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Arrival of the Snake-Woman: and other stories
The Toronto author's Jamaican birthplace provides the setting for these powerful and poignant stories that span a period of roughly 150 years, from the closing days of slavery in 1838 to the 1980s. The tensions wrought by rapid change and conflicting loyalties are at the heart of these stories, most beautifully evoked in the novella "Arrival of the Snake-Woman". Here a young boy narrates the seminal event of his childhood in the late nineteenth the coming of a lonely Indian indentured woman into a mountain village. Senior's stories are leavened with wit and humour and the intricate play with language and her characters emerge as triumphant examples of the human spirit unravelling the complex weave of race, class, and cultural and ethnic identity.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
176 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1989
7 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
About the author
Olive Senior
43 books110 followersOlive Senior was born and brought up in Jamaica in 1941 and educated in Jamaica and Canada. She is a graduate of Montego Bay High School and Carleton University, Ottawa.
She is one of Canada's most internationally recognized and acclaimed writers having left Jamaica in 1989, spending some years in Europe and since 1993 being based in Toronto.
Among her many awards and honours she has won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and F.G. Bressani Literary Prize, was nominated for a Governor-General’s Literary Award, and was runner up for the Casa de Las Americas Prize and the Pat Lowther Award. In 2003, she received the Norman Washington Manley Foundation Award for Excellence (preservation of cultural heritage – Jamaica). Her body of published work includes four books of poetry, three collections of short stories and several award-winning non-fiction works on Caribbean culture.
She is one of Canada's most internationally recognized and acclaimed writers having left Jamaica in 1989, spending some years in Europe and since 1993 being based in Toronto.
Among her many awards and honours she has won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and F.G. Bressani Literary Prize, was nominated for a Governor-General’s Literary Award, and was runner up for the Casa de Las Americas Prize and the Pat Lowther Award. In 2003, she received the Norman Washington Manley Foundation Award for Excellence (preservation of cultural heritage – Jamaica). Her body of published work includes four books of poetry, three collections of short stories and several award-winning non-fiction works on Caribbean culture.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 9, 2019
Olive Senior has written a collection of stories that trace the legacies left behind in a country finding its feet while still under colonial rule through to independence.
Stories such as the titular Arrival of the Snake Woman examines a rural community as it comes to terms with the changes washing over not just the rest of the country, but their own small isolated village. The arrival of an Indian woman reveals to Ishmael, our narrator, the prejudices that run deep in his village, of the unfamiliar and unknown.
The View From The Terrace examines the life of Mr. Barton as he tries to understand why a woman would move to a steep hillside to build a home. Through his memories, we witness his drive for upward social mobility and respect, at the expense of his relationships with his children and his final realization that he has allowed himself to exist in a perpetual state of detachment in his own life and community.
Olive Senior writes these stories with a deliberateness to bring to life her experience of such societal conceptions as sexism, classism, familial abuse and racial prejudices as it tried to find its path after colonization.
Stories such as the titular Arrival of the Snake Woman examines a rural community as it comes to terms with the changes washing over not just the rest of the country, but their own small isolated village. The arrival of an Indian woman reveals to Ishmael, our narrator, the prejudices that run deep in his village, of the unfamiliar and unknown.
The View From The Terrace examines the life of Mr. Barton as he tries to understand why a woman would move to a steep hillside to build a home. Through his memories, we witness his drive for upward social mobility and respect, at the expense of his relationships with his children and his final realization that he has allowed himself to exist in a perpetual state of detachment in his own life and community.
Olive Senior writes these stories with a deliberateness to bring to life her experience of such societal conceptions as sexism, classism, familial abuse and racial prejudices as it tried to find its path after colonization.
July 16, 2020
One of my 2020 reading goals is to read as many (all) of Olive Senior’s books. I am a bit behind on this goal so when I went to visit the library and I saw some of Senior’s titles, I figured now is the best time to get my goal going.
Arrival of the Snake Woman is a collection of seven short stories that gives an in-depth and nuanced look into Jamaican life in the early into late 90s. This collection is layered and explores themes such as misogyny, colourism, classism, community, immigration, love, infidelity, and trauma. Senior can write about the mundane and make it so interesting. I loved how she is able to transport us to a rural community in Jamaica and introduce us to community and make their problems ours.
I must admit, of the seven stories I was only enamoured with three, not to take away from the others but these three I know will stick with me for a very long time.
Arrival of the Snake-Woman The book namesake and the first story in the collection takes us to a village through the eyes of one of the villagers. He talks about the “Snake-Woman” who is an Indian Lady who forms a common-law relationship with one of the men in the community. Senior explores the theme of religion in a very layered away and how this community treats an “outsider”
THE Two Grandmothers Hands down my favorite story in this collection and I wanted more of it. Told from the Granddaughter’s perspective through a series of letters she writes to her mother while spending time with her two grandmothers. As someone who grew up with one grandmother and had to go visit the other grandmother regularly, I felt Senior was writing my childhood experience. This is the most beautiful and realistic coming of age short stories I have read and I absolutely love that it explores grandmother-granddaughter relationship. So much is explored in this book from colourism, classism, ageing and poverty.. I wish this was a whole book!
Special mention to The View from the Terrace which I did also enjoy.
I wanted to love all the stories in this collection but most were hit or misses. However, being a fan of Senior I am happy I read it.
Arrival of the Snake Woman is a collection of seven short stories that gives an in-depth and nuanced look into Jamaican life in the early into late 90s. This collection is layered and explores themes such as misogyny, colourism, classism, community, immigration, love, infidelity, and trauma. Senior can write about the mundane and make it so interesting. I loved how she is able to transport us to a rural community in Jamaica and introduce us to community and make their problems ours.
I must admit, of the seven stories I was only enamoured with three, not to take away from the others but these three I know will stick with me for a very long time.
Arrival of the Snake-Woman The book namesake and the first story in the collection takes us to a village through the eyes of one of the villagers. He talks about the “Snake-Woman” who is an Indian Lady who forms a common-law relationship with one of the men in the community. Senior explores the theme of religion in a very layered away and how this community treats an “outsider”
THE Two Grandmothers Hands down my favorite story in this collection and I wanted more of it. Told from the Granddaughter’s perspective through a series of letters she writes to her mother while spending time with her two grandmothers. As someone who grew up with one grandmother and had to go visit the other grandmother regularly, I felt Senior was writing my childhood experience. This is the most beautiful and realistic coming of age short stories I have read and I absolutely love that it explores grandmother-granddaughter relationship. So much is explored in this book from colourism, classism, ageing and poverty.. I wish this was a whole book!
Special mention to The View from the Terrace which I did also enjoy.
I wanted to love all the stories in this collection but most were hit or misses. However, being a fan of Senior I am happy I read it.
May 19, 2023
This book taught me that one can become complacent in one's love for an author, content, overly satisfied. It also justified my devotion.
First published in 1989 this short stories collection opened with the title story that at turns shocked, welcomed and stunned. Set at the turn of the 20th century in rural Cockpit Country Jamaica, "Arrival of the Snake-Woman" is about a young East Indian woman in the black Rose Mount community and reader only ever know as Miss C***ie and the narrator of African descent who we meet as a child and follow into adulthood. Early in the story Senior's frank depiction of the Rose Mount men's dehumanising perspective of Indo-Caribbean men and women, the violent, exotic stereotypes, the white pastor influenced demoniztion of her made my mouth drop, made me shift in discomfort. Where would Senior take me with this mostly silent young woman who seemed destined to remain an outsider? On a stunning journey I could not have predicted. Along the way, Senior's historical and cultural expertise showed me more nuanced facets of Jamaica's pre-Emancipation history than I expected and known but forgotten ways of thinking, seeing and knowing that gave me a distinct kind of happiness I hadn't had in a long time.
The rest of the collection showed her strength in imagining the interior lives of children as sacred spaces one is privileged to catch a glimpse of always with dimensions that defy easy re-articulation.
She floated aimlessly in rooms of dark corners and silences. Outside, servants laughed loudly and the dogs barked ferociously at the cat.
But that was outside
Inside, a film which had settled on the house long before she ever came there now sealed her off too, inside this special kingdom in which there was neither love nor hate or indeed much of anything.
The collection overall addresses Senior's usual themes of race, class, gender, child abuse in largely domestic spaces from the early to the post-independence period of about the 1970s. The last story, "Lily, Lily", had me in tears. Another favourite.
First published in 1989 this short stories collection opened with the title story that at turns shocked, welcomed and stunned. Set at the turn of the 20th century in rural Cockpit Country Jamaica, "Arrival of the Snake-Woman" is about a young East Indian woman in the black Rose Mount community and reader only ever know as Miss C***ie and the narrator of African descent who we meet as a child and follow into adulthood. Early in the story Senior's frank depiction of the Rose Mount men's dehumanising perspective of Indo-Caribbean men and women, the violent, exotic stereotypes, the white pastor influenced demoniztion of her made my mouth drop, made me shift in discomfort. Where would Senior take me with this mostly silent young woman who seemed destined to remain an outsider? On a stunning journey I could not have predicted. Along the way, Senior's historical and cultural expertise showed me more nuanced facets of Jamaica's pre-Emancipation history than I expected and known but forgotten ways of thinking, seeing and knowing that gave me a distinct kind of happiness I hadn't had in a long time.
The rest of the collection showed her strength in imagining the interior lives of children as sacred spaces one is privileged to catch a glimpse of always with dimensions that defy easy re-articulation.
She floated aimlessly in rooms of dark corners and silences. Outside, servants laughed loudly and the dogs barked ferociously at the cat.
But that was outside
Inside, a film which had settled on the house long before she ever came there now sealed her off too, inside this special kingdom in which there was neither love nor hate or indeed much of anything.
The collection overall addresses Senior's usual themes of race, class, gender, child abuse in largely domestic spaces from the early to the post-independence period of about the 1970s. The last story, "Lily, Lily", had me in tears. Another favourite.
June 23, 2021
The story for which this collection is named, is a stirring and captivating snapshot of life in Jamaica and shows the warring ideologies that created some of the mixed heritage that we now take for granted. The narrator is a young boy who observes a newly immigrated Indian woman and befriends her when the rest of the village initially shuns her. His reflection on how the community changes her and how she influences the community around her as well, and the philosophy behind it, is one of the most exquisitely rendered perspectives on migration I have ever read.
Since this is a short story collection, all the stories deal with different themes and may resonate with you differently but this 47 page story alone makes the book well worth it.
Highly recommend this one
Since this is a short story collection, all the stories deal with different themes and may resonate with you differently but this 47 page story alone makes the book well worth it.
Highly recommend this one
June 13, 2020
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
A good short story collection primarily set in Jamaica with a focus on the experiences of women and girls and themes such as isolation, postcolonialism and identity.
A good short story collection primarily set in Jamaica with a focus on the experiences of women and girls and themes such as isolation, postcolonialism and identity.
November 16, 2018
No hay nada como la prosa "oral" de esta mujer. Aunque eso se pierda un poco en la traducción, ese no es motivo para pasar de relato traducidos, como "La llegada de la mujer serpiente" que anda dando vueltas de manera gratuita por ahí.
Olive Senior no solo pone en el escenario aspectos culturales particulares del caribe, las condiciones de mujeres, niños y migrantes, entremezclados con el tema siempre delicado del color y la raza, sino que lo hace de una manera genial (no muy generosa para los que no tenemos el inglés como primera lengua si): de la letra impresa de su prosa se desborda la oralidad -rural- de sus personajes, la mayoría de ellos no particularmente letrados (o niños aún).
Me encanta y espero poder leer más de ella en el futuro.
Olive Senior no solo pone en el escenario aspectos culturales particulares del caribe, las condiciones de mujeres, niños y migrantes, entremezclados con el tema siempre delicado del color y la raza, sino que lo hace de una manera genial (no muy generosa para los que no tenemos el inglés como primera lengua si): de la letra impresa de su prosa se desborda la oralidad -rural- de sus personajes, la mayoría de ellos no particularmente letrados (o niños aún).
Me encanta y espero poder leer más de ella en el futuro.
July 15, 2016
Finally! A book of short stories that I really enjoyed. I don't usually get much out of short stories, but these ones taught me things and made me feel. A couple of them even almost made me cry.
The afterword is also a fantastic read, talking about the acceptance of African writers, the use of Jamaican Creole language style in writings, and so many things of great importance.
I bought this book when I was in Jamaica in 2009 and only discovered when I finally picked it up to read it that the author now lives in Canada. I will most definitely look for more of her written works.
The afterword is also a fantastic read, talking about the acceptance of African writers, the use of Jamaican Creole language style in writings, and so many things of great importance.
I bought this book when I was in Jamaica in 2009 and only discovered when I finally picked it up to read it that the author now lives in Canada. I will most definitely look for more of her written works.
August 16, 2019
This is a beautifully written collection of stories that look at Jamaica as its people. With each story there is a drop of commentary or snippet of insight into how Jamaica has bended and leaned under the pressures of the world powers, but this in no way takes away from the stories about strong, mostly female, characters.
December 10, 2019
Olive Senior can do no wrong in my book. These short stories were delightful and insightful too. It was a really good collection that complimented each other and showcased diverse characters and a slice of Jamaica that no longer exist. I wish I could give her more stars, because she deserves all of them.
April 20, 2021
This is a gem. It's a collection that very poetically maps the colourism, classism and sexism entrenched in Jamaica that is mirrored in T&T as well. So full for a book so short. Allyuh. Doh sleep on this.
October 13, 2018
Amazing and Inspiring!
This little book can be read in a day but it's worth taking the time to savour it. It is a collection of short stories about women and girls from diverse backgrounds, different races, social classes, nationalities but all West Indian and each one with a story that deserves to be told because though it be fiction, their lives and experiences reflect the West Indian experience in the 20th century; every West Indian woman can relate to the characters. One particular story, while still focused on women, is told from a man's point of view and this little tale is no less delightful than the others. In fact, every page of this collection is a treat of joy, sorrow and or comedy...highly recommended.
This little book can be read in a day but it's worth taking the time to savour it. It is a collection of short stories about women and girls from diverse backgrounds, different races, social classes, nationalities but all West Indian and each one with a story that deserves to be told because though it be fiction, their lives and experiences reflect the West Indian experience in the 20th century; every West Indian woman can relate to the characters. One particular story, while still focused on women, is told from a man's point of view and this little tale is no less delightful than the others. In fact, every page of this collection is a treat of joy, sorrow and or comedy...highly recommended.
June 6, 2016
Books like this is why Reading Challenges exist: I got this book for an Around-the-World challenge (Jamaica), and really enjoyed the high quality of the stories. Senior deals with issues of race and gender with sensitivity and solid storytelling skills. It is a shame that this book was the only collection I could find at my local libraries.
March 16, 2015
Another captivating collection of stories, I still remember the description of the saris as made of cobwebs, and the "yellow powder`` a woman was putting in the food to `tie` her man. There is definitely humour to be found here among the serious topics.
June 7, 2017
Lovely lovely book. Not one story let me down, the language being so painting and colorful, the stories being so clever, so understandable yet not open-doorish.
Having been to Jamaica, off the beaten track, and loving it without questioning it, these stories found fertile soil with me.
Having been to Jamaica, off the beaten track, and loving it without questioning it, these stories found fertile soil with me.
February 12, 2021
I enjoyed how the author captured the preoccupations of colonial and immediately post-colonial Jamaican society. This time period in the Caribbean is my mother’s world, and the obsession with light skin and straighter hair is painfully familiar, as well as the concerns with good breeding, foreign values, respectability and the control men exerted over women.
The title piece comes from an earlier time - post-slavery society. It is interesting to read a story about Black Jamaicans seeing a woman from India as an outsider and how many of her attributes they saw as inferior or threatening are only seen that way due to the influence of the white preacher. Very complex and deep.
However, the writing did not measure up to the interesting subject matter - lots and lots of back story, sometimes making up an entire story without dialogue or present action to break it up. It’s a shame because there are so many good ideas here.
The title piece comes from an earlier time - post-slavery society. It is interesting to read a story about Black Jamaicans seeing a woman from India as an outsider and how many of her attributes they saw as inferior or threatening are only seen that way due to the influence of the white preacher. Very complex and deep.
However, the writing did not measure up to the interesting subject matter - lots and lots of back story, sometimes making up an entire story without dialogue or present action to break it up. It’s a shame because there are so many good ideas here.
December 13, 2024
I read Arrival of the Snake Woman, The View from the Terrace and The Two Grandmothers from this. Very engaging stories that encapsulated the essence of Caribbean literature, specifically, within Jamaica.
August 15, 2010
Read in high school
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews