The Shadow Bride - Hardcover

Heath, Roy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892552131 ISBN 13: 9780892552139

Publisher: Persea, 1995

Synopsis

The story begins in the late 1920s with Betta Singh's return from his medical studies in Dublin to Guyana and the opulent chaos of his mother's household. Mrs. Singh, a curiously vulnerable widow and fiercely possessive mother, wears pants and gives orders like a man. She wants her son to stay with her and open a private practice, but Betta is determined to devote his expertise to those who need it most - his own people, the destitute descendants of immigrants from India. He rejects the insulated world of his mother's home and once again leaves her, accepting an appointment as a Government Medical Officer on a sugar plantation run by British expatriates.
In the midst of battling both the malaria that is widespread among the workers and the corruption of the plantation manager. Betta marries - a step which further antagonizes his mother, who has now allied herself with the Pujaree, an influential Hindu religious leader. Ultimately, the myriad of family, religious, and racial conflicts escalate, with consequences that are brutal and far-reaching for all.

About this title

Reviews

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in England, where it was first published in 1991, this seductive family saga from Guyanese novelist Heath (The Armstrong Trilogy) portrays an idealistic, self-doubting doctor who simultaneously confronts a domineering, religiously obsessed mother; racist, condescending British administrators; tensions among Indians, Creoles, Hindus and Muslims; and his own personal quest for identity. In 1929, Betta Singh, born in Guyana to parents from India, returns from medical studies in Dublin and London to become a government medical officer on a British sugar plantation where impoverished Guyanese natives toil despite malnutrition and malaria. Meanwhile, his controlling, widowed mother, who wears trousers "like a man," has fallen under the spell of a Svengali-like Hindu priest who moves in with her, first as her counselor, then as her bedmate, and whose machinations thwart a reconciliation between mother and son. In musical prose, Heath creates complex, convincing characters?like the dressmaker Lahti, emotionally enslaved to a thug who beats her, and Nen Merriman, self-styled marriage counselor and judge who holds an unofficial court to resolve disputes among Creole neighbors. Heath's modest, unpretentious style undergirds a powerful realism as his subtle analysis of family conflicts builds to a tragic and moving climax.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Short-listed for the Booker Prize the year of its British publication (1991), this is a sweeping, understated novel by a Caribbean author. The novel opens in Guyana in the 1920s, with the return of Betta Singh from his medical studies in Dublin. The only surviving child of a fiercely protective and controlling mother (the shadow bride of the title), idealistic Betta angers her by his choice to practice medicine on one of the many sugarcane plantations on Guyana's west coast rather than to open a lucrative private practice. His marriage to Meena, a Muslim, further alienates his Hindu mother. Betta struggles to change the situation in Guyana for the descendants of immigrants from eastern India, who are still caught up in poverty and its attendant illnesses. But it is Mrs. Singh, Betta's mother, who captures the reader's attention. Her descent from strong and wealthy widow to her final, awful fate is rendered in Heath's characteristic deceptively simple style. This novel's power grows as the story progresses, as Heath explores the effects of imperialism, the role of women in East Indian society, and the simmering antagonism of Hindus and Muslims in Guyana. This is a major work from the author of The Armstrong Trilogy. Nancy Pearl

An East Indian family who emigrated to Guyana, the Singhs are in a constant turmoil of shifting religious and cultural beliefs. After the death of the father, Mrs. Singh struggles to hold onto their past life. The story highlights her idiosyncracies and failures but examines everyone in her household, especially her son Betta. Mrs. Singh controls everyone around her and strives to do the same with Betta?without success. When Betta moves away to become the resident doctor on a distant plantation, he and his bitter mother are estranged for years. He gets married, has children, and builds a hospital, but his life is somehow incomplete, leading him to seek reconciliation. His mother tricks him into promising her his firstborn son who, through ill luck or Mrs. Singh's designs, has an accident that leaves him slightly deformed. Yet Betta's life prospers while his mother's becomes miserable, and Betta has to rescue her and take her into his home. This long tale is often plodding and tedious, but Heath has crafted a family saga like none other, detailing the intricate lives of East Indians in Guyana. Recommended for multicultural collections.?Corinne Nelson, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Persea
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892552131
• ISBN 13: 9780892552139
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 437