JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, July 26, 2025

More than romance

by

20121020

Jene­va Sa­vanoy knows more than her fair share of se­crets. The beau­ti­ful, well-ed­u­cat­ed princess of the Sa­vanoy clan, she un­der­stands the val­ue of ap­pear­ances, and the weight of pres­tige.

Her fam­i­ly rules the roost of Car­ni­val mas­quer­ade com­pe­ti­tions, with her stern fa­ther Carl­ton head­ing up the King of the Band, one of the rare oc­ca­sions he's out of his chief of po­lice uni­form.

Jene­va's moth­er, Glo­ria, has been the long­time mas queen, fu­elling her most re­cent per­for­mances with one too many gulps from a rum-filled glass. Their par­ents' mar­riage a hol­low farce,

Jene­va takes so­lace in the com­pa­ny of her el­der broth­er Re­my, a tal­ent­ed mas­man who cre­ates daz­zling cos­tumes, com­plete with dis­guis­es al­most as elab­o­rate as the one he keeps over his own per­son­al demons.

How, in the midst of all this, will Jene­va con­front the changes that are poised to sweep over both her mind and body? Can she dance the in­tri­cate foot­steps of the Queen of Car­ni­val, and will she be al­lowed to fol­low the in­sis­tent call of her truest de­sires?

Cer­tain­ly, the pages of this Trinida­di­an-born au­thor Nathalie Taghaboni's first nov­el are deeply lined with con­cerns of the heart. How­ev­er, it would be short-sight­ed to la­bel this fast-paced, fre­quent­ly steamy read as a sim­ple ro­mance. In­deed, as the writer fre­quent­ly shows through the ad­ven­tures and tri­als of her char­ac­ters, so lit­tle in life can be thought of as sim­ple, maybe more so when one is a pas­sion­ate Tri­ni cit­i­zen. Thank­ful­ly, Taghaboni is not shy about her im­pres­sions of sweet T&T, de­scrib­ing it fit­ting­ly as "home to a roil­ing mass of con­tra­dic­tions... its peo­ple he­do­nis­tic and re­li­gious, su­per­sti­tious and bold, ir­rev­er­ent and strict, lust­ful and pi­ous."

It is in the pitch-per­fect de­pic­tion of peo­ple that the writer's tal­ents shine through. Jene­va and her dash­ing suit­or Vi­jay re­sem­ble count­less star-crossed lovers forced to nav­i­gate be­tween oblig­a­tion and the des­per­ate need to be to­geth­er. In their strug­gles with the de­mands of their par­ents, and the ways in which Tri­ni so­ci­ety stereo­types their roles, we wit­ness la­bels that are forced on so many re­al-life cou­ples. Nor is it mere­ly with the pro­tag­o­nists that this sense of fa­mil­iar­i­ty flows-the au­thor has shaped a Trinidad and To­ba­go so be­liev­able that we recog­nise traits and truths in even the most side­line fig­ures.

Tri­nis who en­joy the heat at home, as well as those shiv­er­ing away in less trop­i­cal cli­mates, may well come to think of Across From Lapey­rouse as a re­li­able com­pass that points to the pulse of this na­tion. Those re­turn­ing, for in­stance, from an ex­tend­ed stay "in for­eign" will nod their heads to the fa­mil­iar im­ages con­jured by this de­scrip­tion of how it feels to touch down on lo­cal soil.

"Her en­tire body recog­nised and re­spond­ed to the rhythm of the is­land. Far deep­er and much more spir­i­tu­al than even the pulse of the steel­pan or the throb of a ca­lyp­so, is the rhythm of the coun­try it­self."

Car­ni­val, in all her splen­dour and mul­ti­coloured ex­cite­ment, is giv­en an im­pres­sive stage up­on which to wine and strut in the nov­el. We're shown glimpses of what mas is like for ex­pa­tri­ate Tri­nis abroad, which is de­scribed as no shab­by un­der­tak­ing. How­ev­er, the re­al mag­ic lies in the pow­er of a home-brewed Trin­ba­go Car­ni­val. It is to her cred­it that Taghaboni pop­u­lates her sto­ry with peo­ple who know and un­der­stand the lifeblood of this great­est show on earth. As one of the main char­ac­ters re­flects be­fore she takes to the Sa­van­nah stage for Di­manche Gras, mas is about so much more than the cos­tumes we make and wear. In­hab­it­ing and rev­el­ling in these works of art, we cel­e­brate our hid­den and of­ten-de­nied po­ten­tial: as Tri­nis, as cre­ators of beau­ty and as in­de­pen­dent peo­ple.

Nov­els like Across From Lapey­rouse ought to come with an ad­vi­so­ry warn­ing: they are so much more than they seem. Chart­ing one woman's growth with fiery in­ten­si­ty, and pep­pery dos­es of pure bac­cha­nal, books of this na­ture force us to con­sid­er the ro­man­tic nov­el as a bold new en­ti­ty. They bare their teeth, con­firm­ing in no un­cer­tain terms that women can tri­umphant­ly tell their own sto­ries and steer their own fates in pur­suit of love, laugh­ter and the mean­ing of life.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored