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Five Comedies by George Sand, trans. E. H. Blackmore (review)

Gisèle Pineau is careful to provide names and dates, to explain genealogies and histories, and to restore to memory the tumultuous past ofthe shaken island town she describes so evocatively. Amidst references to Biblical figures and Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry," the novelist pays attention to detail in a work that is at once a clever sociological study and an historical document. The narrative voice recalls, with playful humor, eventful occasions on the public scene, including Paul Claudel's visit to the island's cathedral following the 1928 cyclone and Charles de Gaulle's "elevation" of Guadeloupe to the status of a French overseas département. But these significant moments change little when it comes to the everyday preoccupation of inhabitants like Eliette: finding food. There are very few options for women in this part ofGuadeloupe; there are also very few options available to men, and the book reveals that cooperation is not impossible between man and woman (the description of Eliette's initial night of lovemaking with her first husband is passionate and tender), it is just very difficult. This haunting portrait of a community crushed by shattered illusions resonates with beauty in its music and turns of phrase. It is particularly important to find such a fine translation of a text that is itself about language in its various forms; the English version, like the original, is attentive to nuances of expression. Macadam Dreams is ultimately a celebration of words and their power to communicate, even when their meaning eludes those who hear them. The second storm to shake up her life so rattles Eliette that she breaks with years of silence and solitude to open her head and her heart to fresh possibilities for love and family and, ultimately, to embrace new dreams.