Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys

I have been interested lately in the difference between narrative and character. It seems that my reading enjoyment comes from narrative (see The City and the City as an example). By narrative, I mean the telling of a story where things happen. The intellectual thought process of following cause and effect, or of developing culture or history, creating a world system however strange it may be is fascinating. Character, on the other hand, seems to me to be about being and knowing. This book is definitely a character book. However, what is particularly intriguing here is that the character, the being and knowing that is revealed, is not a character.  Or perhaps more clearly, I think the character portrayed is actually Jamaica, the place. Set in British colony of Jamaica in the late 1800's after the abolishment of slavery, I was not engaged with the protagonist, but in what life was like in Jamaica at that time. The racial tension between mixed white/black people, poor whites and free blacks integrated with the reality of living day-to-day. Only after the fact did I put together the connection to the title (the Sargasso Sea) being this massive gyre in the Atlantic. And in hindsight, an oceanic gyre is the exactly correct description of the character of Jamaica as portrayed here. Brilliant.

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note: this book is part of a Reading Lolita in Tehran project, which you can read more about here.