Madam Fate

Rating:
Summary: Ce livre est une petite merveille! Marvellous!
Review: "madam Fate" is not any other book that will only make you have a good time reading it. It has a rare quality of authenticity that takes you at the roots of reality and yet, in a most subtle and minute way, has the "capability" of transferring the reader into a more exclusive and profound realm of magic and jamaican mysticism. The thin line between natural and surnatural becomes porous and one is experiencing a thrilling jolt at the realisation that, in "madam Fate," all the ingredients are at last exposed to allow the reader to peep directly into the magic reality of life. The emotions that are involved in this book are no stranger to such a liberating and revelatory effect that is conveyed onto the reader. Marcia Douglas has a gift of power and a keen sense of the beauty of life when it is approached properly and respectfully. I highly recommend this book. Since i am french, i also highly recommend this book to my compatriotes who are always on the lookout for "depaysement" and new visions of life. Ce livre est une petite merveille!

Rating:
Summary: Ce livre est une petite merveille! Marvellous!
Review: "madam Fate" is not any other book that will only make you have a good time reading it. It has a rare quality of authenticity that takes you at the roots of reality and yet, in a most subtle and minute way, has the "capability" of transferring the reader into a more exclusive and profound realm of magic and jamaican mysticism. The thin line between natural and surnatural becomes porous and one is experiencing a thrilling jolt at the realisation that, in "madam Fate," all the ingredients are at last exposed to allow the reader to peep directly into the magic reality of life. The emotions that are involved in this book are no stranger to such a liberating and revelatory effect that is conveyed onto the reader. Marcia Douglas has a gift of power and a keen sense of the beauty of life when it is approached properly and respectfully. I highly recommend this book. Since i am french, i also highly recommend this book to my compatriotes who are always on the lookout for "depaysement" and new visions of life. Ce livre est une petite merveille!

Rating:
Summary: As close to perfection as I've seen in a while
Review: From the narrative perspective to the superb story-telling style (a lost art), to the imagery, to the beautifully rich characters, this book was absolutely incredible. I have never before seen such an original novel that forced you to pay attention (rather, made you want to read closely) but didn't come across like the writer is showing off. There seems to be a trend toward "cleverness," or writing as confusing a novel as possible thinking that makes it brilliance. Marcia Douglas reminds us that brilliance isn't forced. Madam Fate makes you question and think, and is amazingly and beautifully written.

Her novel feels like an afternoon in the sunshine. The warmth and its memory and effects stay with you long after you've finished it...and you find yourself wondering how Ida and Gracie are doing...

Rating:
Summary: As close to perfection as I've seen in a while
Review: From the narrative perspective to the superb story-telling style (a lost art), to the imagery, to the beautifully rich characters, this book was absolutely incredible. I have never before seen such an original novel that forced you to pay attention (rather, made you want to read closely) but didn't come across like the writer is showing off. There seems to be a trend toward "cleverness," or writing as confusing a novel as possible thinking that makes it brilliance. Marcia Douglas reminds us that brilliance isn't forced. Madam Fate makes you question and think, and is amazingly and beautifully written.

Her novel feels like an afternoon in the sunshine. The warmth and its memory and effects stay with you long after you've finished it...and you find yourself wondering how Ida and Gracie are doing...

Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Story of Healing and Survival
Review: I am so glad that I found this book! Marcia Douglas is a wonderful and gifted storyteller. The writing is fresh and innovative and I really like the experimentation with form as well as the lyrical language. This is a new voice we have not heard before. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Everyday Magic, Secret Laughter: Writing "Madam Fate"
Review: I was born in England to Jamaican immigrants. It was cold that night; my mother groaned and sighed; I tasted her pain and all the accumulated sorrow of her life in my mouth; someone held me up in the air; I saw long rain trickling down the window and I knew England could never be my home. When I was six, my parents packed our belongings into large wooden crates and we took a three week journey on a ship, the "Mimosa," all the way across the Atlantic, back to Jamaica. I remember when I first saw Jamaica. I was standing on the deck and I saw the mountains curving green and soft blue in the distance; I felt the importance of the moment and my eyes filled with tears-- I knew we had arrived home.

Over the years it is Jamaica, and particularly the women of Jamaica, who have most shaped my identity. I have always felt bonded to my mother, to the aftertaste of her pain in my mouth and more importantly, to her sense of survival. I grew up among proud women-- women who tucked their sorrow into the folds of their skirts, held their heads high and set their faces like flints. During slavery, it is said that Nanny, the Maroon chieftain, knew how to catch the bullets of British soldiers between her teeth; and in contemporary Jamaica, a society which suffers from economic exploitation, class/color and other conflicts, there is a sense in which many women must continue to recreate the art of catching bullets, following the tradition of the woman warrior. It is this everyday magic, this secret laughter and subversive knowing which intrigues me most.

So these are the women against whom I define myself, warriors like my grandmother who work magic on a daily basis, "making do," or as we say in Jamaica, "turning yu han." To "turn han" is to take care of yourself and others by making use of whatever is available in your natural environment. In this context, a tiny weed becomes a glorious flower or a medicine cabinet or a miracle. "Madam Fate," named after a herb indigenous to the Caribbean and renowned for its curative (and poisonous)properties recalls women like my grandmother and their connection to plants-- ramgoat dash-along, jack-in-the -bush, leaf of life, ceracee, ginger, love bush, spanish needle, periwinkle, search-mi-heart-- such that Madam's presence in the novel, serves as a nucleus for a gathering of women whose lives swirl together in a collective effort to survive. A woman who "turns han" knows how to make something beautiful and useful from odd bits and ends. Perhaps she has only limited resources in her cupboard, next to nothing, but she uses her imagination and creates a delicious dish. I remember that one of my grandmother's best dishes was made from just a few handfuls of meal; the "turn cornmeal" imaginatively seasoned and satisfying. This creative strategy, piecing together this and that, reshaping the discarded and finding usefulness in scraps, is something women around me applied to several areas of their life-- cooking, sewing, gardening, health-care, financing; I have taken the concept and extended it to writing, piecing together a multi-voiced fiction with herbal remedies, bits of poetry, folk wisdom, imagination and memory. I am indebted to generations of Jamaican women for this legacy of survival.

Mrs. Cummings, one of the characters in "Madam Fate," says, "Besides time and a nice cup of ginger tea, the best cure for sorrow is a good story." I hope you enjoy this book.

Regards,

Marcia Douglas

Rating:
Summary: Impressive use of familiar Caribbean ideas
Review: Madam Fate brings to life so many pleasantly familiar images and ideas with which Caribbean people will identify. From the cover right into the text there is a powerful sense of local history and experiences. Even more refreshing is the way the book captures the reaity of the natural ecology of Jamaica in a way that few novels even attempt to do. I strongly recommend the book for any one, but particularly for those seeking to reconnect with their Caribbean homelands.