Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Marriage of Opposites
Alice Hoffman
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Marriage of Opposites
Alice Hoffman
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman, is the story of Rachel Pomie and her life-long friend Jestine, of African descent. They live on the Danish island of St. Thomas. The Danish king has given Jews the civil rights of all men. They built a synagogue and worshipped as free people. Rachel and her family have fled from Spain during the persecution of the Jews there.
Rachel dreams of living in Paris, but her father marries her off to a man thirty years older than she is with three children, one a baby. Her dream of Paris dissolves. The reason for this marriage is that their import business is failing; she accepts it as a business arrangement, and falls in love with his children. Rachel tells this story in her voice.
After she marries M. Petit she becomes pregnant with his child. Her cousin Aaron is sent to Paris to get him away from Rachel’s friend Jestine, pregnant with Aaron’s child. There is no way they can marry as they are of different classes. In the following six years, Rachel has three children, and visits the cemetery where Petit’s dead wife lies. She tells her news of her children. Adelle, the cook, tells Rachel that Isaac will not be her only husband. Rachel looks at every man to see if he could be the next one.
When her cousin, Aaron, returns from France, he brings a wife, Elise. She seems weak from the outside, but Rachel sees her inner strength. Jestine wants Aaron to see his daughter, Lydia, and to know she is his child. But a terrible thing happens: Elise and Aaron steal Lydia while strong men tie Jestine to a tree. They take Lydia to Paris and raise her as their own child. Will she ever find out who her real mother and father were?
In 1825, Abraham Frederik Pissarro arrives in St. Thomas to take over the business of Rachel’s dead husband. The voyage from France transforms him into a hard man. Author Hoffman describes the island where Frederik has arrived: the birds, plants, fruits, foods, all in colorful phrases. Enrique, the clerk of Rachel’s husband, now hers, greets Frederik. Rachel resents Frederik, but finds him handsome and is attracted to him. He is attracted to her as she appears in a thin nightgown. He works hard to forget her. A woman at the synagogue reminds him it is a sin for nephew and aunt to be in love. When he becomes ill with yellow fever, Rachel and Jestine go to an herbalist in the forest and cure him with special teas.
Frederik asks Rachel to marry him, but the Reverend at the synagogue refuses to even see them. Rachel becomes pregnant with Frederik’s baby, and every citizen of the island shuns her. They appeal over the Reverend’s head to the Danish King in Denmark and he allows them to marry. Rachel always gets her way. She now has eleven children. Jacobo Camille Pizzarro writes his own words in chapter VII. He does not like to go to school, but studies the landscape of the city, the colors, the people working on the docks. He sees the great love of his parents. He is a rebel, like his mother. He attends a Moravian school with people of color because the synagogue school won’t accept him. He doesn’t think it fair that some live in shacks, and some in mansions. He draws and makes his own pigments from nature. He becomes a friend to a friend of his mother's, Madame Halevy, a ninety-year-old woman who has him come to tea often. She has secrets of her family too.
When Camille is sent to Paris, he tells Jestine he will find her daughter. He is there for years, feels he is free and loves the beautiful colors there. Lydia, now a married woman with three daughters, sees a young man following her on the Paris streets and in the park. Will he find Lydia? Will he tell her about her real mother and about her birthplace on St Thomas? Will it change Camille’s life and her own? Find the answers in this wonderful historic novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Rachel dreams of living in Paris, but her father marries her off to a man thirty years older than she is with three children, one a baby. Her dream of Paris dissolves. The reason for this marriage is that their import business is failing; she accepts it as a business arrangement, and falls in love with his children. Rachel tells this story in her voice.
After she marries M. Petit she becomes pregnant with his child. Her cousin Aaron is sent to Paris to get him away from Rachel’s friend Jestine, pregnant with Aaron’s child. There is no way they can marry as they are of different classes. In the following six years, Rachel has three children, and visits the cemetery where Petit’s dead wife lies. She tells her news of her children. Adelle, the cook, tells Rachel that Isaac will not be her only husband. Rachel looks at every man to see if he could be the next one.
When her cousin, Aaron, returns from France, he brings a wife, Elise. She seems weak from the outside, but Rachel sees her inner strength. Jestine wants Aaron to see his daughter, Lydia, and to know she is his child. But a terrible thing happens: Elise and Aaron steal Lydia while strong men tie Jestine to a tree. They take Lydia to Paris and raise her as their own child. Will she ever find out who her real mother and father were?
In 1825, Abraham Frederik Pissarro arrives in St. Thomas to take over the business of Rachel’s dead husband. The voyage from France transforms him into a hard man. Author Hoffman describes the island where Frederik has arrived: the birds, plants, fruits, foods, all in colorful phrases. Enrique, the clerk of Rachel’s husband, now hers, greets Frederik. Rachel resents Frederik, but finds him handsome and is attracted to him. He is attracted to her as she appears in a thin nightgown. He works hard to forget her. A woman at the synagogue reminds him it is a sin for nephew and aunt to be in love. When he becomes ill with yellow fever, Rachel and Jestine go to an herbalist in the forest and cure him with special teas.
Frederik asks Rachel to marry him, but the Reverend at the synagogue refuses to even see them. Rachel becomes pregnant with Frederik’s baby, and every citizen of the island shuns her. They appeal over the Reverend’s head to the Danish King in Denmark and he allows them to marry. Rachel always gets her way. She now has eleven children. Jacobo Camille Pizzarro writes his own words in chapter VII. He does not like to go to school, but studies the landscape of the city, the colors, the people working on the docks. He sees the great love of his parents. He is a rebel, like his mother. He attends a Moravian school with people of color because the synagogue school won’t accept him. He doesn’t think it fair that some live in shacks, and some in mansions. He draws and makes his own pigments from nature. He becomes a friend to a friend of his mother's, Madame Halevy, a ninety-year-old woman who has him come to tea often. She has secrets of her family too.
When Camille is sent to Paris, he tells Jestine he will find her daughter. He is there for years, feels he is free and loves the beautiful colors there. Lydia, now a married woman with three daughters, sees a young man following her on the Paris streets and in the park. Will he find Lydia? Will he tell her about her real mother and about her birthplace on St Thomas? Will it change Camille’s life and her own? Find the answers in this wonderful historic novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.