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Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails
An award-winning best first novel in France, Estelle-Sarah Bulle’s Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails, the story of Guadeloupe emerges through the epic, lively tales of one family and their larger-than-many-lives sister, Antoine.
A young woman born in the suburbs of Paris, whose skin color and memories of occasional childhood visits alone connect her to her father’s native Guadeloupe, yearns to understand her lineage and her métis identity. Upon her request, her old aunt Antoine, the eccentric and indomitable family matriarch, unveils the history of the Ezechiel clan, and with it, that of the island over the course of the twentieth century.
In a spirited account, punctuated by interludes from other family members, Antoine tells her life’s story: a childhood spent deep in the countryside, an ill-fated romance between her upper-class mother and farmer father, the splendors and slums of the capital city, Point-à-Pitre, the eruption of modernity, the rifts in a deeply hierarchical society under colonial rule—and the reasons she left it all behind.
Through the unforgettable story of the Ezechiels, a richly textured account of the Guadeloupean diaspora emerges, spanning decades and crossing the Atlantic. With lush language and vivid storytelling, Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails examines the legacies of capitalism and colonialism, and the loss of a beloved mother, and asks what it means to be caught between worlds, and how we might reconcile past, present, and future.
A young woman born in the suburbs of Paris, whose skin color and memories of occasional childhood visits alone connect her to her father’s native Guadeloupe, yearns to understand her lineage and her métis identity. Upon her request, her old aunt Antoine, the eccentric and indomitable family matriarch, unveils the history of the Ezechiel clan, and with it, that of the island over the course of the twentieth century.
In a spirited account, punctuated by interludes from other family members, Antoine tells her life’s story: a childhood spent deep in the countryside, an ill-fated romance between her upper-class mother and farmer father, the splendors and slums of the capital city, Point-à-Pitre, the eruption of modernity, the rifts in a deeply hierarchical society under colonial rule—and the reasons she left it all behind.
Through the unforgettable story of the Ezechiels, a richly textured account of the Guadeloupean diaspora emerges, spanning decades and crossing the Atlantic. With lush language and vivid storytelling, Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails examines the legacies of capitalism and colonialism, and the loss of a beloved mother, and asks what it means to be caught between worlds, and how we might reconcile past, present, and future.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published July 5, 2022
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September 8, 2024
“ The sun sets between their house and town.”
I would often hear this phrase when I was growing up.These words described someone living far from the city implying an out of the way and sometimes an out of touch existence.The title of the novel “ Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails” is a translation of a Creole phrase that connotes the same sentiment as the phrase I heard in my youth. This title is very suggestive and sets a tone for the generational saga of a family’s migration from rural Guadeloupe to Paris. Spanning several decades, the Ezechial clan’s journey offers insights into the political and social disruptions in the Antillean islands and points out the challenges confronting them in France. Their story unfolds the devastating permutations of colonial dominance that reverberate through generations.
The novel’s exposition is launched by an unnamed mixed race narrator’s desire to connect more deeply with her roots. She was born in France. Her father migrated from Guadeloupe and her mother is Belgian. Her parents have embraced a conservative lifestyle that embodies French ideals. However, the young woman is struggling to define her place in ethnically stratified French society. She is uncertain of her fit in this structure and dubiously apprehensive of the opportunities available to her.
Hoping to connect with the stories of her progenitors,she seeks out her seventy five year old aunt Antoine. Antoine is the larger than life family matriarch, the oldest of three siblings and the first to leave home and eventually migrate to Paris.Antoine’s life transitions from rural islander to aspirational cosmopolitan with vestiges of both personalities still evident. Her niece describes Antoine as having a “ strange allure, a mixture of outdated elegance and anarchy.”
The reminisces expand to include the stories of Antoine’s younger sister and younger brother, who is the young woman’s father. The three siblings discuss commonly remembered events from each one’s unique perspective. Their voices blend together to present a picture of their Antillean homeland in the forties through sixties. They present a story of an insular, class conscious society dominated by economically rapacious elites and shaded by racial codification. Throughout this period they struggle to escape poverty and cultural divides, culminating in migration to France in the sixties and seventies.
However, relocation to France does not alleviate the challenges of race and culture for the family. A recurring dilemma posed throughout the novel is how does a migrant embrace the ideals of their new entity, adjust their identity yet still retain the essence of their unique original core. For French Antilleans, this dilemma seems particularly puzzling since their French citizenship is a source of social identity while also being a mark of division in their new physical country.
The author portrays her characters and settings vividly, inviting both empathy and connection with the struggles faced by these children of the diaspora. By the novel’s conclusion, I had learned a great deal about Guadeloupe’s political and social history. I also pondered whether the colonial disruptions prompting their diaspora had actually brought them to a place where dogs no longer bark with their tails.
I would often hear this phrase when I was growing up.These words described someone living far from the city implying an out of the way and sometimes an out of touch existence.The title of the novel “ Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails” is a translation of a Creole phrase that connotes the same sentiment as the phrase I heard in my youth. This title is very suggestive and sets a tone for the generational saga of a family’s migration from rural Guadeloupe to Paris. Spanning several decades, the Ezechial clan’s journey offers insights into the political and social disruptions in the Antillean islands and points out the challenges confronting them in France. Their story unfolds the devastating permutations of colonial dominance that reverberate through generations.
The novel’s exposition is launched by an unnamed mixed race narrator’s desire to connect more deeply with her roots. She was born in France. Her father migrated from Guadeloupe and her mother is Belgian. Her parents have embraced a conservative lifestyle that embodies French ideals. However, the young woman is struggling to define her place in ethnically stratified French society. She is uncertain of her fit in this structure and dubiously apprehensive of the opportunities available to her.
Hoping to connect with the stories of her progenitors,she seeks out her seventy five year old aunt Antoine. Antoine is the larger than life family matriarch, the oldest of three siblings and the first to leave home and eventually migrate to Paris.Antoine’s life transitions from rural islander to aspirational cosmopolitan with vestiges of both personalities still evident. Her niece describes Antoine as having a “ strange allure, a mixture of outdated elegance and anarchy.”
The reminisces expand to include the stories of Antoine’s younger sister and younger brother, who is the young woman’s father. The three siblings discuss commonly remembered events from each one’s unique perspective. Their voices blend together to present a picture of their Antillean homeland in the forties through sixties. They present a story of an insular, class conscious society dominated by economically rapacious elites and shaded by racial codification. Throughout this period they struggle to escape poverty and cultural divides, culminating in migration to France in the sixties and seventies.
However, relocation to France does not alleviate the challenges of race and culture for the family. A recurring dilemma posed throughout the novel is how does a migrant embrace the ideals of their new entity, adjust their identity yet still retain the essence of their unique original core. For French Antilleans, this dilemma seems particularly puzzling since their French citizenship is a source of social identity while also being a mark of division in their new physical country.
The author portrays her characters and settings vividly, inviting both empathy and connection with the struggles faced by these children of the diaspora. By the novel’s conclusion, I had learned a great deal about Guadeloupe’s political and social history. I also pondered whether the colonial disruptions prompting their diaspora had actually brought them to a place where dogs no longer bark with their tails.
October 7, 2022
This is an engrossing and vivid story starting in 1940s in Guadeloupe and concluding in 2006 in France. It’s the story of two sisters - Antoine and Lucinde, their younger brother known as Petit Frere (little brother), their parents, and where they came from. The story is narrated by the brother’s daughter, who although was born and raised in France, yearns to learn more about her ancestry and her foundational roots. The narrator’s primary source is her aunt - Antoine, now seventy-five years old. Antoine is a colorful, headstrong and independent character who has exciting tales to share, having lived a full and eventful life. Interestingly, the story is interspersed by the narrator sharing Lucinde and Petit Frere’s points of view, which were intriguing. As in life, oftentimes people report seeing a situation or incident differently, so too here. Antoine, Lucinde and Petit Frere’s points of view differ slightly. I enjoyed the writing style, as well as the sense of place and time in Guadeloupe. The scenes came alive - the dynamics in the family, especially the three siblings’ parents, their mother’s family, the marketplace, the living conditions - I felt I was there. I could sense the care and detail that went into the making of this book - it definitely felt like a delicate labor of love by the author. I watched an interview with the author and translator, which was interesting, especially learning more about the unique art of translating a book - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=des.... Congratulations to the author on her debut novel. Looking forward to reading more by this author. Many thanks to the author, translator, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
September 17, 2018
A partir de la traduction d’un dicton créole, Cé la chyen ka japé pas ké – C’est là où les chiens aboient par la queue, Estelle-Sarah Bulle livre un roman riche de détails. On découvre une Guadeloupe transformée petit à petit par les décrets de la métropole et l’exil de sa population. La narration à plusieurs voix donne une dimension romanesque et tout en nuances. Vous suivrez avec plaisir les aventures d’Antoine, Lucinde, Petit-Frère…
Les +
- un roman très visuel
- le vocabulaire est compréhensible mais nous fait voyager
Un premier roman très maitrisé, qui, je l'espère, fera encore parler de lui.
Les +
- un roman très visuel
- le vocabulaire est compréhensible mais nous fait voyager
Un premier roman très maitrisé, qui, je l'espère, fera encore parler de lui.
May 19, 2022
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐬: 𝐚 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐨𝐟 “𝐝é𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐲é 𝐳ô𝐭”- 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬.
A young woman ‘with a mind full of questions’ about her father’s past, and her family history in Guadeloupe (including Hilaire, a grandfather who lived to be 105), meets with her Aunt Antoine, the seventy-five-year old matriarch. A tall, confident, alluring woman with ‘a mixture of outdated elegance and anarchy” is more than happy to ‘open up’. Well aware she is the strongest link to the family, she has a beautiful manner in relaying the past. She tells her thirty-year-old niece that it’s like there is a whole century between them. She knows what her niece is hungry for, all the stories and understanding for where their place is, how people who must live in two worlds manage. With a three-month-old baby girl, it’s time to root through her family history, to learn just who they all are. So begins the tale of the Ezekiels, why some left and others remained filling a street in Morne- Galant (one of the islands that form Guadeloupe). Her father is known as ‘Petit-Frère’ (little brother) in a family of sisters, the women he’d rather run from. The narrator herself was born in France, a Métis girl (mixed race, a term rarely used) and a rarity in her community. Her father is West Indian and mother is French. Her family was ‘typical French’ and she, always a good student who kept a low profile, knows all too well what it means to be outside of categorization. Her curiosity fires up with others joking about her father’s accent, the ‘uniformity’ and peaceful coexistence of diverse lifestyles (for those willing to embrace French ideals) has often baffled her. She is confused about who she is. This is a novel about identity, how we define it, how those who settle in new places conform or refuse to. What is interesting is in the family history there was a divide when the Ezekiel grandfather (descendants of slaves) married a woman, from the family of the Lebecqs, who had been on the island far longer and were from Breton. There is mystery attached to them as well. She was a beauty that stood out in the poverty of Morne-Galant, her family were a people almost of a different world and the children were fearful of them. The reader learns how Hillarie charmed his way into their good graces, no easy challenge.
The children Hilaire and Eulalie have together grow up outsiders, both families seeing them as neither fully Ezekiels nor Lebecqs . Patriarch Hillarie remains to tend to the sugarcane, as his own siblings come and go from Morne-Galant. He holds tight to ‘absurd pride’, hurting his own family in the process, in favor of his extended family. For little brother, he grows up motherless, tended to by his sisters Antoine and Lucinde. They couldn’t be any more different in talents and temperament but both struggle their way to success. Through Antoine’s tale-spinning, she reveals how instead of money, they have their stories. With her strong ‘nom de savane’, to confuse the evil spirits, she goes by Antoine, not her baptismal name Apollone- as is the tradition. Antoine is the first to escape the island and all the unhappiness but not before caring for her brother, our narrator’s father. She bides her time and collects resentment toward those who stripped her mother’s things away after her death. The siblings each have their say, her father even warning her that her Aunt Antoine is exhausting, dirty, has her little superstitions and yet he lacks her great courage. It is to a cousin, Nonore (the Lebecq side) she turned to when she was just sixteen, hoping to make herself useful in Pointe-a-Pitre, just as poor a place as she escaped. Brave face forward, it is a fresh start, she convinces Nonore to try her out. Just when things go well, the husband returns, ruining it all.
Where Dogs Bark With Their Tales (the title also has meaning) is full of rich characters, the siblings natures are so different, even the way our narrator’s father describes his sisters made me laugh. Antoine baring her teeth when she came home to visit, Lucinde always going to great lengths to get what she wanted, the manner he remembers his father Hilaire- the people become real enough to jump off the page. The struggle out of poverty, the fight to make it when doors were closed based on skin color, the cultural divides, harassment women face and figuring out what is real from family fiction and legends. Antoine is far too clever to ever be a submissive woman, and the niece wonders why she couldn’t grow up in a more colorful, exciting place with traditions and history. Ponders on what she missed out on. Gorgeous story-telling. I was also intrigued by the writing about Antilleans and Black American culture, the commonalities with minority experiences but the difference between France and United states in role models, violence, etc. It isn’t something I have ever thought about until now. This is an intelligent read while also incredibly entertaining. There are tragedies and heavy loss, often someone will rise only to fall. The children took on a lot, and really did have to figure it out for themselves, especially missing their mother. It’s a trajectory that led to France. I fell in love with Antoine. The Guadeloupe of her family’s past is fading, the world is never the same for the descendants. Her family had to get used to concrete, over the lush land of their origins but they have kept so much flavor and life of their island. Yes, a beautiful read that my review isn’t doing justice to. Add it to your summer reading list.
Publication Date: July 5, 2022
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐬: 𝐚 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐨𝐟 “𝐝é𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐲é 𝐳ô𝐭”- 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬.
A young woman ‘with a mind full of questions’ about her father’s past, and her family history in Guadeloupe (including Hilaire, a grandfather who lived to be 105), meets with her Aunt Antoine, the seventy-five-year old matriarch. A tall, confident, alluring woman with ‘a mixture of outdated elegance and anarchy” is more than happy to ‘open up’. Well aware she is the strongest link to the family, she has a beautiful manner in relaying the past. She tells her thirty-year-old niece that it’s like there is a whole century between them. She knows what her niece is hungry for, all the stories and understanding for where their place is, how people who must live in two worlds manage. With a three-month-old baby girl, it’s time to root through her family history, to learn just who they all are. So begins the tale of the Ezekiels, why some left and others remained filling a street in Morne- Galant (one of the islands that form Guadeloupe). Her father is known as ‘Petit-Frère’ (little brother) in a family of sisters, the women he’d rather run from. The narrator herself was born in France, a Métis girl (mixed race, a term rarely used) and a rarity in her community. Her father is West Indian and mother is French. Her family was ‘typical French’ and she, always a good student who kept a low profile, knows all too well what it means to be outside of categorization. Her curiosity fires up with others joking about her father’s accent, the ‘uniformity’ and peaceful coexistence of diverse lifestyles (for those willing to embrace French ideals) has often baffled her. She is confused about who she is. This is a novel about identity, how we define it, how those who settle in new places conform or refuse to. What is interesting is in the family history there was a divide when the Ezekiel grandfather (descendants of slaves) married a woman, from the family of the Lebecqs, who had been on the island far longer and were from Breton. There is mystery attached to them as well. She was a beauty that stood out in the poverty of Morne-Galant, her family were a people almost of a different world and the children were fearful of them. The reader learns how Hillarie charmed his way into their good graces, no easy challenge.
The children Hilaire and Eulalie have together grow up outsiders, both families seeing them as neither fully Ezekiels nor Lebecqs . Patriarch Hillarie remains to tend to the sugarcane, as his own siblings come and go from Morne-Galant. He holds tight to ‘absurd pride’, hurting his own family in the process, in favor of his extended family. For little brother, he grows up motherless, tended to by his sisters Antoine and Lucinde. They couldn’t be any more different in talents and temperament but both struggle their way to success. Through Antoine’s tale-spinning, she reveals how instead of money, they have their stories. With her strong ‘nom de savane’, to confuse the evil spirits, she goes by Antoine, not her baptismal name Apollone- as is the tradition. Antoine is the first to escape the island and all the unhappiness but not before caring for her brother, our narrator’s father. She bides her time and collects resentment toward those who stripped her mother’s things away after her death. The siblings each have their say, her father even warning her that her Aunt Antoine is exhausting, dirty, has her little superstitions and yet he lacks her great courage. It is to a cousin, Nonore (the Lebecq side) she turned to when she was just sixteen, hoping to make herself useful in Pointe-a-Pitre, just as poor a place as she escaped. Brave face forward, it is a fresh start, she convinces Nonore to try her out. Just when things go well, the husband returns, ruining it all.
Where Dogs Bark With Their Tales (the title also has meaning) is full of rich characters, the siblings natures are so different, even the way our narrator’s father describes his sisters made me laugh. Antoine baring her teeth when she came home to visit, Lucinde always going to great lengths to get what she wanted, the manner he remembers his father Hilaire- the people become real enough to jump off the page. The struggle out of poverty, the fight to make it when doors were closed based on skin color, the cultural divides, harassment women face and figuring out what is real from family fiction and legends. Antoine is far too clever to ever be a submissive woman, and the niece wonders why she couldn’t grow up in a more colorful, exciting place with traditions and history. Ponders on what she missed out on. Gorgeous story-telling. I was also intrigued by the writing about Antilleans and Black American culture, the commonalities with minority experiences but the difference between France and United states in role models, violence, etc. It isn’t something I have ever thought about until now. This is an intelligent read while also incredibly entertaining. There are tragedies and heavy loss, often someone will rise only to fall. The children took on a lot, and really did have to figure it out for themselves, especially missing their mother. It’s a trajectory that led to France. I fell in love with Antoine. The Guadeloupe of her family’s past is fading, the world is never the same for the descendants. Her family had to get used to concrete, over the lush land of their origins but they have kept so much flavor and life of their island. Yes, a beautiful read that my review isn’t doing justice to. Add it to your summer reading list.
Publication Date: July 5, 2022
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
September 30, 2018
Un roman qui ne manque ni de vivacité ni de poésie.
August 13, 2018
Un très beau premier roman sur la difficulté d'exister en Guadeloupe comme en métropole lorsqu'on est né antillais, et finalement dans un entre-deux perpétuel. Par différents récits de famille, l'auteur réussit à faire un portrait particulièrement vivant de l'île des années 50 à nos jours.
May 15, 2024
Read around the world project - Guadeloupe
Spanning 60+ years, this is the story of Guadeloupe through the eyes of a single family, the Ezechial clan. Following the lives of three siblings and a niece, Where Dogs Back with Their Tails explores colonialism and its political, economic and social repercussions. I don't know how long this story will stick with me, but it's a solid choice for a global reading project because of its historical context and strong sense of place/time. I also listened to this in audio format and really enjoyed the use of multiple narrators!
3.5/5 stars
Spanning 60+ years, this is the story of Guadeloupe through the eyes of a single family, the Ezechial clan. Following the lives of three siblings and a niece, Where Dogs Back with Their Tails explores colonialism and its political, economic and social repercussions. I don't know how long this story will stick with me, but it's a solid choice for a global reading project because of its historical context and strong sense of place/time. I also listened to this in audio format and really enjoyed the use of multiple narrators!
3.5/5 stars
June 17, 2019
Magnifique fresque familiale des Antilles !!!
October 19, 2019
Une pépite à lire d’une seule traite... il suffit de suivre cette famille qui relate à tour de rôle les souvenirs engrangés avec tout ce que la Guadeloupe peut offrir de son histoire sur trois générations : une société en pleine mutation, le recul des campagnes baignées de croyances et de traditions, le fourmillement de Pointe-à-Pitre des cases précaires aux HLM, foisonnement de lutte pour survivre, de jalousie et de joie, la fin de l’industrie, ... tout cela animé de la volonté de ces êtres, particulièrement les femmes à « tordre le cou du destin » pour conquérir leur avenir! De belles expressions antillaises vivifient cette plume fluide!
On en redemande!
On en redemande!
February 6, 2022
Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. A woman in Paris becomes more and more interested in how her father and two aunts could have been born in a small farming town in Guadeloupe and then each one migrates to the capital city of Pointe-a-Pitre separately and then all three, again separately, eventually migrate to Paris. So she decides to interview each one and finally learn the entire family story. It’s such a rich tale, with her larger than life aunt Antoine leading the way with attitude and a million stories.
July 12, 2020
Jamais déçue par les livres édités chez Liana Lévi. Une fresque familiale, des personnages forts, des femmes fascinantes et une écriture vraiment fluide et agréable. On en redemande !
Read
August 2, 2022got an advanced copy of this translation and it was fantastic! merci à FSG 🫶
August 22, 2022
This debut novel is an award-winning book in translation (from the original French) and one I haven’t been seeing around, which is a shame. It’s a family story that unfolds as the main character interviews her father and his sisters about their upbringing in Guadeloupe, a “French overseas region” in the southern Caribbean. It is told from alternating perspectives and with many conflicting viewpoints, which really places the reader in the middle of this dynamic family’s history. What made this book stand out from other family stories, apart from the larger-than-life characters, was the setting - an island reckoning with its colonial past as it struggles to find a place in the modern (1970s) world.
The writing and translation are fantastic, adding to the pull you feel as a reader into this eye-opening story. It’s compelling, heartbreaking, funny, and wry all at once and I’m so glad to have read it.
The writing and translation are fantastic, adding to the pull you feel as a reader into this eye-opening story. It’s compelling, heartbreaking, funny, and wry all at once and I’m so glad to have read it.
July 10, 2022
Translated from French, pub day 7/5
This was a NetGalley arc that sounded intriguing but got a little lost in translation.
What worked for me: the armchair travel through Guadeloupe, Paris, and the islands of the Antilles, and learning about the history of these places through much of the 20th century. I knew very little of the Caribbean locales and the challenges faced based on sex, race, or economic standings throughout capitalism and colonialism, and felt the main characters brought so much to life for me that I could picture all the changes occurring over the decades. I was down for all of that. Siblings Antoine, Lucinde, and Petit Frère were all well developed main characters, as were their friends and relatives, and I could see this playing out on the big screen with warm ocean breezes, palm trees, tin roof shacks, poor country landscapes and contrasting Parisian cityscapes.
What didn’t: the alternating chapters between three siblings and the niece who interviews each of them in her attempts to gather family history and narratives on her quest to know more about her lineage. Maybe it was just the format on the Kindle, but it felt like the characters, although very unique in every way, got muddled in the storytelling and I had to scroll back pages to remember who was speaking when it should have been crystal clear as they were quite different from one another. Also, the footnotes for translated terms and words were clumped at the end of each chapter rather than embedded through context clues within the passages, so I had to either scroll forward a bunch of pages or just assume I could understand enough to keep reading.
Thank you NetGalley for this arc.
This was a NetGalley arc that sounded intriguing but got a little lost in translation.
What worked for me: the armchair travel through Guadeloupe, Paris, and the islands of the Antilles, and learning about the history of these places through much of the 20th century. I knew very little of the Caribbean locales and the challenges faced based on sex, race, or economic standings throughout capitalism and colonialism, and felt the main characters brought so much to life for me that I could picture all the changes occurring over the decades. I was down for all of that. Siblings Antoine, Lucinde, and Petit Frère were all well developed main characters, as were their friends and relatives, and I could see this playing out on the big screen with warm ocean breezes, palm trees, tin roof shacks, poor country landscapes and contrasting Parisian cityscapes.
What didn’t: the alternating chapters between three siblings and the niece who interviews each of them in her attempts to gather family history and narratives on her quest to know more about her lineage. Maybe it was just the format on the Kindle, but it felt like the characters, although very unique in every way, got muddled in the storytelling and I had to scroll back pages to remember who was speaking when it should have been crystal clear as they were quite different from one another. Also, the footnotes for translated terms and words were clumped at the end of each chapter rather than embedded through context clues within the passages, so I had to either scroll forward a bunch of pages or just assume I could understand enough to keep reading.
Thank you NetGalley for this arc.
March 10, 2022
Un récit bouleversant qui nous apprend la vie des Antillais grâce à plusieurs personnes qui expriment leurs vécus chacun à sa manière. Entre le colonialisme, la bagarre entre noirs/personnes métisses, la dure vie après l'esclavagisme et les pensées pas très développées des plus vieux. Le besoin de partir découvrir une autre Terre pour se sentir libre et vivant. L'apparition des Blancs et de leur bâtiments, la perte de travail, la sorcellerie et les croyances. Le langage Créole et les pensées de plusieurs générations.
Nous ne parlons que très peu du vécu des Antillais et je trouve que c'est une très bonne introduction à cette culture.
Nous ne parlons que très peu du vécu des Antillais et je trouve que c'est une très bonne introduction à cette culture.
June 8, 2024
I really loved this beautifully written/translated novel about the lives of three mixed-race siblings in Guadeloupe, all of whom trying to live the specific lives they want amid shifting social and historical forces. The book's focus is on the fiercely religious and determinedly independent Antoine, and I found her such an energetic, engaging presence. I really liked that the structure of this book wasn't tediously evenly-divided between the points of view, but that the other perspectives and other stories were woven in judiciously. These really felt like lives, like family lives, like diasporic lives.
January 30, 2023
Four points of view are narrated: the niece, her two aunts, and their brother who is also the father of the niece. This is a cross between an ethnology of life in Guadeloupe /Paris and a novel. It seems clear that these stories told from these four points of view are parts of a family history and a history of the Island. If it doesn't resolve or take the reader to fine point of climax, nevertheless, it has the benefit of taking you to a different time and place. I really enjoyed learning this history/anthropology/narrative. Parts of it were a bit like Love in the Time of Cholera.
September 4, 2024
Dropped it at page 100.
It’s well written, very readable, enjoyable like a summer romance is enjoyable. It supposedly hits all the marks of the well crafted novel. What made me abandon it was that 1/3 of my way in there were no stakes, no challenges that weren’t easily overcome, and while most main characters were well written and constructed, I realized I care or root for none of them. Each chapter was like a sitcom episode: a change, or challenge, or quirk is introduced, and by the end of the chapter everything is basically fine again. Or in workshop speak: no propulsion.
It’s well written, very readable, enjoyable like a summer romance is enjoyable. It supposedly hits all the marks of the well crafted novel. What made me abandon it was that 1/3 of my way in there were no stakes, no challenges that weren’t easily overcome, and while most main characters were well written and constructed, I realized I care or root for none of them. Each chapter was like a sitcom episode: a change, or challenge, or quirk is introduced, and by the end of the chapter everything is basically fine again. Or in workshop speak: no propulsion.
April 14, 2019
Super immersion en Guadeloupe. J'ai adoré découvrir cette île à travers une saga familiale, une famille dont les membres ont chacun leur propre vision, leur propre sensibilité. La plume de l'autrice est parfaite, très sensible, très incisive. J'ai aimé que l'histoire des personnages qui se racontent s'adossent à l'histoire contemporaine de la Guadeloupe. J'ai appris plein de choses ! Je recommande !
December 10, 2019
Rating 3.5. French. This debut novel is inspired by the life and family of the author, who although
born in the Paris suburbs, is of Guadalupan descent and struggles with being "d'ici et de la-bas".
She follows a multi-generational Antillean family from their origins in Morne-Galant to their emigration to Créteil. Not much is written about Guadalupe and it's mixed culture which made this
book especially interesting.
born in the Paris suburbs, is of Guadalupan descent and struggles with being "d'ici et de la-bas".
She follows a multi-generational Antillean family from their origins in Morne-Galant to their emigration to Créteil. Not much is written about Guadalupe and it's mixed culture which made this
book especially interesting.
April 16, 2022
Un régal! Un petit saut en Guadeloupe et la vie des Antillais en hexagone. Ce livre est le récit d'une descendante métisse en France qui retrace le parcours de son père, ses tantes et l'histoire de sa famille en Guadeloupe!
Un récit passionnant et très agréable à lire. Un survol des coutumes de la Guadeloupe à diverses moments de son histoire.
Heureuse d'avoir découverte cette autrice et je recommande vivement ce livre!
Un récit passionnant et très agréable à lire. Un survol des coutumes de la Guadeloupe à diverses moments de son histoire.
Heureuse d'avoir découverte cette autrice et je recommande vivement ce livre!
April 21, 2023
Une histoire magnifique, une fresque familiale qui s'étend sur 3 générations, au travers du regard de plusieurs personnages avec chacun•e leur personnalité et leur vision du monde.
Est-on guadeloupéen si on a quitté la Guadeloupe pour venir en métropole ? Est-on guadeloupéen si on est né en métropole et qu'on ne fait que visiter la Guadeloupe ?
J'ai aussi appris bcp de choses sur la Guadeloupe et son histoire et j'ai adoré le style de l'autrice
Est-on guadeloupéen si on a quitté la Guadeloupe pour venir en métropole ? Est-on guadeloupéen si on est né en métropole et qu'on ne fait que visiter la Guadeloupe ?
J'ai aussi appris bcp de choses sur la Guadeloupe et son histoire et j'ai adoré le style de l'autrice
February 24, 2019
Ce roman raconte l'histoire d'une famille guadeloupéenne à travers la voix de trois frère et soeurs. J'ai beaucoup aimé la présence d'expressions créoles qui donnent du relief aux discours rapportés des personnages. Le récit est joliment mené et bien vivant. Estelle-Sarah Bulle a un style d'écriture très agréable.
September 16, 2019
Une belle écriture. Un texte original et fort qui nous narre des faits historiques par petites touches à travers les interrogations de la fille et nièces de ceux qui les ont vécu.
Des questions relatives au racisme métropolitain, îlien sont posées mais aussi du quotidien. La connaissance, l'indépendance restent les valeurs fortes et les maîtres mots de cet ouvrage, comme la notion d'héritage.
Des questions relatives au racisme métropolitain, îlien sont posées mais aussi du quotidien. La connaissance, l'indépendance restent les valeurs fortes et les maîtres mots de cet ouvrage, comme la notion d'héritage.
November 3, 2019
Très beau récit de la vie guadeloupéenne des années 40 à 80, dont j'attendais toutefois davantage de détails.
J'ai également été un peu déçue de la rapidité avec laquelle l'autrice raconte l'arrivée en métropole et passe sur les difficultés (et les éventuelles joies ?) rencontrées à cette occasion.
Le roman reste agréable et bien écrit, le dépaysement est garanti.
J'ai également été un peu déçue de la rapidité avec laquelle l'autrice raconte l'arrivée en métropole et passe sur les difficultés (et les éventuelles joies ?) rencontrées à cette occasion.
Le roman reste agréable et bien écrit, le dépaysement est garanti.
April 4, 2024
Histoire d'une famille, histoire de France, histoire d'une île, écrite dans une langue mêlée de créole et de français, colorée, imagée et pleine de vie ! Fragments de vies d'une génération d'avant, vus (différemment) et contés par les membres d'une même famille... Histoire aussi d'identité(s) et de migration, d'intégration... Émouvant et instructif !
October 6, 2019
Belle écriture simple et avec juste assez d'expressions antillaises pour nous rappeler que nous sommes dans une autre culture - une culture tiraillée entre les DOM et la métropole. J'ai aimé ces personnages, différents les uns des autres, et pourtant la famille reste la famille.
April 26, 2025
Une magnifique lecture que j’aurais aimé poursuivre sans cesse. Une belle histoire de famille mais aussi une belle découverte de la Guadeloupe et surtout de Pointe-à-Pitre. J’aimerais ne pas l’avoir lu pour le découvrir à nouveau.
February 25, 2019
Un pur chef d'oeuvre, très bien écrit avec la couleur du créole.J'aurais supporté un petit glossaire à la fin, mais je me suis quand même régalée.
February 26, 2019
2.5
J'ai bien aimé, mais il n'y avait pas vraiment de fil conducteur. Et je ne vois pas l'utilité de la nièce comme personnage.
J'ai bien aimé, mais il n'y avait pas vraiment de fil conducteur. Et je ne vois pas l'utilité de la nièce comme personnage.
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