BOTM July 2024 The Cost of Sugar

[Celia]

Who is the smartest sister? Who is the prettiest? At surface level, The Cost of Sugar is about the rivalry between the beautiful, spoiled Sarith and her more measured, considerate foster sister Elza. Growing up in the upper echelons of Surinamese society, on a plantation with many slaves, their overriding focus is on finding a suitable husband. But beneath that surface, their story touches on more profound, deep-seated issues.

When we first meet the sisters, the plantations are going through a period of upheaval. The soil is becoming barren, slaves are beginning to revolt and there is growing friction between the plantation owners about the sometimes gruesome punishments that are meted out to slaves. And it becomes apparent that things are more complex than they first appeared.

Sarith is Jewish: her ancestors were the first planters to settle in Suriname. They devoted their lives to building up the plantations, and now they find themselves powerless as they watch their valuable investment drying up before their eyes. Sarith is in a similar predicament: despite her great beauty, she is having no luck finding a man. Elizabeth is the first to get married, to the ambitious, progressive Dutchman Rutger. They start a loving family in Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital. Sarith is jealous and tries to seduce Rutger, but her egotism gets in the way. When she takes her despair out on Ashana, her stepfather’s personal slave, it causes a rift with Elizabeth and Rutger.

From: https://www.letterenfonds.nl/en/books...

[GailW]

Well, since I nominated this and will now be reading it for two different online groups, thought I'd take a stab at this:

"The Cost of Sugar is an intriguing history of those rabid times in Dutch Suriname between 1765-1779 when sugar was king and is a frank expose of the tragic toll on the lives of colonists and slaves alike." Told through the eyes of two Jewish step sisters, Eliza and Sarith, descendants of the settlers of 'New Jerusalem of the River' known today as Jodensavanne, the oldest Jewish settlement in Suriname, which boasts the first synagogue in the Western Hemisphere.

This was the author's debut novel and this as well as other novels made her Suriname’s most celebrated historical novelist. The book was first published in 1987. The author is also the daughter of Suriname's last governor and first president, Dr. Johan Ferrier.

[GailW]

I'm 25% through and had to take a break... This was not what I was expecting. Don't' take that negatively. Sometimes I just need to be reading something silly and light.

Also, I made a mistake in my summary above. Only Sarith is Jewish. Eliza's father is Jewish and her mother was a Lutheran. So she was technically not acknowledged as Jewish at that point.

[GailW]

I'm finished. I'll save any spoilers. The history portion of the book was very well done. Humans. Sometimes I think it's amazing we lasted this long...

[Gail]

I have not yet started this one but now you have made me very curious so I am looking forward to it.

[Gail]

I can understand how this came to be made into a movie. The story reads very much like a romance script with the "good" sister being successful in life and the "bad sister" getting her comeuppance. The arch of the characters is not well defined for anybody but the "bad" sister Sarith, which I found unfortunate as there are some secondary characters that are quite interesting. In contrast, the history is really well done. One gets a great overview of the Dutch colony, founded by Shepardic Jews, and the rise of the very self sufficient runaway slave culture. I also felt like I understood the nature of the land itself with its jungles and rivers. All in all a worthy read but I can't say that I appreciated the romantic tangles very much.