The Bread the Devil Knead

Shortlisted for the Womens' Prize 2022

My backlog of unreviewed books has crept up again, which is a shame because I very much enjoyed this vibrant story of a Trinidadian woman escaping from domestic abuse.

The main protagonist Alethea, who narrates much of the story in creole dialect, has worked her way up to being the manager of a clothes shop in Port of Spain. Her partner Leo is a semi-retired singer who drinks too much, is jealous of her success and whose violence is triggered by very little.

The story switches between this present narrative and memories from Alethea's childhood, shared with a younger cousin Colin who becomes an adopted brother, who she meets again after many years as a church minister.

She also meets an old friend show more who returns having spent much of her life bored by her marriage in America, who involves her in a plan to open a new luxury boutique. Both see her predicament and attempt to help her, and in the end, after a bloody denouement, Alethea is left to make her own decisions about the future.

What lifts the book is the lively narration, which really brings the setting to life, but never gets in the way of the story. A book that thoroughly deserves its place on the women's prize list. show less

At its core, this book is filled with sexual abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, and inherited trauma; however, once you begin reading, it is difficult to resist becoming fully immersed in the characters, especially the protagonist. A quick, but due to varying types/levels of abuse aimed specifically at women, at times, a disturbing read that gives voice to everyone who, as the author eloquently states, knows that lies show truth.

Big trigger warnings for domestic violence, rape, child abuse, an *explicit* child sexual abuse scene, incest. All of which are intense and there are constant scenes throughout the book.

I think it's hard to put my thoughts together about this. It's a cavalcade of trauma and abuse and then it just ends so... neatly? Like, not that the scars are resolved obviously. But it feels weird - although even saying that feels wrong, as if I'm suggesting that actually the trauma should have carried on, which is also not what I meant.

I think part of it is that the neat ending owes very little to the actions of the main character in the "present day" - there's connections formed in childhood that only just come back around all at once and we only show more see bits and pieces of how they happened and a loose friendship where the other person seemingly took it upon herself to get the MC's abusive violent boyfriend shot in a way that framed him as the shooter? it's a little vague at the end exactly what happened and how much knowledge people had but it's heavily implied imo. That's not bad exactly - everyone needs support and it's good to show stuff happening as a group effort, obviously. It more just adds to the sense that things wrapped up due purely to coincidence than anything else. Which... again I guess that's not that inaccurate to real life. So again I can't exactly mark it down for that.

I think the explicit child sexual abuse scene really threw me for a loop and eclipsed everything else about the book. Not suggesting it's wrong to portray it, just it was so intense (even though I had to skim it) that I couldn't really get settled about how I feel about the book due to feeling so upset and lost reading that.

I will say as an obvious unalloyed good thing: the Trinidadian Creole writing style is really good and I loved reading it. It's an incredibly readable book that's quite compelling show less

Not much of a plot, felt like not a lot happened. Really cool voice to read, sometimes lacking emotion. Very difficult to read at times, with its descriptions of traumatic things-- definitely read trigger warnings. Felt like Alethea's development at times was a bit 'all of a sudden', can appreciate what the story was trying to do. It was an important story that didn't pull any punches, but I wasn't very absorbed into it and connecting to the characters.

Not a book I'd have thought to buy, but it came with some flour I'd ordered as a present, oddly enough. Not sure what to make of it really, except that I kept going in and out of believing in the characters and particularly Alethea, the main character. The subjects dealt with are tough, rape, child rape, domestic abuse and violence, and Alethea's path through life surprising, maybe realistic, maybe not - it was a distracting feeling to engage with her and then find myself drifting away.
A more generous review (not mine) here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4597875927

Written in a bizarre writing style (Trinidadian Creole) this is not a light read. It covers disturbing topics including abuse. I did find the writing style at times a bit hard to understand but got enough of the gist of what was happening. 3.5/5

This was really good but also so traumatic to read which I was completely unprepared for.