The Polished Hoe

Rating:
Summary: Enriched with native tongues
Review: Austin Clarke's Giller Prize winning novel THE POLISHED HOE takes place on the island of Bimshire (also known as Barbados) in the "Wessindes." During one long night of confession and reflection between Bimshire lawman, Sarge, and Miss Mary Gertrude Matilda, a kept woman on the Bellfeels plantation, Clarke's characters ruminate about the lives they have led. Mary calls the police station and tells them she must confess her crime. Sarge comes to the Great House where Miss Mary resides to record her statement, but is caught in a whirlwind of memories about the woman he grew up with, his own experiences and transgressions, and the contempt circulating the island regarding Mister Bellfeels.

Enriched with native tongues and a sort of stream of consciousness writing, this is a novel that brought to mind some of the great writers of all time. The prose was lilting, and I often found myself caught in a reverie as the characters related memories from their lives. It is not a book for the drama lovers who live for fast paced reads; rather it seems to have been written for those who love narration, historical fiction, and carefully crafted characterizations.

Reviewed by CandaceK
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Rating:
Summary: I thought it was just me
Review: Got halfway through this book (and I mean page 236) and said enough!!! Although I think the history is a good one and the story could have been a good one, the rambling narrative, skipping from past to present, skipping between the dialogue of one character to the other, going from the thought of one person to that of another etc., made this story very difficult to read. In essence, it was more work than enjoyment.

Rating:
Summary: A good read albeit a circuitous one
Review: I am always interested in Caribbean fiction. This is definitely not a quick read on the train ride home. This book brings the horror of the slavery and post-slavery era home. Up close and personal. By telling the stories of the characters in his book, Clarke forces the reader to take a bigger bite of what has already left a bad taste in the mouth. The struggles of the "heroine", Mary Matilda, her mother and grandmother as well as the other characters in the book are painstakingly painted. I must say though that I found the pace a little slow at time. Clarke shifts between time and place, stretching dialogue and story to the near breaking point.

Altogether a good read but be patient. Reminds me of "A Hundred Years Of Solitude".

Sherman
CaribbeanAbroad.com

Rating:
Summary: great for a taste of the island!
Review: I read this book for our bookclub and out of 21 women none of us liked it. We all thought the ending was so unbelievable. We couldn't see where the book had wanted to take us. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I thought Austin Clarke wrote this book very well. Going beyond how it was slow to get into, there was a lot of history there. Those of us who are not aware of hardships in Barbados during the post war would never know that slavery existed there on the island. I learned a lot and asked friends if such things were true. This indeed was a history lesson in the making. I give him 5 stars for the history of the island. The sotry rush for me was at the end of the book.

Rating:
Summary: I wanted to love this book but I didn't
Review: I wanted so much to love this year's Giller Winner. Austin Clarke was the underdog against such big hitters as Wayne Johnston and Carol Shields but I found The Polished Hoe to be a long rambling tale with an unsatisfying climax.

Mary Gertrude Mathilda Bellfeels, a plantation field worker who luckily or unluckily caught the favor of the plantation manager Mr. Bellfeels becomes his mistress and bears him his only son. As a reward she lives and raises her son (he grows up to become the village doctor) in the Great House and no longer has to work other than being little more than a [mistress] to a man you come to truly hate.

The novel covers one long night of Mary giving her statement to a Sargent who has loved her from afar since they were both only 10 years old. In the build up to her crime, what she did and why she did it, we get the story of her almost 60 years on the plantation through anecdotes of the horrors of black life in the village of Bimshire in the West Indies where blacks are still treated like slaves even if they work for a wage.

The problem for me was that this book rambled over the same territory continually and although some of the history was compelling this novel lacked a continuity or a narrative that kept you wanting to read on. The carrot is that you know she's probably killed someone with that hoe she used to use in the north field but you don't find out who and why until the last 10 pages of the book and by then I just wanted to be done.

This is a good book for a sense of place, time and culture but don't look for a great love story or a novel of suspense in The Polished Hoe.

Rating:
Summary: Please Spare Yourself
Review: Please spare yourself and do not read this book. I finished it, only because I am compulsive about starting any book I finish. But it took me more than three months to finish this because it was so painful! I hate to reiterate what other reviewers have said, but the characters ramble, the time shifts from past to present, and not much of it directly relates to the murder that is at the center of the plot. I did enjoy learning about the history of the beautiful island of Barbados, and that is the reason for the one star. Disappointing, overall.

Rating:
Summary: At least I tried.....
Review: This book was selected for my book club and I have to admit that I did not like it. The constant rambling on and on just made me lose interest. I agree that the book could have been written in 100 pages. I ended up skimming the book and got the gist of it, but to find out who was killed in the last 10 pages was just too much.

Rating:
Summary: good for historical purposes
Review: This is one of the few books I've started that I seriously
considered quitting. It is not easy to get into, but I am
compulsive about finishing books that my book club has selected.
There are always pay-offs for reading any book, and with this
particular novel, it was in the historical value of slavery
in one part of the world. It was fascinating to me that slaves
in Bimshire (Barbados) did not consider themselves slaves,
as compared to their black counterparts in southern "Amurca".
But, as Mary Mathilda points out, "slaves are slaves". I was both
incensed and saddened at the way in which women
slaves (beginnning at a young age) were obviously considered sexual property of any white
man, owner or non-owner, and a "quickie" even in the kitchen
during a dinner party, was his prerogative.

The book, occuring over a 24-hour period, has ongoing digressions
from the business of the day, which, though enlightening for
the history learned, are distracting and lengthy, and frequently
required re-reading because my mind wandered. In this context
I was reminded of my struggle to finish "Mrs. Dalloway" by
Virginia Woolf. This is not to say that both books are not
well-written.

Lastly, I enjoyed the exposure to much black slang.

Rating:
Summary: The worst book ever written
Review: What else can I say? The plot had the potential to be worthy, but Clarke destroyed that.

The story is long and sluggish. One should have no joy in reading the narrative unless one were a masochist. 99% of the book is in the patois of the area and can drive the reader up the wall. It was definitely not worth waiting a year and a half for.

I give it 1 star simply because the rating system won't go any lower.