WHEN ROCKS DANCE

by Elizabeth Nunez-Harrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 1986

Set in Trinidad at the turn of the century, this first novel, a historical of sorts, takes for its focus, not the cool white linen world of the English planters, but people of color from lower social orders--Amerindians (called the Warao), mulattoes, African slaves, and the slightly more middle-class ""colored Victorians."" Add to this fictional pot the issues that concern them--of land, religion, myth, and miscegenation--and you might expect a boiling stew; the tale barely simmers, though, due to an overdose of melodrama, stilted dialogue, frustratingly obscure locution, and characters who lack all authorial conviction. The beautiful mulatto Marina Heathrow, because of her mother's loss of four sets of twins before her birth (one set to voodoo-inspired infanticide), has ""the spirits of eight men in her,"" and thus, will be able to lay claim to a 15-acre plot of land through marriage to Antonio de Balboa. Antonio, a schoolteacher who lives with his mother, Victoria, has lost three wives in childbirth already. No sooner does Marina marry de Balboa than she learns of his plans to sell the land; so she uses voodoo--or ""Obeah""--to coerce him. Then Marina gets pregnant and swells up unhealthily; Antonio runs for the white doctor while Marina's mother holds a Black Sabbath rite over the ailing girl. By the time Marina delivers twins, everyone has learned something new: Antonio, that his father was an excommunicated priest; Victoria, that voodoo is better than Presbyterianism; and Marina, that she loves her husband but still wants the land. People change religious affiliation and affection in this novel as suddenly as the wind shifts during a hurricane. And while the author handles the episodes of voo-doo interestingly, there's little magic elsewhere, making this more a curio than anything else.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION