THE JACARANDA TREE

by H.E. Bates ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 4, 1948

Again with the lean romanticism, the sustained narrative tension which qualifies all that H. E. Bates has written, and this time with the whiplash of irony directed against the dubiously civilized, civilizing colonials in India, this concentrates- in a few days -- a last exodus from Burma. Heading a small party of British, a half caste and two natives is Paterson, -- Paterson who had offended the colony by his imperviousness to their codes of conduct, his immunity to their women, his isolation with Tuesday, his native boy, and Nadia, his mistress- Tuesday's sister. Paterson alone maintains a cool efficiency in the journey ahead, overrides the peevish grievances and the amorous advances of the women, ignores the rumors of massacre and cholera, but he cannot avert the disruption of the group as three stay behind, the others meet both slow- and sudden-death, leaving only Paterson to clear the frontier with Tuesday and Nadia. The childlike and complaintless constancy of these two, and the gentleness it evokes in Paterson, softens and heightens the drama here which is always absorbing.

Pub Date: Jan. 4, 1948

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown (A.M.P.)

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1948

Categories: FICTION