The Bastards

by Bertène Juminer, Keith Q. Warner (Translator)

This is a novel of education: social, political, radical, and medical. The protagonist is collective, a group of medical students from French Guiana at the University of Montpellier, France, who learn what separates them as Caribbean people from their French and African counterparts.

Juminer characterizes the three principal types of men drawn together in the stuggle for emancipation: "those who sooner or later will opt for violence; those who, by their sterling example, prefer to work patiently in the socioprofessional arena, in order to instill a certain moral and civic sense in their countrymen; and finally, those who wear their bourgeois legacy like a curse and will be ready to try anything, including terrorism, to prove that they are not enemies of the people."

Genres: The Americas

239 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 1989

Reviews

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Free on the internet archive library | Such awful people | I really disliked this, my selection for French Guiana for the Read Around the World Challenge. Only the men have interior lives, and they are all self-important arrogant jerks who don't seem to have any grasp of reality. There's an awful introduction that's 1/6th of the book, written by a scholar who not only tells the reader absolutely everything that's about to happen in the book and what to think about it, but also actively insults the writing quality and the author's ability. Such a waste of my time, I am so grateful I was able to read it for free.

[Vyviane Armstrong]

The novel itself is not so great. It's hard to follow, the translation does it no favors and all the women in it are very flat, kind of like the literary equivalent of "Female flavored LaCroix". It manages to be both too vague and in your face, some times on the same page.

However the intro and extra context and author interviews included in the beginning of the book are fantastic. It really lies out the history of French Guiana, the nuances of colonialism in day to day life, who the author is, what he set out to write and why it falls short. The intro also lies out why you should give this book a go anyway, even if it's a skin thru.

[b bb bbbb bbbbbbbb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disliked: There is miscellaneous wierdness that could have been done without.. etter than I expected. Clever, funny, good banter and dialog, interesting explorations of colonialism, privilege and personal conflict within those structures. I've got my disagreements, but generally it is insightful and thought provoking.