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The True History of Paradise: A Novel |  | Author: Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Seller: hallstreetbookstore
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 381233
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0812979834
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780812979831
ASIN: 0812979834
Publication Date: July 14, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
It's 1981 and Jean Landing is about to flee her disintegrating homeland, Jamaica, but first, she must bury her sister. Lana, a pop singer in the early days of Reggae, has immolated herself in a moment of madness and must be buried immediately "because, as someone explains to Jean, burned bodies decompose quickly." The funeral takes place in the morning; that afternoon, Jean is on her way across the mountains to a rendezvous with a private plane that will take her to the States. Accompanied by her childhood friend, Paul, she drives across her island nation, noting the increasingly violent confrontations between political factions even as she retreats into memories of her own fractured past: Ghosts stand on the foothills of this journey. She smells their woody ancestral breath in the land's familiar crests and undulations. She has heard them all her life, these obstinate spirits, desperate to speak, to revise the broken grammar of their exits. They speak to her, Jean Landing, born in that audient hour before daylight broke on the nation, born into the knowledge of nation and prenation, the old noises of barracks, slave quarters, and steerage mingling in her ears with the newest sounds of self-rule. On verandas, in kitchens, in the old talk, in her waking reveries and anxious dreams, she has heard their stories. From her own mother, the light-skinned, "selfish and adamant" Monica, sister Lana, and deceased father, the black nationalist Roy Landing, to her white ancestor Rebecca Crawford, they are all here, sometimes in Jean's memory, other times telling their stories in their own voices. It's a complicated weave of story lines and voices, but Margaret Cezair-Thompson carries it off with aplomb. The True History of Paradise explores both the political and the personal as Jean's childhood remembrances play out against the war-torn landscape of Jamaica. Near the end of the novel Jean reflects, "To leave one's country. It is not a complete sentence, a complete anything. Its infinitive possibilities leap from loss to promise and back again from promise to loss." This promising first novel makes those leaps with nary a stumble. --Margaret Prior
Product Description
It is 1981. Jean Landing secretly plans to flee her beloved Jamaica–the only home her family has ever known, a place now rife with political turmoil. But before she can make her final preparations, she receives devastating news: Lana, her sister, is dead. The country’s state of emergency leaves no time to arrange a proper funeral. Even Jean’s mother, Monica, who hadn’t spoken to Lana in more than a decade, cannot fully embrace her grief.
The tragedy only underscores Jean’s need to leave an island that holds no promise of a future. Her harrowing journey to freedom across a battered landscape takes Jean through a terrain of memories: of her childhood, with a detached mother at odds with an adoring father, of her complex bond with Lana, and of the friends and lovers who have shaped and shared her days. Epic in scope, The True History of Paradise poignantly portrays the complexities of family and racial identity in a troubled Eden.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 22
 Awesome! May 23, 2009
W. Wedenoja (Springfield, MO)
The time is 1981. Jamaica is torn politically between pro-Cuban and pro-American factions. There is a lot of violence, committed by gangs of thugs tied to politicians. People are scared. Bars are going up on homes. You can't trust the police, the army or the government. Some of the well-to-do are leaving the island. And all this is true. Only the characters are (allegedly) fiction. Jean is leaving the island. Why? Her friend Paul is taking her. Who is he in her life? Jean's half sister Lana, who was Paul's lover, has died. Why? Lana's mother Monica hasn't spoken to her for years. Why is she a bitch? This is the story of a family in crisis, in the midst of a national crisis, told from Jean's perspective, with flashbacks to Jean's ancestors, giving us some historical context. I didn't want to like this book, because it is about the Kingston elite, or at least upper middle class, not the `small man' But in the end I had to like it, because it is a brilliant book, and Jean is a sympathetic character. The author tells a great story, and she is a great wordsmith. She knows her subject too. Any educated Jamaican will find this a compelling read. I don't know how others will find it, without much knowledge of the history and of the dialect, as the author uses a lot of dialect. (There is, incidentally, a glossary at the back.)
 Did not really care for it February 22, 2008
Scarletjazz (Chicago, IL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I didn't really care for this book. Yes, its giving you the History of what we think is paradise but it didn't have me wanting to know more. If you're interested in the violence, the daily life of the Jamaicans and the radical groups and government this may be for you.
Beyond Jamaica December 31, 2007
Ana, Amina, & April (Atlanta, GA/ Guadalajara, MX)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
While I agree with other reviewers that this book is a beautiful multi-faceted portrait of Jamaica from historical to contemporary times, I have to add that there is more to this amazing novel than just the magnificent island which serves as the setting. We are not Jamaican, yet found ourselves entranced by the beautiful descriptions as well as the thrilling storytelling and memorable characters.
The True History of Paradise includes a lot of examination of relationships. Jean's relationships with her a number of other characters -- including her mother, father, sister Lana, best friend, and family friend Paul -- are all completely different and yet extremely meaningful. Through these relationships we find Cezair-Thompson describing the pain and confusion child goes through when rejected by their mother, the danger of placing an emphasis on physical beauty (of our conceptions of it) with children, and the way a mother's treatment of one sister can affect the relationship between the sisters. We also see how Jean and her best friend help each other to become stronger people.
This book helped us (the Sisters Garcia) to understand and appreciate more about our experiences together. And, of course, it makes us long to travel to Jamaica! Cezair-Thompson has truly created a classic work with The True History of Paradise, and we would recommend it to anyone who loves good literature. You may not love Jamaica now, but it doesn't matter, because by the end of the book you will become infatuated with both the island and this novel!
(Review by Amina Garcia)
 An exaggerated History of Paradise? July 11, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is beautifully written. The author is quite gifted and I look forward to more of her work. That being said, my feelings in relation to the story are as complex as the techniques used by the writer to create it. The central event in the book-the 1980 State of Emergency, is a real historical event. I was born in 1979 and therefore remember nothing of it. I have grown up hearing about the how hard that period was. I nevertheless found myself asking my mother, was it really that bad? Was the violence so far-reaching? This, mainly because what I had heard through the years did not meet the horror of what the author described.I liked the author's style but found the conclusion unsatisfying. I resented the narrator's decision to flee.
I was constantly reminding myself -this is a work of fiction.
As a work of fiction, it is a wonderfully written work.The fact that I was affected enough to write this review,(which is not much of a review of the book) means the author has done well.
What you didn't know about Jamiaca.... July 11, 2003
Kate D. Wiggins (Pittsburgh, Pa United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found this book to be very interesting because I knew nothing about Jamiaca or its people. This book opened my eyes to people, the language, and the traditions of Jamiaca. I was shocked at the importance of ethnic and inter-racial mixing. Best thing the author did for the reader was to add the family trees to the beginning of the book. The reading was challenging in visualizing what these characters looked like. Was she black and chinese or white mixed with eastern Indian? Well, I walked away with a different prespective of Jamiaca's history and people. Great read!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 22
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