Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (1966)

First things first, I have not read Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, which this book is in some sense a prequel to, honestly going in to this I had no idea or expectations about it, which I'd say made for a quite interesting, and maybe slightly more difficult reading, and yet I don't think I could say that not having the pre-requisite knowledge about this novel took away from my enjoyment of it in the slightest, if anything it added to it.

For me, this was a truly fascinating exploration of the reality of post-colonialism, which is perhaps the greatest and most constantly vital thread running throughout the entire book, and highlighted most in the middle section. The relationship between the colonising force that is Rochester and the colonised, the Caribbean islands and its people, and what has become even lower than the colonised, the 'white cockroach' that is the Creole heiress Antoinette and her post-emancipation impoverished and deeply hated family. Rochester comes to hate the island, his desire for its secrets to be revealed to him is of course never submitted to, civilisation cannot truly control the power and wisdom of nature. To combat this, he takes his fear and hatred out on his wife, in time not even acknowledging her by the name she recognises as her own, and treating anything outside what he sees as proper (civilised Victorian British) as madness, the madness inherent in the people of the un-civilised world as he sees it.

Not only that, but as Antoinette recounts her childhood days spent in poverty, we see the impacts of an island freed from slavery presented by Rhys in a much more immediate, and violent way, as her and her family are utterly despised by the native, black people of Coulibri, this seething feeling eventually overflowing as the Cosway household is burned down and the family has to flee, resulting in the breakdown not only of the family unit, but of the utter mental collapse of her mother who no longer recognises her own daughter and is then confined to spend the rest of her life in abused by those employed to care for the "madwoman".

By far the best aspect of the book for me was the exceptional characterisation, especially the two most prominent characters, and the clash between prim and proper, at all times conforming to Victorian ideal British gentleman Mr. Rochester and Antoinette who in her wildness, her beauty and sensuality is a fitting extension of the island itself, its no surprise then that Rochester's relationship with Antoinette develops in the exact same way as it does with the island and its people as a whole, going from feeling confusion and intrigue at its wildness and mysteries, to a possibility of content living life as a spectator and enjoyer of the sheer beauty, concluding in a complete rejection of it, it will not be civilised and give up itself up to him, and since neither will Antoinette he declares her mad and not fit for him. Yet he himself is hiding his true self and genuine emotion from his wife at almost all times, as he muses at one stage while being served dinner "He served the food with such a mournful expression that I thought these people are very vulnerable. How old was I when I learned to hide what I felt? A very small boy. Six, five, even earlier. It was necessary, I was told, and that view I have always accepted." And herein lies the main conflict between the two, Rochester who is hiding himself due to the shame of not doing so induced on him by his culture, and Antoinette who hides herself and her history out of a sense of necessity, if not desperation.

The way that Rhys has the perspective constantly flit and shift from one to the other as they tell their side of the story and reveal their true selves only to us readers only heightens this and make the characters and their actions and motivations far more fully-fleshed realised than than so many of the books I've read in the past. Another thing that this does is it makes this book completely accessible to those who have come across it before Jane Eye as without trying to make everything clear at the beginning reading through the constant gaps in the narrative, time shifts and different perspectives work in a way that makes it both an enjoyable and satisfying puzzle to piece together for the first time as you read on, but I also get the feeling that even for someone who has read Jane Eyre before this and knows how the plot will go, the way the story is presented would make it just as fresh and exciting as someone with no knowledge of what is happening before it happens

We end the novel asking ourselves who is really among the living and who with the dead, at least if we follow along with this novel's definition of "a zombi is a dead person who seems to be alive or a living person who seems to be dead. A zombi can also be the spirit of a place, usually malignant but sometimes to be propitiated with sacrifices or offerings of flowers and fruit. They cry out in the wind, that is their voice, they rage in the sea that is their anger." It may seem obvious that Antoinette is the zombi, she has been taken away from her home, her freedom has been utterly demolished, not even her name is alive anymore as she will now only be referred to by another, all that's left to her is to wail and curse her existence until she is driven to give up and no longer care for anything just like her own mother was driven to, yet after the novel's conclusion she felt a hundredfold times more alive than Rochester her captor, master and jailer.

Whether you've read Jane Eyre or not, it really makes no difference, you absolutely should read this one.

4/5