The Heart Does Not Bend

by Makeda Silvera

Family loyalty, betrayal and the redemptive power of love are at the heart of this poignant and unforgettable novel set in Canada and Jamaica.

When Maria Galloway dies, she leaves everything to her spoiled, wayward grandson, Vittorio. Her only granddaughter, Molly, whom she raised from infancy, is left to confront the unyielding bitterness Maria harboured against her. As Molly begins to trace the complex interrelationships in her loving but divided family, she recalls her idyllic childhood, spent in her grandmother’s sky-blue house in Jamaica. There, surrounded by a jungle of coconut, mango and avocado trees and enveloped in the smells of mouth-watering sweet cakes and spicy Jamaican foods, she received her grandmother’s pure and simple generosity, and the return of unconditional love.

But as Molly enters adolescence, she grows increasingly aware of her grandmother’s vulnerabilities and disappointments, her human frailties. When Maria decides that things might get better if she leaves Jamaica and joins her adult children in Canada, she takes Molly with her. But it isn’t long before she, a woman who has always lived on her own terms and has never been afraid to speak her mind, clashes with her children. Even Molly falls into disfavour when Maria discovers that she is romantically involved with a woman.

From generational saga to tender love story, The Heart Does Not Bend is a vivid and heartfelt portrayal of an indomitable matriarch and the women who must free themselves from her.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Canada, Lesbian, Literary Fiction, Novels

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2002

About the author

Makeda Silvera was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and spent her early years there before immigrating to Canada in 1967. Now living in Toronto, she is co-founder of Sister Vision: Black Women and Women of Colour Press, where she is the managing editor. Her previous publications include Silenced, an acclaimed collection of oral histories of Caribbean domestic workers in Canada; Growing Up Black, a resource guide for youth, and Remembering G And Other Stories, her first book of fiction. She is also the editor of Piece of My Heart, a ground-breaking anthology of writings by lesbians of colour.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful generational novel that follows Molly and her family, as she grows up with her grandmother in Jamaica, they move to Canada and live with her mother, and then as she has a child and grandchild herself. The novel explores family dynamics, the responsibility we feel and take on for families, and what that means for how we live our lives. It also explores the immigrant experience in Canada and post-colonial life in Jamaica.

Through a side character and Molly herself, we also see the ways in which religion and prejudice affect the lives of those who embrace queer sexuality. We see the different ways that individuals choose to reconcile family responsibilities and prejudices with their authentic selves and loves.

Really great novel.

[Jorgen Harink · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book for its vivid descriptions. I felt transported to Jamaica. I could almost feel the warmth, smell the air, and taste the food. I also enjoyed the nuanced exploration of family, love, pain, and duty. As a reader, I felt like I went through the journey of Molly in both loving and admiring Maria to also resenting her, yet somehow having compassion despite Maria’s bitterness. All that said, I didn’t give the book a 5 because the ending felt somehow incomplete. I wasn’t sure what the main message was, and I wanted to know how the rest of Maria’s life turns out. That might just be my own personal preference for endings nicely wrapped in a bow and less a reflection of a shortcoming of the book.

[Cynthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh, I expected so much more. Not one of the characters is a good person, everyone is either selfish and/or a coward, with a generous heap of misogyny. The main character is extremely passive, and her grandmother ruins all her children's lives (including their own children's and children's children's), but everyone passively lets her do so because she affectionately brought them up (which is not shown enough to counterbalance the misery upon frustration upon hatefulness of the story) or something? And then the writing is more long stretches of telling us what happened with a few conversations in-between than a real sweeping generational narrative.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the characters.

[l · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very good novel but the lack of resolution re our protagonist and her mom, our protagonist and her daughter (what is the daughter about? also it's implied that vittorio is the father of her child but is he?), our protagonist and her sexuality (is she going to go find another woman now that her relationship has ended), and even her relationship with her grandmother (it'd be interesting if she had discussed her grandmothers lesbophobia with her gay uncle but that doesn't happen) does bother me a bit.

[Naori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a powerful, captivating novel that examined the intersections between original and created families, social inequality, post-colonial island culture and the racial history of the Caribbean. Silvera explores the complicated politics surrounding both adolescent and aging adult sexuality, uncovering the multiple social responses to sexualized bodies, young and old. Mama, the matriarch of the family, symbolizes the racialized experiences of immigrants in the Canadian context, as well as the hierarchical dynamics of race and class in post-colonial Jamaica. A very moving commentary on the ardency of living and of dying...

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really drew me in. The character development was very good. As the cover says, the story portrays the relationships between mothers and daughters for several generations. It seems that the issues of race and sexuality took a definite backseat to the portrayal of mother-daughter relations. The book did feel a bit incomplete and certainly didn't have the feel-good ending(/beginning?).

[Ramona · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, filled with lots of Jamaican patois and references to Jamaican locales, food, and sayings, as well as references to locales in Toronto. It was interesting and simply written. The story is about the relationships between grandmothers, mothers and daughters, and their "wutliss" [worthless:] men, which are fraught with both friction and undying love. Well worth the read!