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3.5
Abeng
ByPublisher Description
An alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.An alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found herehere.
Ever since AbengAbeng was first published in 1984, Michelle Cliff has steadily become a literary force. Her novels evoke both the clearly delineated hierarchies of colonial Jamaica and the subtleties of present-day island life. Nowhere is her power felt more than in Clare Savage, her Jamaican heroine, who appeared, already grown, in No Telephone to HeavenNo Telephone to Heaven. AbengAbeng is a kind of prequel to that highly-acclaimed novel and is a small masterpiece in its own right. Here Clare is twelve years old, the light-skinned daughter of a middle-class family, growing up among the complex contradictions of class versus color, blood versus history, harsh reality versus delusion, in a colonized country. In language that surrounds us with a richness of meaning and voices, the several strands of young Clare's heritage are explored: the Maroons, who used the conch shell—the abeng—to pass messages as they fought a guerilla struggle against their English enslavers; and the legacy of Clare's white great-great-grandfather, Judge Savage, who burned his hundred slaves on the eve of their emancipation. A lyrical, explosive coming-of-age story combined with a provocative retelling of the colonial history of Jamaica, this novel is a triumph.
Ever since AbengAbeng was first published in 1984, Michelle Cliff has steadily become a literary force. Her novels evoke both the clearly delineated hierarchies of colonial Jamaica and the subtleties of present-day island life. Nowhere is her power felt more than in Clare Savage, her Jamaican heroine, who appeared, already grown, in No Telephone to HeavenNo Telephone to Heaven. AbengAbeng is a kind of prequel to that highly-acclaimed novel and is a small masterpiece in its own right. Here Clare is twelve years old, the light-skinned daughter of a middle-class family, growing up among the complex contradictions of class versus color, blood versus history, harsh reality versus delusion, in a colonized country. In language that surrounds us with a richness of meaning and voices, the several strands of young Clare's heritage are explored: the Maroons, who used the conch shell—the abeng—to pass messages as they fought a guerilla struggle against their English enslavers; and the legacy of Clare's white great-great-grandfather, Judge Savage, who burned his hundred slaves on the eve of their emancipation. A lyrical, explosive coming-of-age story combined with a provocative retelling of the colonial history of Jamaica, this novel is a triumph.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesAbeng Reviews
3.5
“I enjoyed the historical aspects here more than the story and wished more had been done to develop the narrative more through Clare. As a Jamaican, the themes of race, class, perceptins and colonialism were strongly apparent.”
“The Black Atlantic explores the complex intercultural and transnational dynamics affecting communities across racial lines, emphasizing the importance of embracing one’s full history. Michelle Cliff’s Abeng vividly illustrates this through the character of Kitty, whose rejection of her Black identity creates emotional turmoil and division within her family. Kitty’s passive submission to her husband’s racism and her preference for her lighter-skinned daughter Clare over Jennie reveal the deep psychological impact of internalized whiteness and colonial legacy.
Cliff’s use of poetry—contrasting Walter Roberts’s “The Maroon Girl” with Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”—underscores the disconnect many people of color feel towards imposed European cultural narratives, while finding empowerment in works rooted in their own heritage. Kitty’s attempts to whitewash Clare’s identity in hopes of social “uplift” ultimately lead to Clare’s confusion and loss, illustrating the damaging consequences of denying Black roots.
Abeng is a powerful examination of identity, colonialism, and family through the lens of the Black Atlantic, revealing the lasting emotional and cultural effects of trying to escape one’s heritage.”
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