The Bridge of Beyond

The Bridge of Beyond / Simone Schwarz-Bart
trans. from the French by Barbara Bray
NY: NYRB Classics, 2013, c1972.
246 p.

Another book in French, but this time we're on the island of Guadeloupe, in this Caribbean classic by Simone Schwarz-Bart. It's a dreamy life story, told in snippets across the lifetime of Telumée as she grows from child to elder in her own right. 

This strong character also takes us through the history of Guadeloupe -- its colonial past and the reverberations, gender relations, even the landscape itself is an integral part of the narrative. Telumee's mother has two children; Telumee and her stepsister Regina. But when a new man comes into her life, she sends Telumee to her grandmother in the hills, and that's pretty much the last Telumee sees of her original family. 

Her grandmother raises her, and she's a bright pretty young girl who works hard and has a good outlook on life despite poverty and limited options. She's friends with a neighbour boy and it seems likely they will marry when they are old enough. But Telumee goes off to work as a servant in a big house over the Bridge of Beyond. She is a capable and dependable domestic but after the master of the house makes advances, she simply leaves, and walks home to her grandmother. The neighbour boy is still there waiting, and they marry as expected, but the marriage turns bad quite quickly. 

After going through that trauma, she is restored to herself thanks to the efforts of the old women in the community. And then after her grandmother dies, she moves up to an even more remote hill settlement and suffers more setbacks. 

Her life seems to be a dreary, miserable one in many ways, but she keeps her spirits, and shows a resilience that comes of having no other choice. As her grandmother tells her early on in life, "Behind one pain there is another. Sorrow is a wave without end. But the horse mustn’t ride you, you must ride it." This book seems to illustrate that maxim thoroughly. 

While there are depressing elements to Telumee's life and this narrative, there is also a heart of something solid, content, joyful, that comes out as well. It's a beautifully told story, with unforgettable imagery and characters who are complex and drive the action, such as it is. It's a classic for good reason. There is a poetry to it, and it is definitely a memorable read.