Property

Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: This is a beautifully written book; it is spare and elegant. I won't relate the story, as others here have already done so, but I will tell you that this book has stayed with me since I finished it. It is haunting and compelling.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing story of a property owner in antebellum Louisiana
Review: This is an interesting story of two antebellum women (one white, one black) in Louisiana, both of whom are "property". The main character in this story (told from her point of view), Manon Gaudet, is a young, white, married woman living on a sugar plantation in Louisiana in 1828. I think that the author does an excellent job illustrating how desensitized white property owners (of human chattel, that is) had to have been in order to justify the existence of slavery to themselves. Manon is NOT a likeable, nor even a sympathetic character. She hates her own status as "chattel", yet she never seems to make the connection that she is no different from the slave Sarah, nor any other slave on her husband's plantation, nor does she ever understand the slaves' desire to be free despite her own yearnings of freedom from the slavery of her marriage. (Women were "chattel", i.e., the property of their husbands, and had absolutely no rights of their own once they married. The money or property that a woman brought to the marriage in the form of a dowry became her husband's upon their marriage. If he gambled or drank it away, or spent it all on a mistress or prostitutes she had no legal recourse because a wife was not considered a person in the eyes of the law. She could not sue to get it back, nor could she even protect it from creditors if her husband was in debt. There was no way for her to try to change the system because women were not only not educated in the same way that men were educated, but were prohibited from the professions such as doctor or lawyer, and, even more importantly, they could not vote! Married women were not even permitted to own property until the mid-19th century, and even then, once this law was passed, subsequent legislation was passed which chipped away at this basic principle.) The status (or lack thereof) of women (married women in particular) is a secondary theme running throughout the book, and just when the readers begin to feel a bit of sympathy for Manon, the author shifts to show readers how devoid of feelings Manon truly is. She actually thinks that the white plantation owners have done a huge favor for the blacks by making them slaves! She shows again and again that she considers them inferior beings in every way (much the way men consider women inferior beings), and then wonders why slaves show resentment when their own families are torn apart by masters who sell off children, "spouses", or parents. The way she and her aunt or even her husband discuss how much another human being will bring at market is appalling. Readers could substitute "chair" or "painting" or even a "tract of land" for the slave--there was no sense that they ever understood that it was a human being they were discussing! The human being is reduced to an item, which loses value depending upon age, gender, etc. Her view of slaves and her failure to see them as other than something which exists only to meet her every need is chilling.
Her husband was no better, sexually abusing the young male slaves, getting Sarah pregnant twice, and ignoring his own children.
Sarah had the fewest choices of all, and her attempt to run away failed, but not before she not only experienced freedom, dignity, and respect in the North but also learned what it was like to be a white man in the world, something that Manon and other females in her family will never experience. Even though Manon understands that these experiences have transformed Sarah, she still wonders about the madness of Northerners who are beginning to agitate about the evils of slavery, and questions why they would treat a black person with respect and dignity. None of her experiences have taught her this most important lesson.

Rating:
Summary: Unbeatable Read!
Review: This novel is so compelling, its first-person narration so rich, its examination of slavery so original that I devoured this book in one sitting. Miss Martin has captured the time, the place and the events of her story with incredible subtely and specificity and, best of all, a marvelous sense of ambiguity. One of the finest books I've read in the last several years.

Rating:
Summary: Unbeatable Read!
Review: This novel is so compelling, its first-person narration so rich, its examination of slavery so original that I devoured this book in one sitting. Miss Martin has captured the time, the place and the events of her story with incredible subtely and specificity and, best of all, a marvelous sense of ambiguity. One of the finest books I've read in the last several years.

Rating:
Summary: An Engaging View
Review: This novel surprised me. I was used to reading books about plantation owners and slavery from a sympathetic point of view. This novel is written from the view of the plantation owner's wife, who has always owned slaves and feels no sympathy toward them. It's an engaging story, although the book is ended on a sudden note.

Rating:
Summary: Unusual and Extraordinary!
Review: Unusual and extraordinary - these are the first 2 words that come to my mind when trying to describe this book. I've never read anything like it (...and to think, I read it only 2 sittings!)!

This was a fictional slave narrative in the most unusual sense ... from the point of view of a remorseless female slave owner. It examines the psyche of the oppressor, making one even more sympathetic toward the oppressed! Valerie Martin skillfully created a fascinating portrait of an insolent and self-centered young woman and, in doing so, delved into that "peculiar institution" that denied freedom to whole race of people and was tolerated for so long in this country! VERY POWERFUL! I would definitely consider reading more of Ms. Martin's work.

Rating:
Summary: Spare, restrained but no less powerful : a literary triumph
Review: Valerie Martin's Orange Prize winning novel "Property" opens with an unforgettable scene which hints at sexual perversion straight from Tennessee Williams territory. But Martin is a mistress of restraint, economy and understatement. She shows how in her hands, less is more. Eschewing sensationalism, she serves up some of the most spare yet articulately written prose I have read in recent years, recalling a style that has become unfashionably rare among contemporary fiction writers.

"Property" aptly describes the relationship that existed between white plantation owners and their black slaves during the 1800s in the deep south of America. Less obviously, it also characterises the relationship between men and women, whose legal status in society relegates them to the position of chattel. Should it therefore surprise readers that we have a cold, unfeeling and utterly self-absorbed heroine in Manon, a hapless young woman trapped in an arranged and loveless marriage to a boor, a philanderer, and a pervert ? Can we expect chattel to behave humanly towards other chattel, when its own humanity has been denied rightful expression ? Note how Sarah, Manon's slave and her husband's kept woman, remains almost silent throughout. The few words spoken between mistress and slave never defined their owner-chattel relationship more eloquently. The thinly disguised contempt Sarah feels for her mistress to whom she was "gifted", mirrors the cruelty - born of frustration and sexual jealousy - of Manon, who relentlessly pursues her property rights when Sarah escapes only to realise she has gained a hollow victory. The novel achieves its dramatic climax in a scene which has Manon eating her heart out upon discovery that Sarah, her property, has at least experienced albeit briefly the trappings of being a white man, when she herself will forever be condemned as his property in her own polite society. The irony of this observation cannot escape any perceptive reader.

Martin's "Property" is a huge triumph of literary substance over form. It is understated but no less powerful than the emotions its subject evokes. A major achievement and highly, highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Misery Loves Company
Review: Valerie Martin's Property is a uniquely woven story told from the bitter, ill-tempered slave mistress's perspective. It is set in 1820's Louisiana where Manon Gaudet is wooed and married at an early age to an older gentleman who seems to be smitten with her beauty. Slavery is commonplace and the laws of the day transfers the woman's property into her husband's estate upon marriage; so although Manon seems to have good business sense, she cannot act to protect her assets and sits idly by as her husband squanders their (her) assets. It frustrates her even more that her husband has had relations with her "property," Sarah, a wedding gift to Manon from her aunt, resulting in the birth of two children. Sarah has borne a deaf son that bears a cloned resemblance to Manon's husband (including his red hair and green eyes). There is no doubt that Manon feels trapped in a loveless marriage to a dull, sadistic, indebted, planter. She outwardly despises her husband, the slaves that serve them, and is utterly miserable with the fate that society has dictated upon her.

Time passes and during a slave revolt, Manon is wounded, her husband is killed, and Sarah escapes. The remainder of the relatively short novel is Manon's wallowing in self-pity as a penniless, maimed widow in a male dominated society and her determination to recapture Sarah under the public guise of missing "property" that must be returned to the rightful owner. However, it is here that the reader senses Manon's envy of Sarah and the perceived happiness she has found in her stolen freedom. Manon's determination to bring Sarah back to fulfill her destiny in the dejected circumstances of Manon's reality is just as cruel as any act her sadistic husband would have committed. This attitude clearly illustrates that Manon having once felt that she was her husband's property, and empathized with Sarah, cannot and will not rise above her shallowness, racism, and jealousy to allow Sarah peace.

This is a short, plausible novel that can be finished in one sitting; however, although it is original and well crafted, it seems to end abruptly without closure. I was left wanting more. Nonetheless, Martin commands the language of the day, builds a credible cast of characters, and delivers the story with her strong writing skills. This is a compelling story told from a seldomly expressed point of view.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club
September 3, 2003