Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a book review

Twyane, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Tom Sawyer’s Comrade (Orinda CA: Wolfe Press, 2018). 100^th Anniversary Collection with original fonts and illustrations. I picked this venerable work randomly, aware that I may not have read it in my younger days and should have, simply because it is held as a classic piece of Americana. I enjoyed the fact that it was printed in its original form, first published in 1884, and so I appreciated the style of English the author employed.

Huckleberry Finn is a story of early America, before the Civil War. It follows the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a teen age boy, who finds it necessary to abandon his father who treats him in a brutal manner, all this reflective of the wretched conditions of many Americans seeking a livelihood out in the frontier. Moreover, Finn escapes in the company of a child slave who is also looking for a better life and so the two sail down the Missouri River on a raft and eventually reach the Mississippi and still they keep going.

Mark Twayne’s story consists of a series of encounters that the two lads come upon. Their multifaceted conversations, as they sort one experience from another, echo the values that they hold and live by, one white and the other a run-away black. Interestingly, the reader learns that Finn’s views about slavery are ill formed at first and they evolve as the two bond on the basis of their experiences. Huckleberry Finn fully deserves its status as an American classic and hopefully all Americans, young and old, immigrant or not, find the opportunity to read it and discuss it with their loved ones because there is much to discuss. 

A MULATA SLAVE GIRL GOES FROM HAITI TO NEW ORLEANS, A BOOK REVIEW

Allende, Isabel. La isla bajo el mar (New York: Vintage Español, 2010) pp. 511. See English below.

Fácilmente esta es una de las mejores lecturas que he hecho recientemente. La portada de este libro anuncia que la autora es “una de las narradoras mas populares de nuestro tiempo” y yo lo confirmo.

La autora nos ofrece la historia de Zarité, una esclava mulata traída como niña a la isla de St. Domingue ahora conocida como Haití donde crece y sirve a Toulouse Valmorain, un finquero francés que le da un hijo y una hija. Los detalles que pintan el mundo de Zarité como esclava sobresalen ante mis ojos porque los encuentros históricamente auténticos. Esto incluye el papel que matiza la autora acerca de los esclavos cañeros dirigidos por un agrio capataz y el rol de las mujeres esclavas curanderas.

La relación entre dueño y esclava antecede la revolución haitiana que sabemos fue provocada por la revolución francesa. En todo caso, logran sobrevivir el caos sangriento y el desgobierno consecuente. Y como miles de finqueros de azúcar y esclavos, Valmorain traslada sus bienes y su familia a Cuba y después a Nueva Orleans incluyendo a Zarité.

Alli Valmorain establece una nueva plantación de azúcar y esclavos pero diferente a la que tenía en Haití. Las relaciones entre dueños y esclavos, por ejemplo, sufren ajustes requeridos por la esclavitud norteamericana que resulta un poco menos malvada que la versión haitiana. Allende nos ofrece también excelentes detalles de lo que fue la esclavitud en Luisiana.

La isla bajo el mar es nada menos que un tesoro literario debido a la historia humana que presenta y además está bien preparado y escrito, fácil de leer. [May 2022]

Allende, Isabel. Isla bajo el mar (New York: Vintage Spanish, 2010) pp. 511. This is easily some of the best reading I’ve done recently. The cover of this book announces that the author is “one of the most popular storytellers of our time” and I confirm it. The English language version is known as Island Beneath the Sea. I read the Spanish version.

The author brings us the story of Zarité, a slave mulatta brought as a child to the island of St. Domingue, now known as Haiti, where she grows up and serves Toulouse Valmorain, a French plantation owner, who gives her a son and a daughter. The details that sketch out Zarité’s slave world stand out in my opinion because they appear historically authentic to me. This includes the living and working conditions of the slaves who cut sugarcane driven by a testy foreman and the merciful role of female slave healers.

The relationship between Valmorain and Zarité predates the Haitian revolution which we know was triggered by the French revolution. In any case, they manage to survive the bloody chaos of the revolution and the consequent misrule. And like thousands of other sugar slave owners, Valmorain moves his family and everything he owns to Cuba and later to New Orleans, including Zarité. There he establishes a new sugar slave plantation. However, the relations between everyone, including owners and slaves, are subject to adjustments required by an American slavery system that turns out to be a little less evil than the Haitian version.

Isla bajo el mar is nothing less than a literary treasure because it offers a story of human relations which is also well-written, easy to read.