Brilliant Birthright
Review: 'Scarlet Birthright: What They Left Behind' by Scarlet Ibis James
I said, as soon as I saw a sample of her writing, that Scarlet Ibis James was a writer worth watching and her career since then has deepened and confirmed my initial impression.
I have just read her soon-to-be-released novella and I am still looking forward to whatever comes next. Scarlet’s powers grow.
Last year, her collection of short stories was launched to glowing reviews, not least from me.
The Direction of Scarlet
I’ve briefly reviewed Scarlet Ibis James’ just-released book Scarlet Yearnings on Goodreads.
Stories, like children, sometimes choose their own paths.
The extraordinary lead story The First Time I Met my Father - four-hundred beautifully-chosen words - set the scene for the book. Passion, yearning, creativity, imagination, and above all a firm grip on the heart.
A story that lifted up and crushed down in just a few pages. Clearly there was more behind these moments in the life of a five-year-old.
And now we learn the backstory, the setting, the characters, and the future.
That small girl - Trisha - has parents, grandparents, friends, a sister and a few others, each with their own opinions, yearnings, and directions.
From four hundred words to 22 000, in a tightly-controlled unpacking of the original, and putting it all back together to create something richer, deeper, promising.
The author obviously put a great deal of thought and consideration into hearing what her characters were telling her. How they had their own stories to tell beyond the sense of abandonment and hurt of a five-year-old.
And yet, this longer, wider, deeper story is not forced. It hangs true. We feel the emotions of each character and we understand their choices, even if we ourselves do not approve.
Like life itself - messy, tangled, surprising - Birthright puts us in the shoes and souls of a family with drama and differences.
Like the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, these characters move through distinct seasons that shape their experiences... Each chapter in this story is marked by these seasons, not just as measures of time but as mirrors of the characters’ inner weather.
This story hangs on the years and the seasons of the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. We feel the heat, the rain, the cycles of life.
We also taste the food, hear the music, see the people and their places, their dreams and joys and traditions.
Scarlet Ibis James has set her characters deftly in a wider community. People from many origins creating an organic society that is a long way from any settled, hide-bound, drear background. Like one of the spicy island dishes, this story is full of ingredients that sing together, creating a harmony of delight.
Forget the fabled fish dish that ensures a return. I want to go there right now to be a part of the magic!
There are words in a glossary, each one a little sparkle of island life and community, each one a taste of a tangy, tantalising experience.
How those who move away must yearn for their home!
The lure of employment, education, money, all these are currents pulling the people away. How do they deal with the inevitable tugs in the homeward direction? Desires that escape the ledger of practicality, things that cannot be measured in numbers or logic, but are every bit as influential in life’s journey as mountains or seas or bank balances.
Lost in watching her, I’d forgotten about the record spinning on my turntable. The music cut off abruptly — the telltale scratch of silence made every head in a party turn toward the DJ.
The details bring the reader into the story as well as into the space. Scarlet shows rather than tells all the way through. Little giveaways like a DJ focused on a pretty girl.
A man in the story plants a tree when his son is born. Years later the smell of the fruit is a poignant reminder of the loss and the mistakes. And the sweetness of memory.
The ripples of the original short-short expand in this novella and are joined by others. Water flows through the story. As rain, as tears, as a river. It pays to give attention to the flow of the story and to each little artfully described detail. The reader is immersed in the life, the emotions, the characters, the choices.
To my readers who asked for this story, thank you for your curiosity and faith. To these characters who refused to remain silent, thank you for trusting me with your truths. And to all those who open these pages, I invite you to discover how one summer’s passion in Port of Spain in 1969 ripples through time to touch a daughter’s heart in 1991 and, perhaps, to touch your own heart, too.
Thank you, Scarlet Ibis James, for drawing out the original story and making it so much more in every way.
The questions are resolved, the tensions explored, the pulls of desires and yearnings and choices laid out into a dynamic whole.
There is sadness, disappointment and loss in these pages. It is not a straightforward sunny holiday in the tropics. There are storms and tears and not every thread is neatly wrapped up.
We have to work a little to get the full flavour. This is a story that rewards re-reading to pick up the nuances missed the first - or second - time around.
This is a great story, this is fiction done well, this is a book full of richness and surprise. I would love to see it as a movie; I think it would work well, filmed in the bright Caribbean.
That is what they left behind: not an ending, but a beginning.
In the end, a new character provides a twist in the tail, giving us a satisfying ending and a look at a new beginning. I suspect that we are not yet done with these characters and this setting.
Britni