Michelle Cliff explores the complex identity issues stemming from post-colonialism and the difficulty of establishing an authentic, individual identity despite race and gender constructs. Her works delve into various facets of these themes, emphasizing a unique voice and literary significance. Cliff's style is incisive, and her approach to writing offers readers profound insights into the psyche of her characters and the worlds they inhabit. Her writings are significant for their ability to capture the nuances of identity and the individual's place within a landscape shaped by historical and social forces.
Exploring themes of colonialism, race, and identity, the narrative follows Clare Savage, a light-skinned woman on a journey of self-discovery across Jamaica, England, and America. The novel blends naturalism and lyricism, reflecting Clare's fragmented experiences and her quest for connection amidst contrasting realities. Jamaica serves as a vivid backdrop, revealing both its beauty and profound poverty. Clare grapples with the complexities of her identity and the harsh truths of oppression, ultimately seeking wholeness and the courage to confront her divided loyalties.
An alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.Ever since Abeng was first published in 1984, Michelle Cliff has steadily become a literary force. Her novels evoke both the clearly delineated hierarchies of colonial Jamaica and the subtleties of present-day island life. Nowhere is her power felt more than in Clare Savage, her Jamaican heroine, who appeared, already grown, in No Telephone to Heaven. Abeng is a kind of prequel to that highly-acclaimed novel and is a small masterpiece in its own right. Here Clare is twelve years old, the light-skinned daughter of a middle-class family, growing up among the complex contradictions of class versus color, blood versus history, harsh reality versus delusion, in a colonized country. In language that surrounds us with a richness of meaning and voices, the several strands of young Clare's heritage are explored: the Maroons, who used the conch shell—the abeng—to pass messages as they fought a guerilla struggle against their English enslavers; and the legacy of Clare's white great-great-grandfather, Judge Savage, who burned his hundred slaves on the eve of their emancipation. A lyrical, explosive coming-of-age story combined with a provocative retelling of the colonial history of Jamaica, this novel is a triumph.
