Blessed Is the Fruit

Lil Grandsol lives alone in the decaying old house that is all that remains of her family's plantation wealth. Vel is the young woman who has come to replace the long-time house servant. Together, Lil and Vel battle their histories and personal demons in a poignant attempt to survive. Antoni's tale of two West Indian women, one black and one white, from different socio-economic backgrounds is a wonderful example of stepping out of oneself to write. Antoni, a male writer, did this so well that one can only attribute his artistic ability to the unique mastery of mental gender crossing. Rich in West Indian culture, with pages of perfectly rendered dialect, and one in which religion plays heavily, this novel weaves in and out of sexuality show more alternately confusing and intensifying the narrative.This is a novel about the power of women and connections, and it forcefully evokes the real emotions that go into unexpected and untraditional love. It is amazing that the book has not gotten more attention. Antoni is brilliant, and his book deserves to be a West Indian classic along the order of Jean Rhys' WIDE SARGASSO SEA. show less

"In truth, you've got no father a-tall, Bolom. Perhaps, though, rather than a father, you've got a second mother? One black, one white; one African, one European. Two mothers and no father: somehow that strikes me as perfectly sensible. As perfectly West Indian, Bolom. Three of us, here together in this old, broken-down Colonial house. Three of us here together in this bed: somehow that strikes me as perfectly West Indian, Bolom."

Bolom is the newborn to whom this story is told, and the storytellers are Lilla and Vel, a white formerly-rich woman living in the Caribbean and her indigenous servant. By being set in the Caribbean, the disruption of binary race relations opens up organic disruption and re-imagination of other show more societally-defined boundaries: of gender, of sexuality, of the structure of the family. Lilla and Vel have both been shaped by and have persevered through respective hardships related to those crossings of boundaries, as they endure struggles related to wealth and instability of their family structures. So when they come together later in life, in what would seem to be a simple master/servant binary, their identities are permeable enough to grow into a much more complex relationship, imbued with recognition and love of the humanity within each other. It's gorgeous and atmospheric and real, opening up multi-faceted expressions of love without regard for boundaries or limitations. show less