Classic Book #14 Finished

The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

I really expected to hate this book, based on the reviews I read. I am definitely NOT a fangirl of Jane Eyre. Mr. Rochester never made my heart pitty-pat anyway. But reading the reviews, there were so many, “Yes! I loved this book! I am woman, hear me roar! Woo hoo!” reviews that I thought, “This book won’t be my cup of tea.” In the end I liked it more than I expected. I thought it captured the overwhelming “otherness” – compared to England – of the tropics. The bright colors, the extremes of sea and mountain. The mixing of races that was rare elsewhere (at least that’s my impression – so sue me if I’m wrong), the difference in language. I can see why someone like Mr. Rochester would be taken aback, overwhelmed. I can see how it can seem like just too, too, too MUCH. And then to marry (in haste, certainly, for money, probably, to prove you’re a “good son”, oh yes) a woman you barely know for whom this place is the very breath of life? Bound to cause problems. Doomed from the start. She’s the tropical bird that withers anywhere else. Not excusing anyone here – I think this book showed that EVERYONE in this book had a part in weirdness and poor decisions. I didn’t change my mind about Bertha/Antoinette much. I still thought she WAS crazy by the time he took her to England. And I don’t think it was all his *fault*. That whole “she just needed more lovin’ to make her better” idea is off the rails. That was just an excuse Christophine used for her. She spent a lot of time drugging Antionette up to “let her rest” so she wouldn’t “break up.” Given her past I don’t see that B/A was ever going to be anything BUT a dysfunctional mess – even if she *wasn’t* certifiable. Mr. Rochester certainly should have treated her better – was that ever in doubt? Not for me when I read Jane Eyre. But this book didn’t ever convince me that she wasn’t headed down the road to crazy, even before Mr. Rochester shows up. So it was evocative, interesting, thought-provoking. But for me, not “mind-changing.” 3 1/2 stars, rounded down. Because I’m just crabby.