Stephanie Jane recenzis Love After Love de Ingrid Persaud
An insightful domestic drama
4 steloj
Love After Love is an insightful domestic drama set mostly on the island of Trinidad, a beautiful place, but one blighted by poverty, violence and intolerance. At the centre of this novel are Betty and her pre-teen son, Solo, who take in Mr Chetan as their lodger. These three very different characters take it in turns, chapter by chapter, to narrate the story of how their lives come together and then diverge. Their relationship felt authentic and it's not taking the usual path for a fictional novel made Love After Love particularly memorable for me. I loved how Ingrid Persaud gave every character a distinctive voice even down to briefly-met cameo appearances. I could always quickly tell which of our protagonists was speaking through their use of language and the Trini dialect throughout is wonderful. It was easy to understand, and I appreciated the extra depth provided by local idioms …
Love After Love is an insightful domestic drama set mostly on the island of Trinidad, a beautiful place, but one blighted by poverty, violence and intolerance. At the centre of this novel are Betty and her pre-teen son, Solo, who take in Mr Chetan as their lodger. These three very different characters take it in turns, chapter by chapter, to narrate the story of how their lives come together and then diverge. Their relationship felt authentic and it's not taking the usual path for a fictional novel made Love After Love particularly memorable for me. I loved how Ingrid Persaud gave every character a distinctive voice even down to briefly-met cameo appearances. I could always quickly tell which of our protagonists was speaking through their use of language and the Trini dialect throughout is wonderful. It was easy to understand, and I appreciated the extra depth provided by local idioms and phrasings.
Trinidad society is a mix of varied cultural elements which is well portrayed. The cuisine especially takes influences seemingly from all over the world and food is an important part of the story. Both Betty and Mr Chetan show love through cookery and I was intrigued by other similarities between them too. One of Mr Chetan's less-healthy relationships comes close to mirroring Betty's marriage so we saw how such destructive behaviour isn't dictated solely by gender.
I'm struggling to write everything I want to say in this review because I keep veering too close to giving away plotlines that I appreciated not having know before I started to read! Enough to say, I think, that Love After Love would be a good choice for fans of tropical fiction, and of stories about atypical family relationships. Oh, and this is definitely a Snacks On Standby read!