Although small at 207 pages, BLACK
SUGAR by Miguel Bonnefoy is vast in scope and in generations, as
well as the effect that treasure had on their small town, be it hidden or
unearthed. The story begins with Henry Morgan, an English captain
who gets stranded in a rain forest and is looking for a way out. To
attempt to exercise control, Henry Morgan makes a choice to get rid of
the treasure that he carried aboard his ship. However, that plan is
unsuccessful and he perishes. Three centuries later, a small community
is built upon the area where the treasure might have been... The Otero
family live simple lives but on November 1st (El Dia De La Muerte), a
woman who was a previous owner of their home visits a mysterious
room that they are forbidden to enter. Soon though, a treasure hunter
by the name of Severo Bracamonte enters into their lives, upending
everything that the family has known.
Very often in a story, even perhaps in the beginning, the reader can
connect various plots and threads to one another to try to figure out
the message or what will happen to the characters and so forth. In
other words, in any other story, the author teases the reader by giving
hints about what is to be expected. BLACK SUGAR is a different novel altogether because
the author's meanings and threads aren't clear until the very end of the
novel. Yet once the reader understands the story, then an explosion of
ideas occurs and one can't help but think what a clever and intelligent
the novel BLACK SUGAR, along
with its message of greed and corruption becomes.
There is a strong reminiscence of a flowing river throughout the story
and how human beings attempt to control the river, but they cannot.
And an epithet of "pride before the fall" is an apt way of describing the
characters who think they found the solutions, but in truth made things
a whole lot worse, or so it seems.
My favorite parts of the story included the characters of Eva and
Serena and the attention to detail that Miguel Bonnefoy has made when
writing in different eras. I am pretty sure that BLACK SUGAR is something I will be reading again
soon to see if I can capture more references than before.
For a reader who is looking for diverse reads or something of moral
nature or desires to see the effects that treasure has on people and
community, BLACK SUGAR by
Miguel Bonnefoy should be a perfect fit.
Miguel Bonnefoy’s colourful tale of a family’s changing
fortunes is also the fascinating story of Venezuela’s
development over the course of the 20th century.
On the edge of the Latin American rainforest, the Oteros
family farm sugar cane in their remote corner of the
earth.
Cut off entirely from the modern world, life is peaceful,
uneventful. Until, that is, a succession of ships arrive
in search of Henry Morgan’s legendary lost treasure, said
to be buried deep beneath the forest floor.
Soon, the isolated villagers are exposed to all the
trappings of modernity, while the travellers’ search for
booty unearths more than anybody could have anticipated…
And so it was that the treasure lay buried amid scraps of
sail and a pirate’s corpse, preserved within the belly of
the Caribbean…
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