Bitter Sweet

Sugar Changed the World: a Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
Boston : Clarion Books, c2010.
ix, 166 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.

Just as Kurlansky's book on cod makes the case for the often overlooked importance of cod in world affairs and US history, so too Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos' wonderful book on sugar brings this common food item to life by telling its bloody & compelling history.  There is a painful irony that such a sweet substance is so inextricably tied into the immense holocaust of the African slave trade in the Americas - especially in South America and the Caribbean.

For example, in Sugar Changed the World we learn that in just over 100 years between 1701 and 1810 years, nearly a million slaves were shipped into just two "sugar" islands in the Caribbean - the British sugar/slave islands of Barbados and Jamaica. The book reveals that sugar slavery was an especially brutal and lethal fate for slaves.  Up to the time of Emancipation in the US, about 500,000 slaves were brought into North America, while more than 2 million were taken to the various "sugar" islands - and yet at Emancipation, the slave population in North American had risen 4 million, while the slave population of the islands was 670,000.  The sugar plantations of the Caribbean were places where most slaves were worked to death.

The book conveys the hell that was the sugar plantations of the Caribbean (and eventually of Louisiana in the US) in ways that are factual without being overwhelming for middle to high school readers. In detailing the workings of the sugar slave plantations the book would make an excellent pairing with The Poet Slave of Cuba by Margarita Engle.  A strength of Aronson and Budhos' book is that it not only chronicles the horrors of the the sugar slave world, but presents the culture and resilience of the people who lived and died as slaves in the sugar plantations and as workers in the sugar industry after slavery officially ended.

Aronson and and Budhos do an excellent job of giving the global history of sugar (where it came from, and how it became cultivated), explaining how sugar is processed, and revealing that sugar was an economic engine for the emerging imperialist states of Britain, the US, and France.The authors also devote a significant section of their book to the successful slave revolt in Haiti and the contradictions of the US relations with Haiti.

The book has excellent photos, maps and graphics which make the story interesting and very clear.  I would highly recommend this book for any student interested in the fascinating and brutal history of sugar. Lastly, for any teachers considering using the book in their classrooms, there is a great website for the book - including a Teacher's Guide!

Evolution Even a Caveman Could Understand

The Rough Guide to Evolution by Mark Pallen
London ; New York : Rough Guides, 2009.
vi, 346 p. : ill., maps ; 20 cm. 

This is a wonderful book - interesting, comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and engaging.  It serves as a great introduction to Charles Darwin, to the principles of evolution, and to the many ways in which Darwin's groundbreaking work has shaped modern intellectual and cultural life.

Frankly, the most refreshing thing about this book is that it demolishes the spurious and intellectually bankrupt tenets of creationism and creationism's reemergence under the guise of "Intelligent Design." Pallen meticulously reviews the veritable ocean of scientific evidence supporting evolution - showing clearly that that those who deny evolution have as much scientific standing as someone who believes the sun circles the earth. The book also does an admirable job of detailing how the majority of religious thinkers and leaders accept the factual nature of evolution and do not see it as a threat to theism. Sadly, the book points out that it is in the United States that anti-evolution ignorance has developed it's deepest roots.

The book succeeds in explaining in clear language the current understandings of evolutionary theory, but the explanations are not always simple or easy to follow.  I found myself having to read and reread sections on cladistics and genetics.

The book is really enjoyable in that it is broken into sections that can be read solely for their content, e.g. Human Origins.  I would recommend this book to any student curious about Darwin, evolution, human origins, and creationism - or to any student researching these topics.

A Hard Look at Blue Eye

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
New York : Vintage International, 2007, c1970
xiii, 205 p. ; 21 cm. 

The first thing to say about this novel, by Nobel Prize winning author, Toni Morrison, is that it is an amazing first novel. It richly conveys the texture of the lives of three African American girls in a town in Ohio in the 1940s - focusing on one especially pitiful girl, Pecola, who is treated by all as "ugly" and is obsessed with wanting blue eyes.

It is a gritty novel of childhood cruelties, bonds of sisterhood, the dynamics of race, class and sexism.  Poverty, incest, domestic violence, alcoholism, pedophilia and prostitution all come under scrutiny in Morrison's tale.

For me the most vexing aspect of the novel revolves around a male character who rapes his daughter.  The author ventures to enter into the mind of the perpetrator and - frankly - ends up creating a false and "artistic" artifact out of this act of sexual violence.  I say this with some trepidation, realizing that all artists take risks in trying to enter into scenarios and personalities that are radically distinct from their own. Often such risks produce stunning works of art.  However, my assessment is that Morrison grossly misses the mark on this one, and ends up with a rather fanciful, empathetic, and even sympathetic portrayal of the rapist. 

Considered as part of the body of work of Morrison, Bluest Eye, is definitely worth reading and, as I said is a powerful and very readable book.  I just think it deserves a hard look at it's shortcomings.  As I told a friend, my feeling after reading the book [regarding the character who commits the incest/rape] was, "She doesn't know what she's talking about.  She doesn't have any business going there...."

Light Read, but a Good Read

If I Was Your Girl by Ni-Ni Simone
New York : Kensington Pub. Corp., 2008
viii, 261 p. ; 22 cm.

Ni-Ni Simone is an extremely popular author at our library, and so I finally got around to reading one of her novels to see what makes her books spend so much time off the shelves and in the hands of readers.

After reading If I Were Your Girl, I understand the appeal of her books.  Simone is great with dialogue and conveying the attitude of her characters.  She's also skilled at moving the plot along, while creating a rich array of interesting characters.  One of the things I really enjoyed about Simone is that she is able to explore the mistakes and shortcomings of her characters without being preachy, but is also able to show them developing and succeeding in ways that are interesting and not always predictable.

I especially liked how Simone is able to make a really creepy "player" like Quamir - the main character's first boyfriend - believable to the point where the reader almost believes his lies and lines. With convincing dialogue and scenes we are able to sympathize with Toi, the main character as she struggles to figure out which characters actually care about her, and which characters are simply out to use her.

Finally, the plot is really satisfying in that Toi's maturation and development during the novel is reasonable and not miraculous - and the life she creates as a young teen mother is redemptive, but still not easy.

I am truly grateful that there are authors like Simone who are writing for the teens, especially young women, who want the realism and grittiness of urban fiction and novels with "drama" - but is able to do it with meaningful characters and dialogue, instead of simply peppering her narrative with graphic sex and obscene language.