Island Beneath the Sea is the first book of Isabel Allende that I’ve read. Although she is a magical realism author, I failed to see that quality in the book: the topic of racism, sexism and inequality were all too real topics for the story.
The story follows Tété, a girl born into slavery in the late 1700’s in what we call Haiti today. The injustices imposed on her because of race and gender are repeated throughout her life. Tété’s French owner Valmorain is stuck in his social class, making his decisions to rape, whip, buy slaves without much thought as to dignity or morality.
Women’s roles in this story show how few choices women had in this era. It was noted several times that women either belonged to their father, husband or owner. Women who didn’t belong to anyone were courtesans but even they had their own set of limiting factors.
The story covers 40 years, multiple generations, emigration to America, friendships, loves, and loss. I had never read a story about plantations in the tropics or early New Orleans so it had a historical as well as fictional taste to me.
Although this dealt with a difficult subject, it was well written with luscious detail to environment, food and life.
