Yellow Watch: Journey of a Portuguese Woman

by Carmelinda Scian

This gripping collection takes us into the lives of Portuguese immigrants as they arrive in Toronto. Beginning in tiny Amendoeiro across the Tagus from Lisbon, it describes lives of abject poverty under the fascist thumb of Antonio Salazar. The men are often out of work from the local cork factory, and the women collect scraps to eat, while the dreaded secret police remain ever watchful for hints of unrest. Men disappear. It is a life of abuse, cruelty, and superstition, observed by the girl Milita, who calmly takes her beatings from her mother but misses nothing. These Portuguese stories are easily reminiscent of early Saramago.

237 pages, Paperback

Published September 7, 2022

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carmelinda Scian’s collection of linked stories, Yellow Watch, chronicles the life of Milita Ferreira from childhood to middle age. The first half of the book transports the reader to mid-20th-century Portugal, when the country’s citizens lived under the thumb of the brutal, totalitarian regime of António Salazar. Seeking a life not dependent on the vagaries of soil conditions and a capricious climate, the family, led by Milita’s grandfather, has abandoned their farm and moved from the drought-stricken Algarve to Amendoeiro, a small village located across the Tagus River from Lisbon where the primary employer is a cork factory. Young Milita narrates, observing the often confusing, sometimes irresponsible, often cruel behaviour of the adults around her with a clear eye. This is a time of strict adherence to the Catholic faith, but also one rife with superstition, a contradiction that Milita witnesses in her own family (her mother rejects organized religion, her grandmother believes in spells, witchcraft, the evil eye, etc.). It is also a politically dangerous time, with government informers and Salazar’s secret police everywhere. When the men at the cork factory go on strike, some of the strike organizers are arrested and never seen again. Alcoholism and poverty are prevalent. Milita grows up in a patriarchal society where women are subservient to men, with a mother whose behaviour over the years grows increasingly unhinged. The mother-daughter relationship—already strained—approaches a breaking point when her mother decides Milita is going to marry Eduardo, a young man that Milita, who is only 15, finds repulsive. It is at this stage in Milita’s life that the family emigrates to Canada, where her father finds work in construction. Milita hopes the distance means she’s escaped Eduardo, but about a year after they settle in Toronto, he arrives and moves in with the family. Facing threats of physical harm from her mother, Milita gives in and, still a child at 16, marries Eduardo but refuses to be intimate with him. The remaining stories cover Milita’s adult years, her estrangement from her family, and her stormy but ultimately happy marriage to Claudio, whom she does love. The volume reads like a loosely constructed novel, each chapter self-contained. But despite its episodic structure, Scian’s narrative generates considerable tension as Milita’s family forces her into a corner, increasing the pressure on her until she has no choice but to get away from them just to survive. Milita’s successful escape is also a sacrifice, coming at the cost of the family she loves but which she believes will destroy her if she lets them. Throughout the book, Carmelinda Scian’s prose is richly detailed and lyrical, making the sudden eruptions of raw violence all the more harrowing. In the end, Yellow Watch tells a viscerally wrenching tale, sharply observed and tinged with regret, that leaves a deep impression on the reader.

[Devin Meireles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a great read! I had the privilege to meet the author, Carmelinda Scian, when she presented her story at an @fpcbp networking event. It was there that she alluded to some of the life events that influenced her novel.

When I delved into the book, it was gripping and raw. It had my attention from beginning to end. The journey of a Portuguese woman is filled with much familial obligations yet what she hopes for herself can be overlooked to meet what is expected of her. Old Portugal was certainly a different time but embarking towards a new life in Canada can benefit the future of the woman and her descendants for generations to come. It begs the question whether we truly know those closest to us or further to that, how well do we know ourselves?

I highly recommend this book!

[Irene Marques · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visceral, rich and gut-wrenching imagery describing Portugal (mostly) during the era of Salazar. Narrated by Milita, the book addresses religion (Portuguese Catholicism), familial dynamics, trauma, political dictatorship, patriarchy, shame, guilt, apathy, sharp class distinctions, emigration to Canada, the Portuguese colonial wars in Africa and much more. Illegal abortions, performed under horrible conditions and causing excruciating suffering and the death of many women, are a central theme in the book. These scenes are described in a haunting language that makes your skin crawl. One wants to scream loudly against an ultra-religious society where women become the scapegoats, punished daily in multiple ways by a "godly-patriarchal ethos" that gives very little thought to their well-being.

[Gilian · Rating 3 out of 5]

not the most uplifting read. alot of cruelty..kept hoping that each story things would get better!! good writer however

[Humberto da Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carmelinda Scian's 'Yellow Watch' is a collection of linked short stories depicting life in Portugal under the Salazar regime, and life in Canada as an immigrant. The stories are beautifully depictions of the difficulties and travails faced primarily by the women enduring the stifling social conventions of of Portugal before the 1974 Revolution. There are haunting and tragic characters in these stories that haunt you long after the book is read; an old woman slowly disappearing into her alcoholism, a young gypsy girl condemned by her birth to a tragic existence, an escape from a marriage arranged by a mother with an unnatural interest in her son in law...

Carmelinda Scian's writing is precise and descriptive, evoking a time in Portugal where the lives of the people were stifled first by poverty and fascism, then by the alienating experience of emigration.

A great read!