The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story

I struggled a little with the language as it is a mixture of standard English and Black Conch English, but once I got into the rhythm of it, it was quite beautiful. I loved the characters and their individual isolation. Black Conch sounds like a beautiful place and the description allowed me to imagine it well.

St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 5th May 2022.

The Mermaid of Black Conch. Monique Roffey.

This book made quite an impression on the reading group with its originality and its multiplicity of themes.

People said: ‘I enjoyed reading it and finding out the myths that went with the story’; ‘It was different and I think its a book that I will remember’; ‘Funny and tragic with a brilliant analysis of the past still haunting the present’; and ‘I thought it worked well and kept your interest’. The prospect of engaging with magic realism, and the idea of written dialect, perhaps raised barriers to some, but in general these were overcome and the readers were glad to have read it.

Everyone appreciated the themes raised by the book: imperialism, the continuing impact of enslavement, patriarchy, the role of women, attitudes to disabilities and difference and to inherited wealth; how human beings treat each other, how women treat other women, how humans treat other species. And readers saw the points about difference and belonging, the small-mindedness of people, and their bitter jealousies and resentments.

Comments were made particularly on the brutality of the scene in which the mermaid is captured, and her subsequent mistreatment – this was found very shocking, especially after the previous gentle build-up of the story. This section was seen as demonstrating man’s total lack of understanding of anything beyond the usual norms, as well as trying to exploit the situation for personal gain and profit.

The characters came across well to readers: David as a very patient, caring and eventually loving man; Priscilla as an obnoxious nasty woman; the American father an overbearing loudmouth and his son as someone who needed to be free of his father. And the unfolding of the romance with David and Aycayia was admired as well.

Further remarks were that ‘the author was good at hinting how the islands had developed and how Arcadia was still there’; the book presented an ‘interesting perspective on things’; and that there were many allusions to folklore, myth and legends in it, familiar and unfamiliar, these being seamlessly woven into the story of the mermaid. The ‘sultry nature of the Caribbean’ provided a real sense of place, one reader remarked, and added that this was supported by the use of language.

‘An unusual and eventually a doomed sad love story, which on its way explored man’s inhumanity’; and ‘a love story with a twist’; and ‘a book about trying to live in someone else’s world.’

This book was read during April 2022 and the continuing restrictions due to the Covid-19 virus, and so the discussion was not 'live' as usual, but took place via a Facebook group, email and telephone conversations.

Top holiday beach reading. Loved the accents and once you got into it, it was an easy page turner. Had read some good reviews about it and they were right.
It's part mythical (it's about a mermaid...) but set in the real world too. It was so easy for me to forget this fact and I bought into the characters feelings whilst sitting in the sun, and breaking for a dip in the pool every now and then.
My location made it the perfect holiday read.

Interesting blurring of fantasy and reality. Beautifully written

Loved this book. Billed as a love story but it's oh so much more than that. It's beautifully written in 3 different styles: straight storytelling, the fisherman's journal and the mermaid's poems (or songs?). The mermaid is hauled out of the sea by a couple of white men who think therefore they own and can sell her. It happens in the Carribean, in a village populated by black people and one white woman who, due to a throwback to slave-owning, plantation days still owns the village. How ironic is it that some of the villagers treat the mermaid badly and want to make money from her capture and sale just because she looks different? It's written in such an engaging way I was engrossed from the start. It's not too long either. Lots to think about and discuss here so ideal for a reading group.