This Book has the “X-Factor”!
By Clarissa Pabi / Spinebreakers Crew
Roots dyed Blonde...... Bernadine Evaristo's "Blonde Roots" is a fresh and colourful insight into a part of world history that has been spoken about over and over again and in the same way and as a result its importance seems to have diminished. Yet Evaristo shows this is not the case. I think the dedication and Nietzsche’s POWERFUL quote in the epigraph sum up the whole ethos of the book. And they show that it has something profound to say. "Remembering the 10 to 12 million Africans taken to Europe and the Americas as slaves...and thier descendants[during] 1444-1888","All things are subject to interpretation: which ever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power not truth".
Evaristo addresses the holocaust of slavery in an extremely unique and exciting way. This book is not an emulation of Malorie Blackman "Noughts and Crosses" but goes beyond that. It is more like Phillip Pullman meets Roots. His Dark Materials meets Her Light Materials. Evaristo literally sets it in a completely diferent world! Begining in the both familiar and unfamiliar city and holiday of "Londolo", and the holiday of "Voodomas". "Blonde Roots" is a mishmash of European African, Asian and Caribbean cultures as well as anachronisms that will confuse the reader if they do not read carefully, yet I suppose this is a testiment to the complex and interesting structure Evaristo creates. Luckily there is a map in the begining of the book. Evaristo manages to show how interchangable cultures are as "Europa" becomes the "grey" continent with all its negative connotations. In this way the book focuses on ideology and ideological oppression, of slavery. The ideological oppression tries to make Doris, the blonde protagonist and narrator, make to feel worthless, subhuman and ugly. Yet Doris and Evaristo seem to that different people have different ideals and thats ok, some people view women who are thin as beautiful whereas others see women who are bigger around the hips and breasts as the epitome of beauty. Evaristo to shows that ideals are of equal value, and this shows the sense of pluaraism with the novel, as Doris is able to comment on the beauty of "cinnamon" brown coloured woman aswell as on the iconic beauty of a "Barbie" doll, who makes an anachronistic appearance. The book is satirical as well as moving and Evaristo slipps in the brute facts to expose the atrocities that happened during slavery yet also balances this with humour to make it more bearable and engaging.
Doris is blonde and fiesty, but more than that she is an endearing narrator. The middle section of the book however is narrated by Chief Bwana, a rich and eminent figure who happens to be Doris owner, seems to be caricature of and English Lord, who is anything but blonde and is certainly not endearing. Structurally this section is interesting because it is a series of anti-abolition articles called the flame that constantly addressed "Dear reader", and so this puts the actual reader in the position of a literate non-slave like a lord or ordinary person or literate slave, like Doris. Indeed at this point in the story the reader could be said to become Doris, as they wade through the anti-abolitionist mumbo-jumbo, like she has had to do as Bwana's pseudo secrtary, because like a slave ,the reader has too aswell, as they have to read this section in order to get through the rest of the book.
Nonetheless although this section is interesting it does feel rather ardious to read it. As it becomes rather repetative and tautological. Yet I think that this reflects the style of such articles at the time. And it makes me think that perhaps people just got tired of reading through all of the material and just agreed with what it said just so they could put it down! Or maybe not. Maybe there were some people who genuinely believed that "Some are more Human than others"( an allusion to Orwell's Animal Farm, we are all equal but some are more equal than others perhaps) I mean Bwana's argument is very logical if not nonsensical, and he also uses a formal and also friendly tone, which makes it appear as if he is wise and benevolent. Nevertheless either way it just makes the reader feel that those who espoused his view must have been really stupid. This book is not an angry book, and I think that the “whyte” and “blak” characters should be differentiated from the idea “black” and “white” people. As I think it is very naïve to conjecture that Evaristo is simply saying “how would you like it if things were the other way round?”. Such a pursuit would be pointless, and would also seem to be misconstruing her intentions. Bernadine makes very pertinent points throughout the book, and exposes barbarities in book of the cultures. And thus it seems to say that even though the slave trade was incontrovertibly wrong “I can understand how it could have happened”. Moreover manages to make the reader see this as well. And so I think the book is more about empathy rather than anger.
Evaristo gets high marks for accessibility as the reader gets to understand things from the perspective of the slave and the non slave. Most importantly the reader never finds themselves referring to Doris by her slave name, which is very HARD to pronounce. Her style of writing is poetic, idiosyncratic and extremely colourful. Evaristo is serious when she needs to be and her book is full of saitire awell as pain. But i think there is more humour and light heartedness than pain. Laughter is curative! Let the healing begining.
By Clarissa Pabi