MISS TILLIE

Suffused by a warm breeze from the Caribbean, Miss Tillie tells of self-reliance and familial love that draws individuals together–even across oceans.

O’Garro’s (Montserrat on My Mind, 2004, etc.) novel centers on a Caribbean matron named Miss Tillie who’s getting on in years. Though Miss Tillie lives alone, she thrives, creating a cozy household with income earned from two laughably contrasting vocations–cooking and smashing rocks. For the author, Tillie is clearly an enduring symbol of independent strength and calm reserve. One day, the protagonist is approached by a young woman from New York, Chelsea Albright, who becomes a dear friend. The friendship sets Tillie on a path toward reuniting with family members she thought lost forever. The writing is smooth and comforting–a fitting style for the book’s maternal themes. The calming winds of the southern islands blow through her tale and make readers suspect that even during the narrative’s most trying moments, cooler heads will prevail. In crafting such a levelheaded narrative, O’Garro was likely influenced by the real Tillie, whom the author met on the island of Montserrat in the Lower Antilles. In an open letter to Tillie that serves as the book’s epilogue, O’Garro describes her subject as “a noble woman–full of love, compassion, and good common sense.” Thus, this is as much a moving tale of familial love as homage to a distant mentor. If the book has a weakness, though, it may be the way the prose occasionally slips from laudatory to patronizing. Though the author spent time in the Caribbean as a child, she now lives in New York City, and occasionally one gets the feeling that–to borrow Bill Ashcroft’s phrase–the book is another instance of the empire writing back. But these moments are fleeting, and the author’s familiarity with Tillie’s life keeps the story from condescension.

A moving novel on the ties that bind.