| Title | : | Red Island House |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1982137800 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781982137809 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 |
| Publication | : | First published March 23, 2021 |
But the Red Island House casts a spell from the moment she sees it, and before she knows it Shay has become the somewhat reluctant mistress of a sprawling household, caught between her privileged American upbringing and education, and her connection to the continent of her ancestors.
At first, she’s content to be an observer of the passionate affairs and fierce ambitions and rivalries around her. But as she and her husband raise children and establish their own rituals on the island, Shay finds herself drawn ever deeper into an extraordinary place with its own laws and logic, a provocative paradise full of magic and myth whose fraught colonial legacy continues to reverberate. Soon the collision of cultures comes right to Shay’s door, forcing her to make a life-altering decision.
A sweeping novel about marriage and loyalty, identity and heritage, fate and freedom, Red Island House reintroduces readers to a powerhouse literary voice and an extravagantly lush, enchanted world.
Red Island House Reviews
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Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean just east of Africa. It’s the fourth largest island in the world. It’s a biodiversity hot spot; over 90% of it’s wildlife
it’s found nowhere else on earth.
The culture, people,
(Malagasy people), and place sounds so vibrant.
The stories-vignettes-in “Red Island House”, by Andrea Lee
were dazzling...and ‘interesting’.....
...the psychological relationships were punctilious...
...the imperfect characters were captivating....
... the political and sociological aspects between the ‘privileged’ and ‘not’ felt realistically daunting.
...the prose was elegant...
....the lush exquisite beach of stretched-out sand, imagining birds of paradise jungles of animals, the history of the pirates, little children playing, rum drinks, snorkeling, the salt water smells, and sunshine...
Ha...’yep’ I’m ready for our two week 43rd anniversary vacation in Kauai this December!
After this pandemic... anywhere but home sounds like a welcome change!
But back to our story....
The beauty was overwhelmingly lovely to me...(loved it and felt it)...
not just the architecture of the land.... (poverty… vs. the wealthy which punches our souls)..
> a vital contrast fitting with the totality of the storytelling....
but the intimate mystery, romance, arguing, infidelity, a special friendship, and the very complicated look at our human differences.
We meet Shay, an African American professor. She falls in love and marries an older wealthy Italian named Senna. They met each other at a wedding in Italy. Both have been married before.
They live in Milan and take take summer oceanside vacations — bringing their two children — to the villa that Senna built on the island of Madagascar.... a small island of Naratrany.
Shay becomes the mistress of the Red House - an uncomfortable role. She’s black - the natives are black.
Her housekeeper is black: Bertine (a favorite character), whom she and Shay developed a special friendship with, is a pure delight to get to know.
...The storytelling is from Shay’s perspective — an interesting independent woman -but allows ( understandably to me, but hurtful too), her often schmuck of a husband to rule-like-king.
...the structure of Lee’s blending stories are unique ...
dealing with some heavy themes —racism, colonialism, and exploitation... as well personal marital complicated relationship themes. ....
But
.....it’s so beautifully written and engaging...
I LOVED IT!! 🦜🍂🏝
A slim-gem read. 🐚 -
Beautifully written. It seems less of a novel and more of a collection of short stories (all with the same central character) that explore race, class, othering, death, betrayal and a million other topics. It was a slower sort of read and I needed my dictionary more than I'd like to admit but it was worth it.
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This mesmerizing book opens as Shay Gilliam, a Black American intellectual married to Senna a tycoon Italian businessman, and unwilling mistress of the Red House, a sprawling big house and household in Madagascar, is following her Malagasy housekeeper to a conjurer to lift an evil spell on her house.
This quietly powerful book, told through a series of incisive and vividly written vignettes/anecdotes, presents a narrative arch spanning a twenty year-period exploring cultural and identity collisions between and within the Indigenous population and the Europeans in this neocolonial society.
While Shay is not always present in the vignettes, she is always hovering as an observer, as she tries to reconcile the rifts in her marriage, her identity as being a “mistress” to a “plantation” house, the cost of being an outsider and the higher cost of belonging to the privileged class and the history as a Black woman in Africa.
I appreciated all the wonderful historical and cultural details of the Malagasy world, and how the people live with dignity as they and their country become a fetish exotic adventure destination for others.
This is an eloquent and elegant introspective read as the topics of identity expectations and being the life you want, how to enjoy your success yet still honoring your ancestry, and how survival is knowing your worth and the making the best with what you have to offer are presented from a fresh perspective on cultural collisions and the dualities and multiplicities that exist within us. -
This isn’t a one size fits all novel. It isn’t for everyone, but it hit a sweet spot for me. It was unfamiliar, foreign, colorful, erotic, and otherworldly at times. The protagonist is a Black American professor, Shay, who married an older Italian entrepreneur, Senna. On his urging, they buy a vacation villa in a small (fictional) beach village, Naratrany, in Madagascar, as newlyweds in the latter part of the 90s. They are both multilingual (but don’t speak the island languages), and live in Milan, but return to the villa during two month-long vacations annually. The novel covers over two decades in their life, especially at their villa, Red House.
Before I talk about the book, I’ll mention the structure. Each chapter has an intriguing title, my favorite being Elephants’ Graveyard. At times, I felt that I was reading a series of vignettes, although there was always Shay as a through line and it followed a mostly linear flow. But some of the chapters could also be lifted from the book and made into it’s own very short story, so I wasn’t surprised when I found out that at least one was actually just that, in the New Yorker. But it didn’t diminish the story for me.
Shay feels awkward at first, being a “mistress” of a house with the Black staff subordinated to her—much connection in her head with slavery. She does make a good friend in Bertine the head housekeeper, who notices that Shay and Senna fight a lot (they only squabble in Madagascar, not in Milan), and Bertine steps in to help Shay. This is when it gets exotic and speaks to the animism beliefs of the island inhabitants. Shay attends a ceremony that had me holding my breath a few times.
Over the decades, Bertine remains Shay’s closest confidante. Senna is often on fishing expeditions or business ventures when they are in Naratrany. He’s got libertine tendencies—he and Shay are very different individuals. They have two children, who travel with them during the vacations, and grow up with native Naratranians, ex-pats, and Europeans and others who came to the island. The children aren’t a prime ingredient of the narrative; mostly it is about Shay and her perspective, experiences, and relationship with Senna and the way she interacts with her staff and others on the island, especially Bertine, my second favorite character.
Madagascar is a complex place with layers of class structure and social sensibilities. And sex between islanders and people of other cultures plays a large part— part of survival, too. Often, the story questions its own morality and perspective, which is done with ease in third-person limited POV. No narrator broadcasts or tells you what to think or judge about the characters--only as it pertains to Shay’s own learning curve and evolving comprehension. Moreover, it is not a traditional arc storyline—you just have to follow it wherever it leads you.
Andrea Lee is both erudite and allusive in her prose, often including snippets of French or Italian (some on the island speak French). There are also superbly incorporated references to songs, poems, and literature from all over the world. I felt smarter as I progressed. :) Mostly, I enjoyed the unique assortment of individuals and concerns of the various characters that come to Red House, which is the focal point of the novel. Lee’s sense of place is scintillating, sensual, gripping, as are her figures of speech and descriptions.
“Madagascar has its own fabulously complex identity…Building on such terrain has consequences: attachments root and expand in unexpected corners, the way that a tough network of sea grapes can cover a whole beach.”
If you are up for a strange and fascinating journey, with a vivid, chimerical, spirit-infused culture, and a reading experience that bends beyond the usual borders, I recommend you give this book a go. The final page, in its action, may have been a bit twee, but I understood it in a more sublime sense, too. Themes of heritage, family, acceptance, love, and betrayal are addressed--juicy to the core, but nuanced, and dream-like at its edges.
Thank you to the publishers at Scribner for sending me a copy. -
Red Island House reads like a series of interconnected short stories. It was not always linear but at no time did I feel lost. Our main character Shay is an African-American professor who marries an Italian businessman and goes to live with him in Naples. He has built a vacation home on a small island off the coast of Madagascar. The book opens with the building of this island home. It is supposed to be cursed as he does not follow the tradition of honoring the people or the land.
When Shay arrives at the red house the home is being managed by a Greek overseer who is known for his cruelty. Her husband's support of the Greek after Shay and he fallout is a clear indication of how Senna views her and her position. Shay comes to befriend some of the Malagasy and who show her how to manage the situation. Shortly she starts to feel guilty of her position; her gifts come to signal bribes and her good advice exacerbates issues. She comes to realize that al;thoughher skin is the same that she is not African and is ignorant of traditional practices. I found this part of the book interesting as most books that deal with differences within the diaspora do not address culture and differences in mindset. Shay lives by an American ideal and even her best of intentions could create problems in this very different world. Another interesting point was the idea of black fetishism. Just because a white person is in a relationship with a person of color does not mean that they are not prejudiced. They may be fulfilling some type of fantasy. For Senna this meant finding a vacation villa in a tropical setting and getting himself a dark skinned wife. These were mere trophies for him.
Lee also addresses sexual exploitation and colonialism's role in driving prostitution in third world countries. The imprint that tourists have goes beyond their participation in the sex trade including children left behind by their holiday romances.
Red Island House may be a short book but it is full of heavy themes and descriptive language that is evocative of place. Shay's character was well drawn out and we see her grow and learn and she comes to know the people and the place.
This was a gem of a debut. -
Thoughts soon.
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Excellent writing and close to unique. This is novel combined themes for varying focus to the primes amid short stories that highlight terrific characterizations of many tribal, ethnic languages, racial groups and classes of humans and their cultures for coastal island Madagascar locale.
It holds extraordinary place feel with tangible ex-pat and divided loyalties cultural pulls. But at the same time it is whole piece connected. The mood is often serious but at the same moment or two flamboyant.
4.5 stars. There are voids of time skipping which prevent me from rounding it up. But from the observations of Shay (Black American married to an Italian and living 3/4th or more of the year in Milan with the Red House their vacation home)- it's a great read.
Recommending this one for something quite different from the usual modern fiction. Better too than most, by far.
I do understand to read quite a bit of Italian and very much of French. I do have to admit that this really helped me get tons of nuance here. My enjoyment for this book was a lush 5 stars. -
Now and then I come upon a novel so artfully written, so evocative of a place, and so packed with ideas that I want to continue thinking about it rather than move on to another book. Andrea Lee’s The Red Island House is one of those books.
Set in Madagascar and revolving around the dream vacation home built by Senna, a wealthy Italian businessman, for himself and his new African American wife, a literature professor and translator named Shay, Red Island House is comprised of a series of short stories occurring over the years of the couple’s marriage. Time after time, they leave their busy Milan life behind to spend time on their beach estate in one of the world’s poorest countries. During an interview with New Yorker, Lee spoke of her novel’s unusual but highly successful structure: “I see the form as a private challenge, a sort of balancing act; each story must be satisfying on its own but also be a bead on a string that joins it with others.” Each of those beads on a string focuses on Shay’s encounters with the diverse people populating Madagascar and sparking her thoughts about social class, race, and neo-colonialism. As a wealthy black intellectual in a country where powerful whites have traditionally dominated poor, uneducated natives, she is caught between cultures and forced to ponder what she experiences personally and observes around her.
In the opening story, “The Packet War,” newlywed Shay arrives at the house her husband insists he built for her but in which she has had no say. A stranger in a strange home and land, she continues to have no voice in the goings on, and a good relationship with her husband disintegrates. Senna had been warned about the need for, but refused to follow the custom of, throwing a housewarming party for the local natives, and ignoring local customs could result in evil curses. Only the native housekeeper, Bertine la Grande has a solution for Shay’s unhappiness, and it involves a clandestine visit to a village sorcerer. Readers who wonder about the story’s title, “The Packet War,” will understand by story’s end.
The third story, “Blondes,” opens in a beauty shop as Shay undergoes a slow-paced pedicure and manicure. What seems like an unpromising beginning changes as Caroline la Blonde walks in the door. A beautiful black woman with a reputation for captivating wealthy European men, Caroline has come to have her blond sewn-in hair extensions removed, her own hair trimmed and redyed to match, and the extensions reattached. As Shay’s feet soak in a plastic pan, her mind wanders back to her California childhood, to her encounters with blond classmates, to the various ways she styled her own black curly head over the years, and the significance of being blond in Madagascar. She thinks of Helle, an elderly blond German widow, who frequently visited the red island house and whom Shay viewed as a remnant of the past, a white woman forever trapped in the colonialist mentality. She watches Caroline, the “blond” black woman, who has made her fortune from European men, and observes her domineering interaction with the cowed Frenchman who comes to pay the beauty shop and to help her into the car awaiting outside.
These are only a brief look at two of the beads that make up Andrea Lee’s insightful novel. An American permanently living in Italy, Lee and her husband have frequently traveled to Madagascar where she has experienced first-hand the types of people and situations she brings to life through her words—the natives, the outsiders, and the friction between them. In her New Yorker interview, she remarks, “I long ago dubbed this phenomenon “paradise twisted,” and I chose to illustrate it in a series of stories, each of which sheds a different light on the people and place.”
My thanks to NetGalley for an advance reader copy of Andrea Lee’s newest book. -
No 105 in my World Book Reading Quest - Madagascar
"This island of Madagascar affords all the necessaries of life… The seas around it
are well stor’d with fish, the woods with fowl, and the intrails of the earth are en-
riched with mines of excellent iron… and doubtless there are both gold and silver
mines in the mountains… The soil will produce sugar, cotton, indigo and other
growths of our American Colonies, at a far inferior Expence… Negro slaves in Bar-
bados are 30, 40, 50 (English) pounds per head, and I dare answer that 10 shillings
in European Goods will purchase a Negro slave at Madagascar… The natives are,
or seem to be, very Human."
—Captain Charles Johnson (probably Daniel Defoe), A General History of
the Pyrates, vol. 2
Madagascar is an island off the coast of Mozambique and is my 105th country on my quest to read a book set in each of the 195 countries in the world.
From
https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/re...
The popular image of Madagascar is a rugged, tropical paradise, a mystical land where playful lemurs bound through the underbrush and the alien eyes of chameleons peer from the jungle depths. Yet Madagascar, despite the undeniable cuteness of its furry inhabitants, is far more than a National Geographic feature.
In her latest book “Red Island House,” novelist Andrea Lee explores entanglements of class, race and ethnicity in Madagascar, the Red Island. The story is centered on Shay, a Black American professor, as she attempts to navigate her newfound role on Madagascar’s Naratrany Island as the wife of a wealthy Italian hotel owner. Caught between her privileged position and her ancestral connection to the continent, Shay provides thoughtful musings on imperialism and Malagasy culture. Spanning two turbulent decades, “Red Island House” raises questions about love and identity that will resonate long after turning the final page.
Recommend
4 stars -
I was thrilled to receive an ARC of this book because I have never read a book that is set in Madagascar, and I knew very little about the country itself. I eagerly read the first chapter, which took me on a journey of a young Black American woman learning the mysteries of her new house in Madagascar. The chapter hinted at the promise of the rest of the story -- how does an American deal with a country of such unspoken mystery and class/colonization issues, while she is still learning how to navigate these things in her own country, and with her own marriage to a white European? I was excited to read the rest of the book, but I didn't realize that this is not really a novel. It's a series of stories and vignettes as observed by Shay, the American woman who lives with her husband Senna in Milan, and vacations in Madagascar.
It took me forever to get through this book. It was well written, but it wasn't interesting in the slightest, which is too bad. The stories that Shay relays, often to other foreign friends, are generally not that interesting. There isn't much about the characters, there isn't much dialogue. Everything is told through Shay's knowledge, who is very much aware of the fact that she is a tourist in the country she calls home for a few months of the year. It sounds like that awareness would be interesting, but it makes every character and every situation seem as though it's probably not happening the way Shay thinks it is happening. Or that behind the scenes, in places where Shay does not venture, there is a very different story happening. And because I wasn't hearing much directly from the characters themselves, I didn't much care about what Shay thought about the situation she was able to be completely separate from. The only time my attention was even a little bit caught was toward the end of the book when the story shifts slightly to Bertine, the housekeeper of the Red House. And I think the only reason why I didn't feel like falling asleep while reading this chapter is because Bertine is such a presence in the first chapter of this book, the one I was so intrigued by.
I wish the rest of the book had lived up to that first chapter. I would have loved to hear more about Shay's life in Italy, and how her children were affected by growing up in Italy and in Madagascar. I would have loved to hear more about her relationship to Senna. I would have loved to read about how she navigated her life as a foreigner in Italy, and as a foreigner in a country where she looks more like the people, but is so obviously not one of them. The book brushes against these issues, but doesn't dive into them, making this story sit on the surface of something that could be great, but is just dull.
One note though: the author does list some writers at the end of the book that are finally being translated into English. I would be interested in reading their works, and I'm glad to know their names. If you already read French, then these writers are already available to you. -
Very beautiful written and compelling main character to follow. Was easy getting invested in and hard to put down, highly recommend this book. Not sure what to say though but the book was just as great as the premise made it out to be
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This book. THIS book was one of two that gave me all that I was looking for at the exact time I needed a pick me up. I have so much to say, but I don’t think it will adequately explain how much I loved it. So I’ll keep it as short as I can.
The book was a series of short, mostly chronological stories, based around the idea, existence and transformation of the titular red island house. The book mostly follows the protagonist, and African American woman, living as a professor in Milan, who meets and marries a much older Italian business man who builds a vacation home for them in Madagascar. As the reader, you’re an omni-present for the love, luxury, pain and loss the couple experiences because of, within and involving this paradise amidst the African island. Written in a variation of chronological order I hadn’t seen before, the book is filled with vivid descriptions of the lush scenery and intriguing cultural nuances.
My favorite aspects of the book were:
1. The protagonist, Shay - she was a beautiful, educated, multilingual, highly intelligent black woman who lived a opulent life with humility and grace. I loved that she was very aware of her privileges while still maintaining her unique views about race and racism. I didn’t always agree with her actions or statements, but I do think it was true to her character’s life and journey, so I was ultimately okay with it.
2. The richness of the story. It was written so incredibly well. Another reviewer compared it to a very rich piece of chocolate cake, and I couldn’t agree more. I could only consume it one story at a time in order to take in all the author was sharing and reflect to ensure I got what I supposed to out of it. Most stories were a bit lengthy, but I think it was necessary for the stories being told.
As you can tell by my short (lol) review, I fell in love with this book and can definitely see myself re-reading it again in the near future. It was an experience I wasn’t expecting but was glad to have. 5 stars! -
A lush, lyrical, and dense saga about place, love, culture and identity with a touch of magical realism....
Lee’s striking writing is layered and thick with evocative descriptions of people, landscapes, feelings and foreboding. Sociological and psychological, it’s prose with the abstract feel of poetry.
My Review of Red Island House for @bookpage:
https://bookpage.com/reviews/26081-an... -
A linked short story collection that spans 20 years or so on Naratrany, a small (fictional) island off of northwest Madagascar, and stars an odd couple. Senna is a rich Italian businessman; Shay is an African American professor 15 years his junior. They meet at a wedding in Como and Senna builds his tropical island getaway at the same time as he courts her. Lee plays up the irony of the fact that Shay ends up being the lady of the house, served by all Black staff.
Colonial attitudes linger among the white incomers. I loved the long first story, “The Packet War,” in which Shay has a low-key feud with Senna’s bombastic Greek overseer, Kristos. The locals believe that, because Senna did not throw a traditional housewarming party for his opulent complex, the Red House is cursed (there are some magic realist scenes reflecting this, and the servants prescribe Shay some rituals to perform to combat it). And the same comes to seem true of their marriage. Or does their partnership just have your average ups and downs?
Shay and Senna eventually have two children, Roby and Augustina, and spend most of the year in Italy, only coming back to Madagascar for long holidays in the summer and winter.
In general, I liked Lee’s passages describing Madagascar (I was interested to note the Chinese infrastructure projects), and the stories that focus on this family. Others about peripheral characters – beauty parlour customers, a local half-Italian boy, visits from friends – engaged me less, and I was irked by the present tense, so pervasive that it’s even used to, nonsensically, describe actions that took place in the past. I doubt I’d try another by Lee.
Originally published on my blog,
Bookish Beck. -
*This book was received as an advanced reader's copy from NetGalley.
Red Island House is one of the more unusual books I've read this year. Not in the sense of dystopia, invention, or paranormal; but rather, that it takes you to a setting that is not one that I've encountered in a lot of books. It takes you to Madagascar, by way of an unusual set of characters.
Shay is a professor from America who falls in love with an Italian several years her senior. Wealthy, when she meets him he is in the middle of building his dream house on some property in Madagascar, and she soon finds herself the lady of the house. This causes internal conflict, and outward conflict as Shay herself is African American and has to adjust with interacting with the people of color around her, but from a standpoint that she views as almost colonial or hearkening back to plantations. This confusion, combined with a tumultuous relationship, gives her a unique story across this backdrop that spans decades.
I had a hard time relating with Shay. An independent, intelligent woman in the beginning, I won't say that she loses that sense; but with the troubles in her marriage I do wonder at her interactions. Maybe it's the globe-setter type of culture that comes with her marriage being in Italy and the vacationing in other places that takes it out of context for me. But, and this will be a spoiler, Senna, her husband, I'm never fond of, but I'm not attracted to the brash type of which he is. But really, this is Shay's story, not Senna's, so he's more of an afterthought anyway. There are plenty of other characters; some likable, some comedic, some with stories that take Shay out of her comfort zone, and they're all pretty important to the story in their own way, even if you don't take a liking to them.
While I enjoyed the plot and the meandering it sometimes took; the timeline was a bit rougher for me. We meandered over the first few years of their marriage and then wham, 5 years later, wham, 10 years later; I would have liked to not have as large of gaps and a more cohesive storyline. I think all of the themes were important; Shay's struggle with identity and how she should act on the island, the various trials and tribulations, the uncomfort and acceptableness of the sex-work on the island (which no doubt reflects a lot of tourist areas in the world with the need for money causing people to enter a line of work they might not have otherwise).
Overall, for me this book was important in its message, but I wouldn't call it enjoyable. The characters struggles and joys caused a lot of empathy, but it was a hard read.
Review by M. Reynard 2020 -
Knjiga koja u centar pažnje stavlja odnos privilegovanih i potčinjenih i to radi na jedan veoma pitak i gotovo lepršav način. Atmosferom čak malo podsjeća na The White Lotus jer je za mjesto radnje odabrana luksuzna vila na jednoj egzotičnoj lokaciji, a likovi koji je pohode su krajnje raznoliki: od porodice Sena, koju čine afroamerička profesorka Šej, njen suprug italijanski biznismen i njihova djeca, preko lokalaca, od kojih svako ima neku svoju priču vrijednu pričanja i slušanja, pri čemu se posebno ističe Velika Bertin, lik koji prosto zavolite, pa sve do bogatih staraca, udovica ili umjetnika i modela... Njihove priče funkcionišu i kao zasebne, ali se međusobno uvezuju i daju nam potpuniju sliku o životu na Naratraniju. Ovo je knjiga koja spaja Italiju, Ameriku i Madagaskar, knjiga o sestrinstvu, knjiga o nasljeđu i kulturi, o odnosima moći i nekim prikrivenim relacijama koje uvezuju na prvi pogled poptuno različite segmente života. Uživala sam.
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Beautifully written, this is more like a collection of stories that spans over twenty years that a couple has owned The Red Island House on an beach in Madagascar.
Senna, the husband, has built an ostentatious vacation villa and Shay, the wife, becomes the reluctant mistress of it.
At first she just observes the goings on but as she and Senna go through an unstable marriage, raise their children, and come and go, establishing their own traditions at the house, Shay becomes more entangled in the lives of others and the clashes of two cultures.
Shay was such a strong character. I really liked her from the beginning and completely loved the way she reconciled the choices made not based on the person but their environment and upbringing.
I found it completely mesmerizing and was held captive from the first page. -
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.
I couldn’t have loved this book more, although (no spoilers) it broke my heart.
The story follows a young couple, - Shay, an African-American scholar, and Senna, her wealthy Italian entrepreneurial husband, - as they build and periodically vacation in an extravagant villa and property in the unspoiled paradise of the African isle of Madagascar.
The author has a gorgeous command of language, and within the first few pages, I was instantly transported to a vivid and exotic land, where:
🖊” in the light soaked stillness of the hottest noontime hour, mongrel dogs lie flat as puddles in patches of shade”.
🖊” the land formation is dazzlingly, virginally green, as if it is the first time that color has been used on earth.”
🖊”the long curve of empty coral beach, is white and perfect as a fresh slice of apple”
🖋”(visitors) are dizzied by the infinite possibilities of using First World money in a Third World country, one of the poorest on earth.
🖋”the first caress of tropical air like an infant’s hand on the face”
It doesn’t take too long for complex and interesting themes to begin to emerge.
The novel spans decades, with each chapter feeling like a self-contained short story, introducing us to new and beautifully rendered characters whose lives, loves, losses and adventures, feel less and less strange the more we become absorbed deep into the fabric of this book and the all-encompassing pull of the magical Madagascar setting.
Gradually it becomes clear that this is a novel about power, about entitlement, about rich sojourners, taking over (or so they believe), through the mastery and exploitation of new territories, leveraging whomever and whatever opportunities present themselves. An age-old theme.
However, as the story plays out through the lives of the protagonists Shay and Senna, it becomes clear that rather than simply rolling over and allowing dominance- homelands that are mired in history, in the deep-rootedness, culture, and connection to the land experienced by all their native peoples, rise up in unexpected ways to have a profound and inescapable effect over the lives of all involved. Most definitely including the interlopers.
This is a brilliant book that I will think about for a long while.
A big thank you to NetGalley; the publisher, Simon and Schuster Canada; and the author, Andrea Lee for an advance review copy of this book. All thoughts presented are my own. This book will be published March 23, 2021. -
I was #gifted this book by Scribner books and was really looking forward to reading it. But the writing style and lack of character depth left me unfulfilled.
Red Island House follows a married couple named Shay and Senna, over almost forty years. Shortly after marrying, they move into a mansion on the Island of Madagascar. She is a smart, independent black woman from America and he is an older, wealthy Italian man. When they move into his dream he had built, Shay is conflicted by having black servants, the poverty of the locals, and how her new home feels like a modern plantation.
The book tackles a lot of big themes including race, sex work, colonialism, and class barriers which normally are themes I enjoy reading about. But the story meandered a bit too much to connect to any one character or story in particular. There are large gaps of time between each chapter, and each chapter reads more like an individual short story. It did not feel cohesive to me and left me wanting more. I often felt like the book was telling me what happened instead of showing me. I would have engaged more with Shay’s struggles if the story was told in a linear way through Shay’s narrative.
Give this one a shot for it's depth but know it may not be an easy flowing read. -
Confession time, as a reader, I've become a little tired of books that feature the clueless white boyfriend/ long-suffering Black girlfriend dynamic. Maybe I've just read too much of it. But Red Island House takes what has become a familiar trope in literature and does something new with it.
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Shay is an African-American woman married to Senna, a white Italian man. But he and the other Italians are casually accepting of her race. I'm fact, her American-ness creates more conflict.
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But, when Senna purchases a plantation style dream house in Madagascar, Shay becomes the reluctant mistress of their vacation home and all who staff it. The people of Madagascar are used to white masters and mistresses, but a woman of colour in this position of power is an anomaly.
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As a Black woman, Shay has had scant interest in Africa, except as 'a near-mythical motherland'. However, her many trips to Madagascar force her to confront the race and class dynamics of the island. Laws never seem to apply to wealthy whites. And the principal form of employment for young girls is prostitution, often with men twice and three times their age. This is the only way for these girls to earn the sort of money that can change their families' lives.
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Madagascar is also a land where magic is heavy in the air. 'In Madagascar, everything speaks. Not just people and animals, but trees and rocks and individual islands and rice fields and lagoons and houses; and ancestral spirits, who offer opinions just like pushy relations.' Shay finds herself drawn more deeply into this spiritual world as she becomes closer to the country and its people.
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This book reads like a series of interconnected short stories. We see Shay and Senna get older and have children as their marriage changes with time... and not necessarily for the better. Through the pages, the author offers a fresh take on race relations, class, culture and the long legacy of colonialism. -
What a beautifully written book! I read this slowly, savoring the descriptive language and the evocation of the tropical island Naratrany.
It is almost a series of short stories, though Shay and the Red House are main characters throughout. Major themes are race, class, neo-colonialism, and sex work in places of poverty.
The author makes clear in the acknowledgments that this book is about Madagascar from a foreigner's eye. Shay, the main character, is an African American professor who married an Italian businessman 20 years her senior, and who builds the Red House for himself and for her early in their marriage. Shay then constantly struggles with the in between-ness of being a Black woman who is the "lady of the house" in Africa where a very colonial lifestyle is still in full swing.
The book comes full circle by the end and left me pondering for quite some time.
I also had to look up a few words which NEVER happens so I enjoyed that!
The author lives in Italy and I got hints of Ferrante style writing throughout the book as well, though the author is American. I loved the book and hope that readers who enjoy amazing prose find this and enjoy it. -
So, I didn’t love this book, but I didn’t hate it either. The structure of the book made it feel like I was continually ready a new story. Though each of the sections could probably be a stand alone short, they each built upon the overall plot of the story, Shay’s life both on and off the island.
I think my favorite section was the first one titled The Packet War. The mystery, the magic, the all knowing Bertine, this section set a high bar for the rest of the book. Unfortunately the book as a whole fails to meet the high standard set by the fist section, but a few individual sections came close. The Rivals, Sister Shadow, and Elephants’ Graveyard are also on my list of fav sections.
Lee did an excellent job of crafting unique, interesting characters. They were all so vivid and I didn’t have a problem imagining them in real life. The settings were equally vivid. Reading her lush descriptions made me feel like I was there on the island, baking under the sun and enjoying the beautiful surroundings.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. -
Red Island House is quite unlike anything I’ve read before, not quite a linear story and not quite alternating timelines but more of a collection of stories told by main character Shay. Shay married dynamic Italian businessman Senna who built a beautiful palatial vacation home in Madagascar. There Shay will spend months where she casually observes the islanders around her and their customs, the intricacies of the lives that struggle with poverty and the beauty of their heritage and through the years, life and death.
I appreciated Shay’s narrative and the cultural observations of the Malagasy people, there’s something both poignant yet inspirational as she recounts her interactions with the local people. There is a definite level of discomfort to some of her stories and I felt her internal struggle with the way that some of the women have chosen to survive and those that would take advantage of this.
Beautifully written and gorgeously descriptive, Red Island House gave me a lot to think about and opened up a new genre of writing that I haven’t really explored before. -
I'm putting this on hold as I'm finding Lee's generalisations about Italians somewhat...irksome. I'm not saying that Americans can't write about Italian culture or characters but make it make sense. -
"In Madagascar, everything speaks."
I picked this book up for my LotsofBooks Book Club, and our fearless leader, Azanique, summarized it best. She said it takes a lot of brain power to read, and she compared it to a dark chocolate. You can only take small bites at a time, as it's so rich. I agree that this is not a page turner by any means. It is a slow-paced collection of short stories all centered around a place--a house, its people and the island it sits on, Madagascar.
Red Island House's narrator is a woman named Shay Senna, an African American woman who marries an Italian almost 20 years her senior who builds his fantasy vacation house along the coast of the African island of Madagascar. Over the course of a couple decades, Shay battles with the various parts of her identity and her relationship as they are carried out between Italy and Madagascar. She struggles with her privilege in a place where white foreigners colonize an African country and poor Africans are human labor, in many ways mirroring her ancestors' own past in America. I'm not sure if she ever truly reconciles this, but she tries as best as she knows how.
This book goes deep and has an underlying sense of foreboding throughout, with some mysticism and folklore sprinkled in. Unfortunately it is more focused on a place and its people than its underlying plot. It was way too slow for my taste, but perhaps for those who like place-centered stories--more of an ambiance read--you might enjoy this book. -
I don't think I've ever read a book set in Madagascar before. I think learning about the culture there was the only part of this book I did enjoy. The stories within are snapshots of part-time residents Shay and Senna's experiences while on holiday on the island. They build a monstrosity of a house where she must deal with the locals as her staff and neighbors. There are snapshots of the culture, the small dramas of the residents and the love hate relationship between locals and foreigners.
I just didn't find myself immersed. I was at times interested in a character or two but the chapters went from situation to situation, it wasn't easy to stay engaged. I found myself skimming chapters especially towards the end. This one reminded me a little bit of Theater for Dreamers. -
First of all this book did not capture my interest, especially the first half of the story. Yeah, it got somewhat better toward the end. Madagascar made the main setting come alive as did the characters prove to be wildly entertaining. Stops there.
My review should not turn away readers that like this sort of thing. AND apparently many do like this sort of story. -
ohmygosh this book is so so beautiful. the first few pages almost scared me off with the embarrassing amount of words I didn’t know lol but i’m so glad i stuck with it!!
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Shay was a rootless outsider, whose life of privilege carried with its blindness, pride, and scattershot ignorance, and Bertine was the one who belonged, who saw, and who brought order by naming things for what they were.
This book is about a Black woman living in a Red Island House built in Madagascar by her wealthy Italian husband. In the Red Island House, Shay's journey as a wealthy landowner in Madagascar has her realizing Madagascar's social issues and her situation's irony.
First off, this book is well written, and I loved the descriptive sentences. There are so much information and detail in one sentence that it the book's strength and weakness. With the book being so detailed, it leads to a tedious read. The reader has to pay close attention; otherwise, they lose essential details.
In The Rivals story, one of the main characters is being discussed by the townspeople with the passage below. We get this description:
"Besides her intelligence, her undeniable energy, and a reputed genius for sex, her greatest talent is one she shares with many resourceful wives and mistresses: an inconspicuous but relentless persistence, the ability to bide her time, to cling without being obvious, and never to show offense."
The passage describes one person, and it is so information that the reader could easily get lost in the information. Reading this passage does give a better image of this character in her manner and looks. This is one of my favorite passages because once the character is introduced, we get a basic description of the woman that does not signify the reason men lust for this woman. Still, with this passage, we get the full picture of how a 'common' woman could get a wealthy married man to pay for her lifestyle.
One of the main issues with this book is the lack of focus. I believed this book to focus on the house itself, which in the beginning is true. The first story deals with the construction of the Red Island House, leading to the battle of Shay and an evil man Kristos titled The Packet War. This story was the best, especially with the supernatural aspect and Madagascar history.
However, some stories did not pertain to the Red Island House or the owners, Shay and Senna. A number of these stories deal with a character passed by the Red Island House or visited the Red Island House once. These people and their stories are also written off as insignificant as Madagascar's people forget these "tragic" people and their "cautionary tale."
A fascinating read is Sister Shadow, as the character Bertine dies. This death leads Shay to rethink her life and the Red Island House. It is no secret to the island that the Red Island House runs as a plantation. Bertine, the Red Island House's main organizer, has a close relationship with Shay, the owner of the Red House. After her death, Shay realizes that she is no better than the 1950 Southern housewife with an African American maid. This story was the most fascinating since Shay, an African American, owning a house run like a plantation realizing the complexity of her situation.
Overall, suppose you like well-written books with a few stories that delve into Madagascar's specific social issues, predominately with tourism and its affliction on the Madagascar natives. In that case, this is the book for you.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read this e-book in exchange for an honest review. -
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.
I couldn’t have loved this book more, although (no spoilers) it broke my heart.
The story follows a young couple, - Shay, an African-American scholar, and Senna, her wealthy Italian entrepreneurial husband, - as they build and periodically vacation in an extravagant villa and property in the unspoiled paradise of the African isle of Madagascar.
The author has a gorgeous command of language, and within the first few pages, I was instantly transported to a vivid and exotic land, where:
🖊” in the light soaked stillness of the hottest noontime hour, mongrel dogs lie flat as puddles in patches of shade”.
🖊” the land formation is dazzlingly, virginally green, as if it is the first time that color has been used on earth.”
🖊”the long curve of empty coral beach, is white and perfect as a fresh slice of apple”
🖋”(visitors) are dizzied by the infinite possibilities of using First World money in a Third World country, one of the poorest on earth.
🖋”the first caress of tropical air like an infant’s hand on the face”
It doesn’t take too long for complex and interesting themes to begin to emerge.
The novel spans decades, with each chapter feeling like a self-contained short story, introducing us to new and beautifully rendered characters whose lives, loves, losses and adventures, feel less and less strange the more we become absorbed deep into the fabric of this book and the all-encompassing pull of the magical Madagascar setting.
Gradually it becomes clear that this is a novel about power, about entitlement, about rich sojourners, taking over (or so they believe), through the mastery and exploitation of new territories, leveraging whomever and whatever opportunities present themselves. An age-old theme.
However, as the story plays out through the lives of the protagonists Shay and Senna, it becomes clear that rather than simply rolling over and allowing dominance- homelands that are mired in history, in the deep-rootedness, culture, and connection to the land experienced by all their native peoples, rise up in unexpected ways to have a profound and inescapable effect over the lives of all involved. Most definitely including the interlopers.
This is a brilliant book that I will think about for a long while.
A big thank you to NetGalley; the publisher, Simon and Schuster Canada; and the author, Andrea Lee for an advance review copy of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
