Country 31 – Blurb from goodreads.com, please scroll down for my review. A history of 18th Century slavery in Suriname (1765-1779) … “a frank expose of life in the Dutch slave colony when sugar ruled as kind – and the tragic toll it took on the lives of colonists and slaves alike.” De Telegraaf
Quote “ They wanted nothing from the planters or the government, just freedom”
Can you even dislike someone as much as I disliked Sarith? She was just an unpleasant person. I approached this book with an empty mind, yes, most of us have read or seen movies about mistreatment of black slaves, so this part was nothing new, but to not skip over the parts with Sarith in then I have to empty my mind and read as if I knew nothing of life as a plantation owner’s daughter with black slaves. She was brought up to have everything she wanted and was spoiled rotten.
My Review
This book is written almost entirely from the point of view of the rich white colonialists, most are owners of the sugar plantations, with one of the main characters working for the bank, who often lends money to the rich white plantation owners, with the occasional chapter from the point of view of the slaves. You get to see a world where white money talks in Suriname in the 1770’s. There are some of the characters who are awful, Sarith for one, she was just despicable, although if you really think about it, all the white people in the book were not nice people. One of the slaves was Alex, a great character. I would have liked to have him as a more important character in the book.
The author Cynthia Mcleod is the daughter of Johan Ferrier, who was the first president of the country, so it is a little biased towards the white people of the country.
Although there are parts where Sarith is just a spoiled little brat, there are some raw parts, especially when the plantation is attacked by the free blacks. Now that sounds terrible doesn’t it, but, when you read the book, it was the slaves and free blacks who were the nice, kind, mistreated people in this novel.
The writing itself is not great, the character development is also not great, there are parts that drag on, and there are parts that have good engagement. but this is a great book for learning about the history of the small south american country Suriname.
I appreciated the translations and explanations (footnotes) of certain parts of the text, it certainly helped understand and added to the book.
This book taught me a little about life in the Dutch colony of Suriname from the point of view of the colonists.
I give this book 3 stars.
The next book / country is Friend: A Novel from North Korea by Paek Nam-Nyong (North Korea)
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