Land of Many Colors and Nanna-ya

by Maryse Condé, Nicole Ball (Translator), Leyla Ezdinli (Introduction)

Land of Many Colors is set in the fictional city of Fort Pilote in the French Caribbean. It opens with the deaths of a young liberation activist and his mother in 1984. The narrator, a doctor who handles both of these cases, attempts to reconstruct the history of the family through four generations. The doctor’s account illuminates the political and social complexities of race and class distinctions, the legacy of French colonialism that has spawned the movement for independence.

 

Set in Jamaica, Nanna-ya explores the relationships that develop between George, a well-to-do store-owner, his wife, Grace, and his lover, Joyce. Their intertwined histories touch on a variety of racial and gender themes, which are handled with uncommon insight and subtlety. Like Land of Many Colors , Nanna-ya explores the difficulty of reconstructing historical narratives and recovering the experiences of people of color in the Caribbean.

Genres: Fiction

113 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Maryse Condé was a Guadeloupean, French language author of historical fiction, best known for her novel Segu. Maryse Condé was born as Maryse Boucolon at Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, the youngest of eight children. In 1953, her parents sent her to study at Lycée Fénelon and Sorbonne in Paris, where she majored in English. In 1959, she married Mamadou Condé, an Guinean actor. After graduating, she taught in Guinea, Ghana, and Senegal. In 1981, she divorced, but the following year married Richard Philcox, English language translator of most of her novels.

Condé's novels explore racial, gender, and cultural issues in a variety of historical eras and locales, including the Salem witch trials in I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem and the 19th century Bambara Empire of Mali in Segu.

In addition to her writings, Condé had a distinguished academic career. In 2004 she retired from Columbia University as Professor Emeritus of French. She had previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, the Sorbonne, The University of Virginia, and the University of Nanterre.

In March 2007, Condé was the keynote speaker at Franklin College Switzerland's Caribbean Unbound III conference, in Lugano, Switzerland.

Reviews

[mez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mon père me l'a offert il y a longtemps. On l'a acheté au pays, en Gwadloup. C'est vraiment rafraîchissant de se retrouver, de retrouver des lieux de mon enfance. Peut-être la raison pour laquelle je n'ai pas aimé quelques nouvelles fut la façon dont ce livre est aussi un miroir de tous ce que je n'aime pas de ma petite île.

[Ceallaigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When, from a rocky peak overlooking the beach, Berthe saw the sea, the palm trees, the white sand, the delicate shape of a small island in the distance, she was convinced that in allotting her such a birthplace God had bestowed an immense privilege upon her.”

TITLE—Land of Many Colors & Nanna-Ya
AUTHOR—Maryse Condé
PUBLISHED—1985

GENRE—literary fiction
SETTING—fictionalized Caribbean nations/villages & Jamaica
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—Caribbean history, society, politics, culture, & identity; African diaspora; Caribbean folk tales & traditions; love, heterosexual relationships & traditional gender roles; racial identity & family dynamics

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️—though they were intentionally depicted somewhat as archetypes for various instances of Caribbean historical and social identities, I thought they all still felt very much like “real” individudals
PLOT—n/a
BONUS ELEMENT/S—If you’re reading the book in English, do not skip Leyla Ezdinli’s introduction to the 1997 English edition (trans. Nicole Ball) that *very* eloquently explains the thematic depth of these novellas.
PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“That may well be the only real hereditary! The imagination!”

I had wanted to read more of Condé’s writing after reading and loving I, Tituba last year and since these novellas were mentioned in the Afterword of the 2009 English trans. edition I thought I’d look them up! I saved the Introduction to read after I read the stories as I usually do and after reading Ezdinli’s analysis of the novellas I feel a bit tongue-tied because I really can’t put it any better than they did. 😅

I will say that I really loved how much these stories did read somewhat like fairy tales while still revealing the nature of a very real world and its history and complex individuals. There were even some lovely references to fairy tales I recognized, and undoubtedly more I didn’t, such as shops with the names of “The Silver Thimble” or “The Glass Slipper”, “evil” stepmother characters, as well as references to “Rapunzel” and “The Fairy’s Mistake” (also known as “Diamonds and Toads”).

Condé’s gorgeous writing style, highly relatable characters, sociopolitical commentaries, and incredible insight into the human condition has definitely inspired me to continue reading more of her work in the future! I’d actually love to be able to read her work in the original French so… might need to brush up on that significantly… 😁

“What can I tell you? He was a kid like any other…”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

TW // brief mentions: rape, assault, infidelity

Further Reading—
- What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, by Helen Oyeyemi
- I, Tituba, by Maryse Condé
- Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two novellas told simply, in the best tradition of what Grace Paley called in one of her stories "to save a few lives". They are stories told of the complex societies of two islands in the Caribbean that suffered a history with slavery, colonialism, and post-colonial upheaval. Each character is a richly painted portrait told in an easy to read, conversational way. I would love to find any of her writing in the original.

[Cobygirl517 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Katja · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Fish Food · Rating 5 out of 5]

does a great job of handling issues of colonialism and imperialism in the caribbean the characters felt so nuanced and had a lot of depth.

[Tricia Toney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of short stories about how race, colour and colonialism affect Guadeloupian society. This is worth a read .

[Tyler Mendelsohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading this, I had read a lot of books in a row that had non-traditional plots, and I hadn’t realized until reading this how much I missed being told a good story. There are a lot in this book; I mean, technically, there are two, but both ‘Land of Many Colors’ and “Nanna-Ya’ contain layers of stories. Every character has a detailed backstory that can’t be told without other characters’ backstories, and those character’s stories can’t be told without other characters’ backstories, all layering on one another. I admired how well this was executed.

It’s not just storytelling, though-both stories talk about race, class and gender in nuanced ways that feel natural. I thought it was really compelling all around.