Harding is known for his exquisite penmanship, which is also the case here. With a deep tenderness and lyricism he describes the lives of the people living on the island, originally outcasts who developed their own secluded little world, as a kind of metaphor of this world, with its horror and beauty, its humanity and its cruelty.
The few dozen characters all have their own personal story, their strong personalities and special traits, some of them with special and unique talents, but also with their problems and issues, which makes their interaction even more powerful. They are partly descendants of a freed slave and are of different complexions, in the words of a visitor to the island: "There was white Negroes and coloured white people. Some of them were grey. Some of them pink, like they were raw or something. And some of them were yellow, like waxy cracked old piano keys."
Despite the poverty, the malnutrition, the bugs on the island and the lack of prospects of its inhabitants, you fill sympathy for them, and especially when the bureaucratic outside world of politics and religion starts to intervene. Harding's book has been criticised for not being truthful to what actually happened, or for using elements that come more from myths around the island than from fact. I do not think that this matters to appreciate the novel. Harding has written a beautiful, heart-rending and lyrical novel that juxtaposes different communities, both with their strengths and weaknesses, without actually judging about right and wrong. Even if the bureaucrats and the teacher are clumsy and disrespectful, their intentions - and especially at that time in history - are somewhat understandable.
It's a nice piece of literature.
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