Love After Love in Around the World

Nov 09, 2020 Andrea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world-2020, fiction-foreign-locale

4.5★

I've been looking forward to reading this novel all year, but I didn't expect it to warm my heart quite as much as it did. A wonderful literary antidote to all the negativity 2020 has spread everywhere. Although the ending had me choke-sobbing, I am left with an overall lasting impression of joy.

Set in Trinidad, and to a lesser extent New York City, this is the story of an unconventional family unit. Young widow Betty Ramdin decides to take in a lodger. She could use the extra income, but al 4.5★

I've been looking forward to reading this novel all year, but I didn't expect it to warm my heart quite as much as it did. A wonderful literary antidote to all the negativity 2020 has spread everywhere. Although the ending had me choke-sobbing, I am left with an overall lasting impression of joy.

Set in Trinidad, and to a lesser extent New York City, this is the story of an unconventional family unit. Young widow Betty Ramdin decides to take in a lodger. She could use the extra income, but also the adult company, as it's just been her and her young son Solo living in their large house since Sunil died. She mentions her idea to a work colleague, Mr Chetan, and both are equally surprised to find that it is Mr Chetan himself who takes the room. Despite being very different from Betty, Mr Chetan turns out to be a perfect fit in the household; he and Betty get along well but also give each other space, and he's wonderful with Solo, quickly becoming something of a father figure to the young boy. The years pass and strong bonds of familial love develop. I don’t want to put goat mouth on it but days like this are as good as having my own family. (Chetan)

Betty and Chetan both individually consider whether it could become more, but there's a good reason why it can't/won't. One night, with the help of a bottle of rum, they explore the question once and for all...and, no. It wouldn’t be the first time I took a six for a nine. (Betty)

But unaccustomed to the alcohol, Betty's tongue is loosened and when she confides in Chetan with her deepest, darkest secret, she is unaware that Solo (now almost an adult) has overheard. It sets in motion a train of events that will split up the family and take Solo to New York, to find refuge with his dad's younger brother, Uncle Hari.

Life in America is not easy for Solo. As he approaches the expiry of his 6-month visa he has to decide what to do. Life as an undocumented migrant will be even more difficult, but the alternative - returning to Trinidad, and to his mother - is simply not an option with the schism that has come between them.

I just fell in love with all 3 of the main characters, so the contrast between the first half of the story, when everything was going so well, to the second half where there is so much pain for each of them to deal with, was really stark. Not without hope though, as they all had their own small triumphs and joys in the midst of their despair. The dramatic climax to the story was shocking and devastating, but provided the circuit-breaker necessary for the healing to begin.

The story includes some pretty heavy themes of domestic abuse, self-harm and homophobia, but all are handled with great sensitivity. Some readers may find the Trini vernacular a bit hard to handle, but I really enjoyed it and felt that it lent the story a great sense of atmosphere. I didn't know what all the words or expressions meant, but I could mostly glean an understanding from the context.

A reading highlight of 2020 for me - highly recommended. ...more

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Dec 25, 2020 Claire rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world-2020, caribbean-literature, trinidadian-literature, fiction, around-the-world

Totally engaging characters and storyline all the way through, sad to have left them all behind.

Such a tough line Solo, the son of Betty takes, too young to know what preceded him, and a mother's dilemma of not wishing to cast her son's father as a villain, while suffering the son's judgement of her, having cast her as the 'baddie' instead.

And the delightful, lost Mr Chetan. Living in a country where he is unable to be himself, yet finding a way to make the lives of those around him better. Cast ...more

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Feb 14, 2021 Andrea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-foreign-locale, around-the-world-2021, audio, top100longlist, favorites

Originally reviewed in 2020 (ebook edition) at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

But adding to that, the audiobook narrated by the author is getting that extra half star! It was such a pleasure to listen to, with the lilting accents providing so much atmosphere. The parts that really stood out for me were the Kali-worshipping ceremony, where Persaud sings the chants, and basically all of Part 3 with so much emotion given to the events in those final chapters.

I don't often re-read books the ...more

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Feb 15, 2025 Maria rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Such a beautiful book and I'm glad I choose this book to start the year- reading more Caribbean authors this year. This reminded me in the best way possible of the Caribbean authors I grew up with, particularly Naipaul and all the nuances the characters have. These are very well developed characters- I was so involved in their individual stories and the flow of their lives melding together. I also loved it because of the scenes, the lives in Trinidad and Tobago. Beautiful novel. ...more

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Jan 28, 2022 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: author-ofcolour, europe-uk, z-read-gelesen-2022, author-woman, europe, theme-het, a-reviewed, author-hybridnation, genre-fiction, format-audiobook

This took me 1 1/2 years to finish and the only reason I finally did was to fulfil a challenge prompt: audiobook narrated by the author. In fact, I rescued this from the DNF pile in order to fill that prompt. And let me tell you: authors are not necessarily the best people to read their stories out loud onto audible.

I don't generally listen to audiobooks. They are too slow for me. I only discovered the speeding-up function on audio last week. Even so, I could not get the audio to be as fast as This took me 1 1/2 years to finish and the only reason I finally did was to fulfil a challenge prompt: audiobook narrated by the author. In fact, I rescued this from the DNF pile in order to fill that prompt. And let me tell you: authors are not necessarily the best people to read their stories out loud onto audible.

I don't generally listen to audiobooks. They are too slow for me. I only discovered the speeding-up function on audio last week. Even so, I could not get the audio to be as fast as my optical reading. And the voice gets distorted when one speeds it up.

Year before last I listened to Thandiwe Newton read Jane Eyre. Newton is a professional actress and listening to her was riveting. Listening to Persaud unfortunately wasn't. The best thing was her Trini accent which brought the language alive for me but unlike a professional actress, Persaud only has a range of three voices: narrator, deep "man" or bossy, and high-pitched babyish. The use of the high-pitched voice for whenever the female narrator and sometimes her son spoke in dialogue was extremely grating to me. There was altogether not enough voice modulation, not enough voice *acting*.

When I went to read some of the book on my kindle, I discovered that dialogue was marked not via speech marks but by being indented and in a different font. Why? This affectation served no purpose as the rest of the novel was not experimental. It just irritated me.

This dragged on for me. Some points just kept repeated over and over. Some points get left hanging. And there is a deus ex machina development that did not work for me. Ultimately, I didn't really care about the characters. The only one who came alive for me now and again was gay Mr Chetan.

This book could also have done with a content warning: character death. Also: one character gets away with murder. But trad publishers never put those in, shame on them.

Sigh. You may like this, many did. It just didn't do it for me and I'm glad it's finally behind me. Redeeming features: I liked being in Trinidad, getting a flavour of life among the Indian diaspora. ...more

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