The Pagoda

by Patricia Powell

Mr. Lowe lives the simple and happy life of a shopkeeper. A Chinese immigrant to Jamaica in the 1890s, Lowe revels in the lush beauty of his adoptive land. But the past confronts Lowe in everything he does, and so his history reveals itself---the tale of his exile from China, his shipboard adventures, an unwanted pregnancy and the arrangement that was made to avoid scandal. The arrangement places Lowe in a marriage of convenience with a mysterious widow, Miss Sylvie.

Lowe and Sylvie's relationship is complex, vivid, erotic, and full of secrets. Sylvie is a light-skinned black woman who, in the course of their three decades together, gives up three dark-skinned children for adoption. But Lowe's secret is much more startling, and remarkable..

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, School, LGBT, Literature, Read For School, College

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

Patricia Powell is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Mills College. She is the author four novels, including Me Dying Trial, A Small Gathering of Bones (Beacon Press, 2003), The Pagoda (Harcourt, 1999), and The Fullness of Everything (Peepal Tree Press, 2009).

Excerpts from her novels as well as her short stories have been widely anthologized, and she has lectured and led creative writing workshops in literary venues both nationally and internationally.

In 1993 Powell was a finalist for Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists Award. Among other prizes, she is the recipient of a PEN New England Discovery Award, The Publishing Triangle’s Ferro-Grumley Award for fiction, and The Lila-Wallace Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award. Powell’s fifth novel is forthcoming.

Reviews

[Brown Girl Reading · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating: 2,5 stars

[James F · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Pagoda is another novel about the complex racial composition of Jamaica; the main story begins in 1893, and deals with the condition of the Chinese immigrants who were imported to replace the former slaves after Emancipation. The protagonist, Mr. Lowe, has been a shopkeeper for some thirty years when his shop is burned down one night, apparently out of anti-Chinese hatred. The novel alternates between his life in the following months and his memories of earlier events, his life in China, the voyage, and his early exeriences in Jamaica. The historical background is interesting; so is the story of Mr. Lowe, although it is somewhat implausible. The novel deals with the themes of identity (racial, gender and indvidual) and disguise; everyone in the novel has secrets. One has to feel sorry for the protagonist, who is trying to free himself from other people's fantasies and become an individual, although it is impossible to really like Mr. Lowe, who has been clueless about everyone around him for decades and, even as he discovers that the people he lives with have stories and feelings of their own, continues to think only of himself, until almost the end of the novel. The book is fairly well-structured, although it spends too much time trying to gradually reveal details which are obvious from the beginning. The last few chapters are the best, but the book ends with many of the plot elements unresolved.

Unfortunately, the actual writing is awful. The book would be an English teacher's nighmare. There are whole pages -- almost whole chapters -- without a single grammatical sentence: there are sentence fragments (too long to be a stylistic device), long run-on sentences, sentences which change construction in the middle, lack of agreement between subject and verb, lack of parallelism between clauses, pronouns with no antecedents, words which do not actually mean what they should mean in context, clichéd phrases. . . I'm not talking about the occasional deliberate use of a sort of pidgin in the dialogue, but the actual narrative. The most annoying thing of all was that many sentences began with "Plus" (and this is supposed to be the speech and thought of a nineteenth century character). I had to check the back cover to verify that the book was indeed published by Harcourt and not CreateSpace, because it gave the impression of a self-published work with no copy-editing; apparently copy-editing, like careful proofreading, is now a dispensible luxury for commercial publishing houses. At many points I nearly gave up on this, usually when I came up on a "plus", but the storyline kept me reading. Three stars for the content, one star for the writing.

[Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just now, I set down this novel, and my surroundings confuse me. I'm at home, but wasn't I just in Jamaica? In the late 1800's? This book is glorious, and I felt like I was in a dream all the days I read it. When I showered, I thought about the perfumed water the characters poured and washed with before bed. I imagined what it would be like to only have a mule as transportation. Often, I stopped reading in order to google images of Jamaica in the 1890's. I want to visit. The richness of this novel reminds me of ATONEMENT. The organic nature of the novel feels like a Woody Allen film. Everyone should read this novel.

[cait · Rating 4 out of 5]

desire as currency, gendered traits as currency, social relations as social currency…………..*paper loading*

[gigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

i wrote my final paper for my black queer thought class on the complexity of racialization and gender within this novel!

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lowe Chin is a Chinese immigrant living in 1890s Jamaica. He lives amongst the hostile Jamaicans with his light-skinned wife and a large secret. A secret he’s been agonizing over telling his daughter about. He wishes to tell her of his life: in China, why he had to flee, what happened on his passage across the sea, an unexpected pregnancy, a secret identity, and his sham marriage to an octoroon. The story begins with the burning of a bad, old life and the rebuilding of a better, new one.

Plot

The plot, once I knew what the book was going to be about (spoilers and all), is what initially drew me in. The diversity in the book helped with that, though. The overall plot is about a Chinese man living in Jamaica who has a dream to start up a school for Chinese immigrants to continue to learn and teach about their culture. Along the way he is forced to look at himself and his life. This is more of a slice-of-life/contemporary book than anything. The plot isn’t particularly strong as it deals with the characters more. The driving force in the book are the people in the books, not the plot itself.

Writing

The writing was a little too wordy for my tastes. It was easy to understand and made for beautiful lines and great descriptions, don’t get me wrong, but it was just too much for me. I’m the type of reader that appreciates a well described setting or character but it’s where “too much of a good thing” comes in. When things are over described all the time it takes away from things that need to be written like that. The Pagoda is like this right off the bat and it might be a little overwhelming for some readers.

Characters

Lowe Chin* was one of the most real and complex characters that I have ever had the fortune of knowing. He’s this character who was much closed off and mostly in his head in the beginning. And as the story rolled on and things happened to him, he became more and more unraveled and more open. Lowe had strengths and very great weaknesses that weren’t overcome at the drop of a hat. A lot of his problems were mental and he had to spend time mentally working through them.

On the other side of the coin, Lowe was a frustrating character. He was very hypocritical at times and never acknowledged it. He could also be quite selfish and nothing was done about that either. Much like my overall feelings of the book, I was torn in two directions about my feelings towards Lowe as a character. I think he’s a good character who developed nicely but I wish the text would have acknowledged his flaws more.

All of the other characters were just there to either push Lowe into doing something or creating challenge and discord in his life. They were more props than anything else.

Things I Liked

I particularly liked how The Pagoda and Powell didn’t shy away from the dynamics of colorism amongst black people. The light-skinned, white passing woman knew that she was better received than the darker-skinned Jamaicans and she used this knowledge to her advantage. As the book was following the life of the Chinese immigrant, not much is actually seen about this, but it is noted and talked about more than once.

I very much appreciate what the story was trying to show. I don’t think it was done all that well or dug deep as it could have, but I think it was a great idea nonetheless.

Things I Didn't Like

The gender things going on in this book weren’t as explored as I had wished it would be. I was geared up for a book that dug deep into how gender relations were in turn of the century Jamaica. There was actually very little of that. I can think of a small, few instances where something gender related is questioned, but it’s usually not for long and not very deep.

Diversity

The only white people in the book is a man named Cecil who is terrible and is dead by the first time the author meets him. The rest of the people in the book are either Chinese, black, or Indian. There is a character that may be labeled transgender by today’s terminology, but it’s never explicitly stated or even really hinted at (and they’re more of a crossdresser, really). There is one disabled character, Dulcie, who has a bad leg and drags it behind her. She’s more of a background character and isn’t too involved with the events of the book. The diversity in The Pagoda is much better than your average book, but it could also be better.

Overall

I’m torn on my thoughts with regards to this book. On one hand I liked it so much that I finished it within the span of twenty-four hours. It has a great premise that sounded very promising. On the other hand, it wasn’t handled as well as I wished it could have been. In the hands of someone who has a better grasp on gender politics, The Pagoda could have really been a noticeable book. Ignoring how the gender stuff was handled, there are other themes within the book that make it worthwhile. I’m happy the book was in a majority non-white setting, but racial dynamics could have also been explored a little more. I enjoyed the book but it could have been better.

*I am using Lowe’s male name as to not spoil anything and he/him pronouns because even at the end of the book, though he signs his letter with his actual name, he still uses the same pronouns throughout the entire story, including the very end.

Here is a link to my notes.

[Emma Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favorite book I read in college, and while I couldn't get into it quite as much a second time, it's still a wonderful story about the complicated intimacies between people.

[kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have liked this. I know a lot of people who do. And in terms of story/content, it's an important book, complexly addressing race and gender in Jamaica at the turn of the century.

My complaints are purely aesthetic -- what I couldn't get past was the writing. So in other words, my issues with the novel are about as subjective as they could get. But for what it's worth, Powell's prose is just too heavy on the description for me, to the point that I sometimes felt like I was in adjective hell. And there's a lot of alliteration, which I'm never really into, particularly in prose. Sentences like: "He looked out into the lamplit silence, willing his racing heart to quieten, willing his shaking and wet hands to be still, the roar in his head to cease. A trembling hand reached up to tug at the puffy brush of mustache, to push a way hair that had fallen on his forehead, now damp and warm." Just…too much, and it doesn't let up -- a bit suffocating to read.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patricia Powell's novel was unlike anything I've ever read before - in the greatest sense. to others it may be more difficult to get through because there is no one definitive conflict driving the novel. It's this almost mystical mix of identity and gender and cultural confusion. The underlying tension pulses throughout the novel, forcing you to keep on reading. It's a modern novel set during the turn of the nineteenth century dealing with very modern issues. definitely recommend for anyone looking for something different to read. Highly recommend some basic research into Jamaican culture and history to better understand the story.

[Elodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in love with this book, I honestly don't know how to review it without spoiling it.It was amazing! Read it if you are interrested in Caribbean literature and history,the themes of homosexuality and gender.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

what is happening?!? i’m sorry that i’m not intellectually big brained enough to know everything all at once cause that’s what this book requires, maybe then i would’ve found it enjoyable as well as compelling. cause it was definitely compelling.

[✧Clarissa✧ · Rating 3 out of 5]

★ ★ ★ 2.5 stars

I had to read this for my Caribbean Literature class. When the cover said this is ‘’A rich and exotic novel of love, longing, and hidden identity,’’ nothing could have prepared me for what was actually to come. This story is pretty complex and darker than I thought it would be. That being said, I wasn’t 100% sure how to rate this. The writing and pace was not my favorite at first, but as the plot progressed, I began disliking it less and my curiosity grew. I’ll settle on 2.5/5 for now.

‘’How you tell a truth as that? How?’’ ‘’From the edges, sir.’’
The story is a mixture of cultures, Chinese immigration/indentured servitude to the Caribbean (Jamaica in this instance), identity, family, LGBT+ themes, memories, lies, deception, and more. It starts off in the late 1890s with Lowe, a Chinese immigrant trying to survive one day at a time, as he has in China and the 30+ more years living in Jamaica. He’s a shopkeeper and lives with his wife Miss Sylvie, her maid Dulcie, and Dulcie’s son Omar. Lowe also has a daughter named Elizabeth, already grown with a family of her own. Being here for several decades, he knows a few other of the island inhabitants, although most of the locals hate him. This novel follows Lowe’s story, decisions, and everything he learns uncovering lies. Even in a small village, anyone in this world can be anyone and have a skeleton or two in their closet.

[Suzanna (TheMillennialJAReads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Pagoda started off too slow for me, but with some determination half-way into it the story began to flow and pick up interest. This novel explores Jamaica in the post-emancipation era which led me to research what indentured servitude looked like for "recruited" Chinese/Indians. It also explores race, gender and sexuality- which today remains a complicated topic in Jamaica.

Lowe can be very perplexing and at times I pitied him and at other times I could not stand his vileness! I think what made this story hard for most people to read is the fact that we literally live in Lowe's mind pretty much the whole story. He's a man of few words so as you can imagine there wasn't much dialogue between him and others characters unless it was absolutely necessary. Silence, trauma, secrets and betrayal are huge threads in The Pagoda.

Lowe has a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome with Cecil, the white man who sexually abused, impregnated him and determined the life he now lives.

Silence and not questioning things causes a lot of problems for Lowe- making him all the more perplexing. At moments I questioned: his desire to be a woman, his privilege and how he chose to use it, his obliviousness and willful ignorance and his internalized sexism which all are connected to his trauma.

His silence and prejudiced thoughts led me to not like Lowe. He held more power than the black people on the island but he secretly saw them as enemies, he took sides, stereotyping, shortchanging them and keeping them at a distance all while smiling with them. Sometimes that's worse than a villain. But the divide and conquer, Willie Lynching was at work.

In a scene with Cecil and in the end you can feel Lowe's desire for normalcy, to no longer wear a mask. Overall, this is an intriguing story of survival and being historical fiction is a plus.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the way in which the author Patricia Powell used descriptive language in the writing of this story. The fascinating subject of a Chinese emigrant to Jamaica avoids the surfeit of violence in some recent Jamaican literature. This tale begins near the turn of the twentieth century. A girl escapes her fate as the settlement of her family's debt, marriage to the disabled, aged man who made the loan. Only carrying from home the memories of her father's stories and yearnings about travel, she draws upon his fantasies, escaping the man's house and stowing away on a ship holding a cargo of indentured and bound humans.

The consequent sea voyage with Cecil, the captain, puts her in a second situation in which she lacks agency to follow her dreams and be herself. While he arranges to protect Lowe (real name Lau A-Yin) on the ship and in Jamaica, her pasted mustache and her disguise as a male shopkeeper with a wife sap her of emotional responsiveness to other characters.

After Lowe suffers the loss of Cecil, the shop, and Miss Sylvie, a period of healing can begin, eventuating in a more authentic character, who finds interest in other characters' lives, reciprocates love, ends injustice, and transmits memories of Chinese culture to the next generations.

[Nya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm.

On one hand, the book has a lot of compelling elements and the fluidity/complexity of the way the author presents race, sexuality and gender is really interesting, as is the general plot. I really like the unreliable narrator as well.

but the writing can be too much sometimes. and the writing style has an overload of alliteration and odd metaphors. here are some examples:

- "Through the thin walls, he heard water dripping and dribbling on the wood floor of the buttery next door. When the rains ended, the earth's steam rose and he lay parched and sweltering in her swooping bed"
- "Several days later, Jake returned, with the squatting sun glistening on his gaudy face and on the black hole that was his mouth"
- context: sex scene "His fists had become her flowering hibiscus, his elbows her marigolds..."

it made it hard to read/visualize.

I can really appreciate the history research that the author put into this. There is also a lot of thought put into the characters and how the story develops.

Overall, I think it's an interesting book to discuss in a class setting, but it's probably not a book that I could get through without set deadlines.

[Chris Merola]

There's a lot I want to grasp onto with this story, but it feels so wispy and rushed. The whole thing reads a bit corkscrew oblong, the structure so twisty, the pacing oddly rushed in some places and meandering in others, the tone somehow both melodramatic and slight, the exposition and backstory occasionally ham-fisted.

I'll be real and say my brain has been toast over the last few weeks so it's possible there's a lot here I'm not currently attuned to. At the very least this book is a W because it turned me on to the niche subject of Chinese immigrants in Jamaica.

I also really loved its treatment of the protagonist's gender and the way this evolves (devolves?) over the course of the novel. It's a very odd thing to consider, a non-medical transition forced by one's circumstances, a transition that nonetheless becomes second nature and comfortable to the person. This book is (in a rather clunky way) stuffed to the brim with hidden identities and skeletons in the closet, but Lowe's gender consistently felt well-explored, pertinent, and grounded.

[Tania Montano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es un acto de liberación. Vamos viendo cómo su protagonista poco a poco va soltando lo que tiene guardado, se ve obligad@ a enfrentar a sus miedos y pierde lo que usaba para refugiarse y esconderse.

Con un trasfondo histórico, político, económico y social, donde se entrecruzan telas como el desarraigo, el abuso, la violencia, la xenofobia y la desconfianza.
Me encanta la edición que leí porque tiene un prólogo bastante robusto que te ayuda a ubicarte históricamente en la novela y a comprender lo que quiere transmitir la autora.

Y qué decir de la edición, preciosa, con tanto simbolismo, todos los detalles bien cuidados, las páginas, el margen, los números, la indicación del capítulo, la tipografía, todo. (Obviamente leí la edición de Lasirén Editora, no la que aparece adjunta a esta reseña, perdón). Además, fue un regalo de parte de una gran maestra ❤️

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb prose, full of symbols and gorgeous wording. Excellent characters, always unraveling their secrets and never fully done figuring out “who they are”/ their “essence” or “true identity.” Because it doesn’t exist! To me, this is the opposite of a Bildungsroman, it is a novel of un-becoming, of losing all markers of identity (gender, sexuality, property ownership, clothing, familial lineage, etc). The relationships are ever-shifting and fluid. Wonder, though, if the “gender reveal” and “race reveal” twist(s) of this book have aged well. Helpful to think of this book in the context of Lisa Lowe’s argument about historical “intimacies” between Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, not as sameness of histories, but as important convergences and connections between them.

[Teresa Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid 3.5 stars ONLY BECAUSE the writing was hard to get into and I was seriously considering just dropping the book (2.5 for the writing), but after getting past the first few chapters, and upon finishing the book, I was completely blown away at the art that Patricia Powell had crafted. The plot & the ways in which Powell had woven in race relations, classism, and gender performativity so perfectly into Mr. Lowe's character truly blew my mind (4.5 for the plot).

[Mariko Kuga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a slow burn, but a chilling recount of what it means to be pushed out of your home and simultaneously pulling yourself out to a new place, as a new person. It’s complex in race, gender, sexuality, home country, and what family really means. It’s hard to not give too much away, but I loved this book. It’s for a particular reader, so I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. But if you’re interested in Asian-Caribbean lit, I’d for sure encourage you to pick it up.

[Rojda · Rating 3 out of 5]

why was the first half of this book so good, only for the second half to spiral into a string of soap-opera-style revelations, where every line seems designed to make us gasp in shock? but honestly, that letter to the daughter at the end… broke my heart.

[Karen Hogan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read first 50 pages, but was not compelled to read on. A Chinese shop owner who lives in Jamaica, reminisces about his life.

[Melissa Minott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The descriptions were too long. There could have been more background information about the protagonist.

[Thegodofweirdness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orbiting Jupiter but there's racism and transphobia too .

[Sam Villanueva · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars
Beautiful writing, perfect pacing, a tragic novel with a strangely hopeful ending

[William Crosby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much too descriptive. Plus, some paragraphs are just lists.

No fast plot. Too much reminiscing. Much of this book is about perceptions, deception, expectations, dreams, and uncertainty.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

School book. Actually pretty interesting once I got into it.

[Maisie Saganic · Rating 5 out of 5]

really interesting, a unique exploration of race and gender in postcolonial Jamaica

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy a decadent sentence? This novel is for you. If you want to understand how hard it is to decolonize your mind? This is for you. The plantocracy does not make for a worthy family. Family is what we choose. Our identity is the one we choose, not the one chosen for us! Excellent book.

[Grace McKenney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read! A little heavy at some times, especially when discussing Mr. Lowe and Miss Sylvie's pasts. Overall a good read. Would recommend if you're into Caribbean or LGBTQ+ literature.