Black Faces, White Faces

A surprisingly overlooked masterpiece of the linked-short-story form — one of the hardest forms to get right. Gardam's ten tales revolve around Jamaica, and specifically a resort for wealthy whites (whose POV is in all ten) but her genius is in how she subverts the POV of her own characters. The Jamaicans assert themselves throughout, come to dominate certain stories even without the megaphone. Characters like Jolly Jackson, the wild "local guide" who provides a boy (and clearly his parents too) with "The Best day of My Easter Holidays", or the two awkward thugs who run into the insane English schoolmistresses Misses DeeDee and Gongers in "Something to Tell the Girls".

Still, there are a lot more white faces here than black. But the show more title is earned by the white people's reactions to the locals, and how piercingly Gardam dissects the colonial and race themes. The Brits are used to veneering over awkwardness and they do so here to hilarious effect; the locals innocently injecting culpability into already-fragile relationships. show less

I had to go back and reread the first story in this set to confirm what I didn't realize until the end: It's a ghost story. Which is to my discredit, because Gardam makes it perfectly clear to anyone paying full attention. The past violence in the story is a metaphor for the potential for future violence that underlies the whole book.

Black Faces, White Faces loosely links together ten short stories, all taking place in Jamaica; all involving vacationing Brits completely out of their comfort zones. What is special about Black Faces is that Gardam interlocks details as well as characters. For example, a character in one story leaves behind a toy. Another character from another story, finds it.
"Babe Jude" - encountering crude vacationers & a language barrier.
"Missus Moon" - foreigners witnessing a funeral.
"Best Day of My Easter Holidays" - a boy's essay about meeting crazy man Jolly Jackson.
"The Pool Boy" - Lady Fletcher doesn't want to be so prim and proper.
"The Weeping Child" - Mrs. Ingram tells the story of the ghost of someone who is still alive.
The House Above show more Newcastle" -Newlyweds Boofey and Pussy are unrecognizable to each other on their honeymoon.
"Saul Alone" - a sad story about a stroke victim observing the people around him.
"The First Declension" - a wife suspects her husband of having an affair while he visits Jamaica.
"Something To tell the Girls" - two teachers on holiday in the mountains of Jamaica.
"Monique" - a woman mourning the loss of her lover. show less

Black Faces, White Faces by Jane Gardam was a winner of the David Higham prize for Fiction, and the Royal Society of Literature’s Winifred Holtby prize following its publication in 1982. Its ten stories are loosely connected by their setting, a beach hotel in Jamaica.

A ghost story, a most remarkable honeymoon story, an amazing account of two very old ladies on a spree, and one of a child (very much like Max in “Where the Wild Things Are”) are four of the ten wonderfully readable tales.