Hardcover - 272 pages (February 26, 2002)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.ca In her
first novel, The Heart Does Not Bend, Makeda Silvera--cofounder of
Sister Vision Press and noted for her short fiction--points her outsider
scopes straight at the drama within the dysfunctional Galloway clan of
Kingston, Jamaica. Spunky youngster Molly, daughter of the elusive Glory,
is the narrative pacemaker of The Heart, but the acerbic tongue
lashings dealt by her grandmother Maria--Mama to most--are its tainted
lifeblood. Mama's a God-fearing, hard-living hellion convinced that "dere
is no such thing as a honest relationship." She raises Molly, who even
from an early age copes by waltzing on eggshells and escaping to a secret
life. Molly endures Mama's incessant sniping about her own
offspring--"Peppie had no guts, Glory didn't love her enough, Freddie had
abandoned her, and Mikey was on the road to destruction." Only the Good
Lord and the little lord Vittorio--Mama's despicable rogue grandson from
her freeloading son Freddie--are spared her verbal wrath. As adults, the Galloways--except "battyman" Mikey--all flee the
Kingston crucible seeking better lives abroad, including, finally, Mama
and 14-year-old Molly, who follow Glory to Toronto. Once there, proximity
breeds contempt, leaving a wised-up Molly resigned to Glory's vacuousness
yet haunted by Mama's guilt-trippy clutches. The Heart Does Not
Bend and neither does Mama, sitting in vengeful judgement of those who
happen to love her. --Sigcino Moyo
