Land of Love and Drowning in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 19, 2013 Beverly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-new-to-you-authors, kindle-book, historical-fiction, caribbean, cross-cultural, where-in-the-world, beverly-where-in-the-world, new-to-you

This was a 3.5 read for me but rounded up because of the author's unique approach to the storyline.

A sumptuous tale of two sisters and their half-brother entangled by magic, myth, and the pull of memory tinged with illicit love set in the Virgin Islands. This intergenerational tale covers the years 1916 when the Danish West Indies was transferred to the United States to the 1970s as orphaned sisters Eeona and Annette, often at odds with each other, forge their identities from their legacies comm ...more

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Oct 12, 2014 Pam rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, st-thomas

AUTHOR: Tiphanie Yanique
TITLE: Land of Love and Drowning
DATE READ: 09/28/14
RATING: 4.5/B+
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Fiction/2014/Riverhead Books/350 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE: S/A
TIME/PLACE: Early 1900's to 1960's, St. Thomas
CHARACTERS: Eeona & Annette Bradshaw -- sisters
FIRST LINES: Owen Arthur Bradshaw watched as the little girl was tied up w/ lace & silk. He jostled the warm rum in his glass & listened to the wind.
COMMENTS: This is a lyrical, magical family saga spread over several gener AUTHOR: Tiphanie Yanique
TITLE: Land of Love and Drowning
DATE READ: 09/28/14
RATING: 4.5/B+
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Fiction/2014/Riverhead Books/350 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE: S/A
TIME/PLACE: Early 1900's to 1960's, St. Thomas
CHARACTERS: Eeona & Annette Bradshaw -- sisters
FIRST LINES: Owen Arthur Bradshaw watched as the little girl was tied up w/ lace & silk. He jostled the warm rum in his glass & listened to the wind.
COMMENTS: This is a lyrical, magical family saga spread over several generations set in the US Virgin Islands. The main characters are Eeona and her baby sister Annette. Their parents are Captain Owen Arthur Bradshaw and Antoinette. Eeona is unusually close to her father, in actuality their relationship is incestuous altho' one that Eeona seems to favor rather than complain about. It has colored her perspective in later years and she never really can capture a loving relationship again. Ironically, she is hypersensitive to her sister becoming involved w/ Jacob Esau and tries to deter her from being around him. She will not tell Annette the reason why. Their father had a relationship w/ his mother and Jacob Esau is their half-brother altho' not acknowledged as such. There are many adjustments and transitions over the time span of this novel. In the beginning these girls are brought up in a villa w/ privileges and servants but when their parents both die, they lose the villa and are forced to live in another part of St. Thomas in much reduced circumstances. Eeona is in such denial she tells Annette the villa has burned down, she can't bear the thought that the villa is still there and inhabited by others -- it has become a hotel. Annette was much younger and does not have these attachments to a former way of life like Eeona does. Eeona continues to think she will regain her former stature in the Island community and eventually departs for St. John. Annette has 3 children from 3 different men, 2 of them married her and altho' she has her flighty side she is also grounded and studies history so she can be a teacher. I really enjoyed this book and will read another by this author. I really enjoyed reading the history of the island.

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