Book: The Whale House and other stories
Author: Sharon Millar
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press
Price: £8.99
Review by Reshma Ruia
The Whale House and other stories is a powerful collection of short stories which both entertains and informs. Millar presents a kaleidoscope of Trinidadian life with all its longings and disquiet and probes beneath the surface of what appears to be an idyllic Caribbean island.
The characters in her narrative are frequently at an emotional crossroad, compelled to make choices or to face the consequences of their choices. Vignettes of island life are on display, where a mosaic of races – Indian, African, Chinese and white – coexist in an uneasy truce, raging against their fate and mourning the passing of love or a child.
Relationships, fraught and unfulfilled form the core of these stories where women are often the central protagonists. They are usually independent single mothers, eking out a living and trying to protect their children from the temptations of a life lived in the shadow of crime, prostitution and drugs.
In Trotsky’s Mouth, the narrator writes a series of letters to the absent parents of her murdered sister-in-law, bewailing their lack of compassion. An older mother reflects on the stillbirth of her child, “ashamed of her swollen stomach, her veiny thighs. Her leaky body feels old and sad”. In Making Guava Jelly, a woman dying of breast cancer indulges a secret fetish by cutting out magazine pictures of breasts.
But the women are not passive bystanders. Some, like Maria Estella in The Hat, turn from victim to perpetrator of drug smuggling and theft, luring men through a combination of charm and manipulation. The Dragonfly’s Tail, sees an impoverished mother doggedly pursue the chief pathologist in her search for her missing son.
Millar’s prose is sharp and haunting, reflecting the patois of the locals as well as a wealth of detail and striking imagery: “The man behind the end door is old and life-worn, rheumy eyed.” Golden marigolds grow in “discarded truck tires,” and the guava tree’s branches… [are] “obscenely laden, bending under the fruit, the bark mottled and peeling”.
She draws on the rich folk mythology of Trinidad and there is an undercurrent of magic realism running through most of the stories. Humans can’t quite trust each other, but neither can they trust the rich tropical flora and fauna which plays havoc with their senses.
Millar shows a deep understanding of the landscape and the seasons which shape the desires of the inhabitants. Betrayals and murders are often committed against the backdrop of a languorous, sleepy summer’s day, when one’s defences are down.
Maria Estella, the beautiful protagonist of The Hat, has skin that “grew mossy and tender, beautiful and verdant”, after chewing green pawpaw. In Millar’s world, guava trees rain curses, and blind catfish cavort in caves while the insidious presence of the sea and water which surrounds the island is always present, either as a threat or an escape.
The stories in this debut collection by the winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, offer a searing social commentary on the class, race and gender divisions on an island where too many are chasing the same rainbow of security and happiness.
You will enjoy reading this book because of the insight it provides on a still unknown part of the world, and because these stories of love and disappointment transcend boundaries.
The Whale House gives us a universal commentary on what it means to be human and flawed.