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Soucouyant
 
 

Soucouyant (Paperback)

by David Chariandy (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 19.95
Price: CDN$ 14.56 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Said to wear the skin of an old woman by day and take the form of a wandering fireball by night-sucking the blood of her victims-the specter of the Soucouyant haunts Adele, the Trinidad-born mother at the center of Vancouver novelist Chariandy's debut. Her story is narrated by her unnamed son, 15, who is growing up Canadian suburb with his mother, his elder brother and his South Asian-descended father, Roger, as Adele slides into early-onset dementia. Within 40 pages, Roger is killed in an industrial accident, and the narrator's brother, an aspiring poet, leaves home after Adele ceases to recognize him. After the narrator himself tries to leave but returns, he finds Adele now cared for by a dubious caretaker named Meera. In an embedded narrative, Chariandy unravels the hidden tragedies of Adele's youth, which included an encoutner with the spectre of the book's title. As the narrator seeks a sense of his family's history and an understanding of what his mother's Soucouyant experience actually amounted to, he grows closer to Meera, who brings baggage of her own. Adele's, Meera's and the narrator's relationships with their mothers intersect affectingly in this haunting coming-of-age story.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


The Globe and Mail

David Chariandy fully inhabits his story, his authorial labours surefooted and invisible. His closing chapter reprises that authenticity, revealing childhood horrors that shock us to a final understanding.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most helpful customer reviews

 
5.0 out of 5 stars Soucouyant, Jan 29 2008
By Fun Shoe "Funshoe" (Vancouver, BC CA) - See all my reviews
Poetic. You not only feel for the characters, you feel for an entire family, a community, a nation, a race and a gender. What makes good truly good? What makes evil? I recommend this to anyone.
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2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Diversity personified! The Great Canadian Novel!, Nov 17 2007
By Juviebetfixer "X" (Turin, Italy) - See all my reviews
EGADS! Shapechanging voodoo hags and poet-professor sons -- immigrant songs of the Caribbean cross-faded with academic viewpoints and Vancouver Lululemon clothes (would you like soy or seaweed underwear?) -- Chariandy must be the most complete package of postcolonial memoir-fiction-manifesto going! Wow! I've never seen such an ensemble performance that hits all the right buttons. I'm so pleased to hear that it's acceptable again to describe the rum soaked coasts of Trinidad in terms of archaic superstitions, transformed by a Canadian ID card. Shiver me timbers and can(n)on balls across the treasure chest map of house, home and political prose! Sand, sun, sangria, and santeria! Trinidad! Tenure, trophies, theses, and transnationalism! The best of both worlds! At least our poet-professor hero didn't get tasered. The accent changes but the old hearth does not! A tour-de-force from the hefty genre of cross-cultural place changing. Expect a sequel! Many of them! All very readable and cultural. Guaranteed to cure guilt ridden liberals. Expect multiple award nominations! Homey Barbapapa! Ahoy and hoorah!
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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Take a pass, Aug 24 2008
By NorthVan Dave (North Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
I decided to read this book after it was nominated for a Canadian fiction award. I read the book - cover to cover - and was left scratching my head as to why this book was even nominated in the first place.

Yes the novel covers those things which some would deep worthy topics - dementia, new immigrants to Canada, racism - but the story itself is not all that great. At the end of the novel I was left scratching my head, wondering why I read this book in the first place. There was no "wow, that was a good use of my time" kind of feeling. And which so many new and good books out there, I kind of wish I hadn't wasted my time on this book.

For the un-initiated, the book deals with a son who returns home to learn that his mother is suffering from severe dementia and how he copes with it. The story serves as a launching pad for the author to talk about immigration issues and how Canadians reacted to new comers to the country.

My advice; skip this novel. There are plenty of other good Canadian books out there.
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