River Woman (review)

Donna Hemans' novel River Woman presents a unique, contemporary approach to the themes of migration, motherhood and domestic relations across African Diaspora communities. The plot's quiet, brooding development parallels the emotional process of Hemans' protagonist—Kelithe Williams, whose interiority and silence cloak the story in a slow-moving sadness. The story—set in rural present-day Jamaica—begins when Kelithe, deeply involved in her thoughts, does not see her son Timothy step into and ultimately drown in the same river in which she is washing clothes. The reactions to Timothy's drowning by Kelithe's fellow citizens in her village of Standfast do not move his mother to resist blame or deny their accusations; instead, we travel with her through her mourning. Kelithe's insistent calm, after her son's death and against a village of condemnation, is not always convincing; however, what appears to be a strange absence of natural inclinations to protect herself may stem from the fact that her first-person narrative lacks the kind of passion that makes such representations of the outer-limits of human pain and suffering believable.

Timothy's untimely death is the catalyst for the key events. His death introduces us to his mother, a teenager and high-school dropout, raised by her grandmother (Grams) in Standfast. Kelithe's own motherhood is haunted by her absent mother, Sonya, who immigrates to the United States when Kelithe is just a child. Sonya arrives in Standfast on her second visit in over a decade to bury a grandson she only knows from photographs. Grams, the matriarch, is at various points in the family timeline caregiver not only to her daughter, but also to her granddaughter and great-grandson. Grams' wisdom spans the family's generations to save lives and heal emotional wounds, yet we soon learn that her patience has a limit and that she "doesn't forgive easily" (224). The gathering of three generations of Williams women—Grams, Sonya and Kelithe—is consistently interrupted by Standfast, their historically quiet home which eventually stirs with an uprising led by village women who are certain that their condemnation of Kelithe will be vindicated.

River Woman's narrative structure alternates between Kelithe's first person perspective and the third person omniscient narrative, which tells Sonya's story and reveals the villagers'motivations. We are not told, and thus never can be sure, if Kelithe callously watched her son drown. Although she never actually defends herself against villagers' accusations, her version of the tragedy and her silent reflections on the loss of Timothy imply that she would never do such a thing. (Later, Kelithe's silence regarding her own guilt or innocence can become frustrating, as we wonder why this well-spoken girl so rarely speaks up.)

Sonya's perspective is similarly layered. She does not return to Standfast to join the accusers in condemning Kelithe; simultaneously, her own losses and distance prevent her from confronting the child of her youth and from successfully reading her daughter's silences. Hemans' presentation of Sonya's predicament adds welcome depth to the plot: Sonya can choose the villagers' version of her grandson's death and be viewed by them as a reasonable woman though still a "foreigner"at home, ensuringher own safety from their enmity; or she can choose her family's version and be considered a mother in collusion with a murderer. The main conflict in River Woman does not center on whether Kelithe actually watched her son drown or not; rather, multiple tensions surround the question of how far a young woman like Kelithe would go to leave Standfast and Jamaica. The words of the village news-carrier haunt Sonya's consciousness: "The people saying she watch the baby drown to get her chance to go a foreign" (79).

The story of Grams, Sonya, and Kelithe is also the story of three generations of Jamaican women whose men are either dead or absent, similar to many of the other family arrangements in Caribbean literature. In this regard, some of the most interesting tensions take place...