Macadam Dreams by Gisèle Pineau, trans. C. Dickson (review)

1 58Women in French Studies Translations Gisèle Pineau. Macadam Dreams. Trans. C. Dickson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Pp 215. ISBN: 0-8032-8773-9. $20.00. The task of translating L 'Espérance-macadam (Stock, 1995) into English is particularly challenging given the unique blend ofCreole words and rhythms in the work of Francophone writer Gisèle Pineau. C. Dickson handles the challenge with aplomb and delivers a beautiful rendition of this rich, dense text. Macadam Dreams is chronologically complex, moving from one moment to another in a non-linear narrative that spans the period between two cyclones that have marked the principal protagonist Eliette's life: the first struck Guadeloupe in 1928 when Eliette was a child of eight; the second is the more recent Hurricane Hugo of 1989. The third-person narrative voice focuses on the plight of Eliette, whose childbearing dreams were crushed following her marriage to Renélien, who passed away, and then another fruitless union to an eloquent but impotent Hector. Eliette knows she was meant to have a daughter, but it isn't until her own story has been disinterred from the depths that she can open herself to becoming a mother to another who, like she, has suffered the torments of incest. The parallel between Eliette's rape by her father and Angela's repeated sufferings at the hand of hers is one of numerous parallels that bring some sense of "reason" to the madness that reigns in the impoverished Caribbean town of Suvane Mulet: people and spirits, human events and natural disasters , Biblical passages and musical references become conflated in powerful passages that attempt to make sense of a difficult world. The "return" of a devastating cyclone brings back memories that have been repressed, silenced, in a circling text that reminds us that vicissitudes repeat themselves from one generation to the next and from one family to another. One ofthe most striking examples is the act ofGlawdys, who throws her baby off a high bridge to its death; this episode finds an echo in the depiction ofRosette's rabid beating of her first-born daughter Angela. Fortunately, the second scene of infanticide is interrupted before Angela loses her life. While women are thus capable ofviolence, men and nature are the overwhelming sources of violence in this Antillean town. Mothers teach their daughters to be fearful of men who will "mount them" and then disappear, leaving them pregnant and penniless. Men paradoxically represent a hope for social betterment, for financial gain, and for familial happiness, and this renders cautionary words difficult to heed. Rosette remains blind to the rapes of her daughter because she is so attracted to dreams of marital and maternal bliss. Closing her eyes to the ill in her own household is like ignoring the turmoil of a tempest. The word "Demon" is used throughout the novel, in the case ofAngela as in that of Eliette, to refer to both the cyclone and the father. Indeed, the two forces exact explosive, irreparable damage. Book Reviews159 Gisèle Pineau is careful to provide names and dates, to explain genealogies and histories, and to restore to memory the tumultuous past ofthe shaken island town she describes so evocatively. Amidst references to Biblical figures and Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry," the novelist pays attention to detail in a work that is at once a clever sociological study and an historical document. The narrative voice recalls, with playful humor, eventful occasions on the public scene, including Paul Claudel's visit to the island's cathedral following the 1928 cyclone and Charles de Gaulle's "elevation" of Guadeloupe to the status ofa French overseas département. But these significant moments change little when it comes to the everyday preoccupation of inhabitants like Eliette: finding food. There are very few options for women in this part ofGuadeloupe; there are also very few options available to men, and the book reveals that cooperation is not impossible between man and woman (the description of Eliette's initial night of lovemaking with her first husband is passionate and tender), it is just very difficult. This haunting portrait of a community crushed by shattered illusions...