Island Beneath the Sea

The latest novel from Allende takes us to the turbulent colony of Saint Domingue in the years building up to the slave rebellion which started in 1791 and succeeded with island's  violent transformation into Haiti in 1804, making it the first independent nation in Latin America and the first black-led republic in the world.

We pick up the story of mulatta slave-girl Zarité when she is 9 years old and follow her and those close to her over the course of the next forty years during her time as the domestic slave of pathetic plantation owner Toulouse Valmorain. Her desire to protect his child, which she has raised as her own, and her own child, the result of one of Valmorain's frequent rapes, ties her to him as the slave rebellion unleashes revenge on the cruel plantation owners. Key historical figures such as Vincent Ogé and Toussaint L'Ouverture appear as shadowy background figures to anchor the story to the island's gripping history. Valmorain eventually flees the warring island first for Cuba, and then for Louisiana, drawn by the fact that there, slavery is still legitimate and profitable. Zarité abandons her chance for love to go with him, still harbouring her life-long dream of freedom.

Haiti's voodoo practice finds the perfect vehicle in Allende's magical realist style and the ideal embodiment in the character of Tante Rose who reveals the ceremonies and medicinal cures associated with this spiritual practice. The drumming of the voodoo ceremonies finds its way into the head of Valmorain's wife, Eugenia whose demise from expectant young bride to traumatised phantom is effectively captured. Her derangement in the oppressive colonial conditions is reminiscent of Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.

However, the characters always feel at a distance and we never really get to know them as we might like. Allende seems to talk for them rather than through them, which can make the vast passages of prose a little hard to digest. The exception being Violette Boisier - the beautiful courtesan whose confident personality comes through and who we are relieved to see emerge a success at the end of the story.

Allende's oft-overly romanticised style makes for a few bodice-ripping moments which seem a tad inappropriate at times and undermine such a sweepingly huge and important story.  The final stages of the book set in Louisiana see the story disappointingly fizzle out but overall, Island Beneath the Sea gives a fascinating human slant to the history of a still troubled nation. Anne Majumdar

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