|
Patricia Barbee Click on book to enlarge 
REVIEW
“Man is born free
but everywhere he goes, he is in chains.” These are the words of a French
philosopher: Jean Jacque Rousseau. He was referring to the fact freedom in
itself denotes limitation. The world is peopled by different characters with
different abilities. However, one thing that is common to all individuals is
the limitation of the human person. These limitations are imposed upon us
either by our very nature or by the society. In her book, ‘Every Shut Eye
Isn’t Asleep, Patricia Barbee shows that it is possible to transcend these
limitations and end up successful in life. This book is a historical fiction
told with great expertise that would make you want to turn the page ad nauseam
once you read the first chapter. Her style of writing is appealing, full of
humor, healthy satire and is easy to follow. The chapters in the book are
short and consistent. This makes reading a pleasure rather than an
inconvenience.
The setting
commences down South in
Georgia and ends up North in the City of Boston. The time is in the
early fifties. During this period, the United States is facing a quagmire
along many facets of life especially racism and segregation. The ugly head of
xenophobia sticks out both in the South and in the North but at varying
degrees. The author uses the story to condemn this social evil, albeit she is
careful enough not to rush to conclusions or shift blames on different groups
of people. She understands that prejudice, as a human trait is a product of
nurture and not nature. Consequently it can be unlearned through education and
a rigorous process of socialization.
The whole story revolves around an iron lady by the name Valley
and her brilliant daughter Heidi. Valley is a daughter of a Cherokee Indian
father. She faces gazillion problems due to her mixed descent. Her mother dies
when she is still a baby and so she has to live with different people during
her childhood. Later on she gets married to a very abusive husband. The
husband, Denis, strikers her in her pregnancy and she loses their second child
in this violence. This leads to a divorce. In Boston, Valley struggles to
bring up her brilliant daughter Heidi Rose in this densely populated city.
Despite this undesirable predicament, Heidi is full of energy so much so that
her mother refers to her as a dynamo. She is so brilliant that she takes
classes in the fifth grade when she is just six years old. At her age, she
understands what her mother is going through and she works hard in school with
the hope of mitigating the cross her mother has to bear for her sake. In this
moving piece of literature, themes such as hard work, perseverance and filial
piety dominate the scene. One step at a time, day by day, Valley crosses the
bridge of poverty and ends up owning a piece of property of her own, securing
both her future and that of her daughter. To understand how she achieves her
much-coveted America dream, you must read the book.
CJ Ohulo, Kenya
|