- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Akashic Books; NONE edition (Sep 1 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1933354844
- ISBN-13: 978-1933354842
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 14 x 3.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #798,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The finest novel yet from one of the most exalted Caribbean writers.
About the Author
Elizabeth Nunez is Provost and Senior Vice President at Medgar Evers College, the City University of New York, and an award-winning author of seven novels: Prospero's Daughter (New York Times Editors' Choice and 2006 Novel of the Year, Black Issues Book Review); Grace; Discretion (short-listed for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award); Bruised Hibiscus (American Book Award), and more.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Home on the Island for a Visit, Sep 16 2009
By C. E. Selby "Eric Selby" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Anna In-Between (Hardcover)
Anna is in between her parents. The setting for this novel is an unnamed Caribbean island where an elderly couple, Beatric and John Sinclair, were born and lived their lives. Their only child, Anna, the editor for a little-known publishing house in New York City, has returned to the island to spend thirty-one days with her parents. They have lived for many years in their lovely gated home where Beatrice allows John his fish pond. She is in charge of everything domestic, including daily guidance given to her elderly gardener and her housekeeper. All meals, including afteroon tea, have strictly adhered to times. This is a mixed-race family whom the reader learns about slowly as the novel moves from day to day, in routines that could become boring without the back stories.
John is a well-respected man on the island. And his wife has maintained a well-established decorum that she feels is necessary for the elite class. Anna, however, has left for the United States. Her mother sees no reason for having done so except Beatrice is proud that her daughter has become an editor in a publishing house.
Beatrice was not born into that upper class. And slowly we are given a historical tour of how people of various races have come to the island, mixed--or not mixed--and have formed themselves into a defined class system, disrupted now by drug trafficking.
Beatrice is a woman who adheres to rigid personal standards about personal space. Then something happens that challenges her, forcing her to deal with that rigidity.
I would have given this five stars except for one factor. I become annoyed with this new way of writing novels that seems to be--unfortunately--in vogue now, almost as though the novelist is now expected to write as though the novel is a movie script: They are in the living room. They are in the garden.
That aside, the plot is well developed, the characters believable, and the ambiguities life offers ones with which this reader easily connects.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who Is Anna In Between?, May 24 2010
By The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Anna In-Between (Hardcover)
Anna, a book editor for a small imprint in New York City, returns home to her Caribbean place of birth. This is her usual yearly vacation to visit with her parents, Beatrice and John Sinclair. Only, this time she discovers a crisis and the title begs, who is Anna in between? Mother and daughter have an adversarial relationship; one in which the father cautiously navigates.
As Anna visits, she discovers as much as things change they remain the same. Her mother's typical behavior is, at times, deplorable to Anna and her father's apathetic attitude towards her behavior, is more than she can stomach. Anna discovers her mother has breast cancer, which has not been diagnosed by a physician. Anna attempts to have her return to the States for treatment, but she refuses, while her father stands tall with her mother to Anna's dismay. Her mother's refusal comes on the heels of her distrust for all that is American.
Nunez delves into the behavioral and psychological development of the characters by recounting their familial history on the island. The Sinclair's are one of the island's most distinguished and respected families. Her mother often boasts about her daughter living in the Sates. However, her mother cannot understand why Anna rejects her roots. Anna in turn muses about her own behavior, back in the States, as she justifies her rejection of her birthplace.
ANNA IN BETWEEN by Elizabeth Nunez explores the former colonialism on this Caribbean island and all the factors that manifest the behaviors of the current natives. The author explores race and the class system with depth. When the conclusion is reached, the reader has received a history lesson of the local inhabitants and more specifically, the Sinclairs; a history Anna had no knowledge of. While the crisis of the breast cancer appears to be central to the prose, the underlying and unresolved issues of the characters are at the heart of the story.
Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Coming of Age story!, Aug 3 2010
By yo reader "book connoiseur" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Anna In-Between (Hardcover)
A compelling story of a daughter caught between her Caribbean roots and the lifestyle that she has embraced while living in America. She is also caught between her "uppity" mother and and her father whom she feels is just "along for the ride." Anna is home visiting her parents in the Caribbean and discovers that her mother not only has breast cancer, but has allowed it to fester for at least two years. Torn by her mother's pride and need to feel superior to the low class, Anna blames her father for not making her mother seek medical attention. During this journey, Anna who for years felt rejected by her mother, learns the truth about why her mother is the person she is. She also learns that her father is not perfect. In addition, she finds that her mother is a better person than she would ever expect and that she is her mother's daughter.
Anna In- between, is a coming of age story of mother and daughter. The book starts out a little slow, but it does pick up and reads like a book of poetry. I would definitely recommend this book for mothers and daughters who are struggling in their relationships. I am looking forward to more from Ms. Nunez.
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