

Categories: FICTION