August 1, 2018
In a debut novel set in the author's native Trinidad, 13-year-old Paul--diffident and troublesome, unlike his golden-child twin, Peter--gets lost in the bush. Next in the new imprint from Sarah Jessica Parker.
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2019
A debut novel about class strife, masculinity, and brotherhood in contemporary Trinidad.Adam--herself a native of Trinidad--tells the story of Paul and Peter Deyalsingh, twins of Indian descent whose lives rapidly diverge. Paul is socially awkward, a bundle of nervous tics and strange habits, and from a young age he is dubbed unhealthy by his industrious father, Clyde, who works tirelessly doing physical labor at a petroleum plant in order to afford a better life for his children--or, at least, one of them. As he ages, his family becomes convinced that he is "slightly retarded," and he is marked as doomed in comparison to his precociously intelligent brother, Peter--the "healthy" child. After Peter's unexpected success on a standardized test, Clyde and his wife, Joy, single him out as gifted while communicating to Paul that his possibilities are far more limited. Joy works hard to keep her children together--"The boys are twins. They must stay together," she frequently demands--but Peter's intellectual gifts create a chasm between him and Paul. Peter is destined to leave the island, while Paul's horizon never exceeds hard labor, like his father before him. Despite the efforts of Father Kavanagh, a kindly Irish Catholic priest who takes it upon himself to teach Paul, the family is forced to make an irrevocable decision that will determine the boys' fates. Adam excels at sympathetically depicting the world of economic insecurity, unpredictable violence, limited opportunity, and mutual distrust that forces Clyde and Joy to make their fateful decision. Unfortunately, however, the novel telegraphs its biggest plot twist. One can see the narrative gears turning very early, and as a result Clyde's decision isn't harrowing; by the time its necessary consequences unfold, a reader might be less moved than Adam hopes. It doesn't help that many of the characters are sketchily drawn at best. Clyde, Joy, and Peter are not vividly depicted, and the decision that renders Paul disposable seems to emanate out of a psychological vacuum. In the absence of any emotional stakes, the last third of the novel unfolds like a generic thriller. That's unfortunate, as Adam has otherwise written an incisive and loving portrait of contemporary Trinidad. Paul is the most fully realized character: Adam movingly depicts his struggle to break free of his family's conceptions of his abilities. As a result, the novel is most moving when it becomes a heart-rending character study of post-colonial adolescence that recalls V.S. Naipaul and George Lamming.A fascinating novel that fails to stick its landing.
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The golden child is Peter, one of the Deyalsingh twins. He's the more scholarly of the two, and his parents, Clyde and Joy, are saving money to send him to college in the United States. His brother Paul, nicknamed Tarzan, is the wild child who spends his time in the bush near their house in rural Trinidad. When the family home is robbed, Joy begs Clyde to move to Port of Spain, where they will be closer to the boys' school and likely safer. But Clyde doesn't want to pay rent in the city, holding onto their savings for Peter's education. Not long after the robbery, Paul goes missing. His parents frantically search for him, their fears stoked by the violence and kidnappings sweeping the island. The novel starts off slowly but gains momentum as the search for Paul continues, with the family dynamics getting more complicated as the tension around the missing boy grows and family divisions, conflicts, and betrayals are revealed. The last third of the book reads like a thriller but never loses its emotional depth. VERDICT Recommended for readers of suspenseful family dramas. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/18.]--Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. Lib., MD
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