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Valmiki's Daughter
by Shani Mooto
Toronto: House of
Anansi Press, ISBN 978-0887842207, 2008, 398 pp., $18.95 paper.
Shani Mootoo is now a recognized name in Canadian literature, for her first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, was a finalist for the Giller Prize and her second, He Drown She in the Sea, was on the long list for the International Impac Dublin Award. Valmiki's Daughter was long-listed for the Giller Prize and received glowing reviews in Canada's major newspapers.Not only is Valmiki's Daughter extremely well crafted, but the writing, clear and crisp, at times verging on the poetic, ensures that the reader is taken on a sensuous journey through the verdant tropical landscape of the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Mootoo's characters, even the sharp-tongued Mother are drawn with empathy and compassion. The language is faithful to the rhythms of the islanders' speech.
Though the plot revolves around Viveca, Valmiki's daughter, a university student, slowly awakening to her lesbian proclivities, and Valmiki's struggles with his own homosexuality, Mootoo paints a wider canvas, laying bare the racism and class consciousness existing in her own East Indian community. The Indians were brought to the island in the mid-nineteenth century as indentured labourers on the British and French-owned sugar cane, cocoa and coconut plantations. Most had remained, choosing the offer of land in lieu of passage back to India. Many had prospered. Dr Valmiki Krishnu, his wife Devika and his daughters, Vashti and Viveka, were now reaping the benefits of their ancestors' frugality and industry, traits other races in the multicultural society denigrated. Dr. Krishnu, educated in Scotland, now lives in wealth and comfort in Luminada Heights, an upscale neighbourhood fringed with green spreading lawns and a wealth of trees, palm, coconut, mango, flamboyant, Barbados Pride. The family enjoys the best of everything, cars, chauffeurs, servants, catered parties and the respect of the community.
Into this paradise enters a viper in the garden, a beautiful young French woman named Anick, recently married to Nayan Prakash, only son of the Krisnus' neighbours and heir to a prosperous chocolate-making enterprise. Anick is not French Canadian, although she had met Nayan in Whistler, while he was a student in Canada. Anick, sophisticated Parisienne, quickly becomes disenchanted with the sterile environment, devoid of museums, art galleries and books. Living with vegetarian in-laws becomes a trial, as she longs for the delicate tastes of French cooking instead of a daily diet of roti and curry. Much tension is generated around the homosexual theme. But the setting is a player too: the isolated cacao plantation in the forest and the ragged Third World city are colourfully conjured. Tying the old plantation house, once the possession of a French family, into the story, was a clever device on the part of the author, for it gives Anick an emotional connection to her new home.
In spite of the excellent writing, I had difficulty with the two names of Viveka and Devika, mother and daughter, as they are too similar. Surely the editors should have noticed this. Another quibble I have with the book are the long passages in which the author intrudes, describing the city in almost tourist brochure fashion. It is really unnecessary, since the lush tropical scene comes alive in the course of the story through Mootoo's sensuous and vivid language.
Madeline Coopsammy is a Winnipeg writer.
Buy this book at McNally-Robinson Booksellers.