Gloria

May 20, 2013
The sophomore novel from Young (Pao) is the story of one Jamaican woman’s search for love and self-respect. Sixteen-year-old Gloria, while rescuing her younger sister, Marcia, from rape, kills the would-be attacker. Soon after, she leaves her small town, taking Marcia with her to Kingston. It is 1938, and all over the city, workers are striking and shutting down businesses, but Gloria manages to find work for herself and her sister. However, it quickly becomes apparent that as a poor dark-skinned woman, her life is still controlled by others, particularly predatory men. Yearning for independence, she befriends local prostitutes Sybil and Beryl, and, after losing her job as a shop clerk, decides to accept Sybil’s promise of a life where “yu not beholden to no man for the roof over yu head or have to be grateful to him for putting a ring pon yu finger.” In the brothel, Gloria meets and unexpectedly falls for Pao, the unofficial Chinatown enforcer and protagonist of Young’s previous novel. Set against the political turbulence of a country struggling toward independence, the novel’s treatment of autonomy and self-reliance is admirable yet stale and heavy-handed. Though written in phonetic Jamaican Patois, the prose lacks the vivacity to bring the characters or Jamaica itself to life. Agent: Susan Yearwood, Susan Yearwood Literary Agency.

April 15, 2013
The hoodlum and the whore: Those labels are accurate but inadequate for the title characters of Young's debut Pao (2011) and this lively companion piece; both are set in mid-20th-century Jamaica. The girl swings the tree limb, again and again, until the man on the ground stops moving. Sixteen-year-old Gloria has just saved her kid sister from being raped. Her assailant, a mentally troubled coal man who lives in a shack in the country, has already had his fun with Gloria. Now he's dead. Take-charge Gloria and sister Marcia leave for Kingston, the capital. (Her narration is dusted with an easily understandable patois.) It's 1938. Gloria is a gorgeous African-Jamaican, and the guys come swarming. She is rescued from the city streets by Henry Wong in his horse and buggy; the unhappily married Chinese-Jamaican supermarket owner will prove her most loyal friend. Before long, she moves in with two welcoming prostitutes, Sybil and Beryl, and becomes one herself. Sybil, smart and articulate, puts a feminist spin on their situation: Slaves may be free, but women are not. Clients pay late; some are hostile. Things look up when Gloria arranges a loan-sharking business with Henry, and Pao's boys provide protection, Pao being the young racketeer who controls Chinatown. He and Gloria fall in love. We never see the tough enforcer, only the gentle lover; though he marries Henry's daughter for the status, his love for Gloria persists. The storyline is busy-busy, to use Jamaican argot. Not quite a love story and not quite a feminist bouquet, but a well-seasoned hybrid.

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September 15, 2013

In a small Jamaica town in 1938, Gloria Campbell beats Barrington Maxwell after she walks in on him attempting to rape her younger sister, Marcia. A few days later when Gloria learns that he is dead, the two sisters flee to Kingston, the country's capital. There, Gloria works as a domestic and pays for her sister's education but finally gives into selling her beauty for better pay, becoming a prostitute and later building a card-club business with the help of a family friend. However, Gloria's triumph comes in helping others in similar circumstances while living in a country ruled by an oppressive regime. She moves to Cuba and sets out to discover a new kind of independence. VERDICT Jamaica-born and England-based Young has demonstrated her talent since her debut novel Pao--short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award. Written in Jamaican dialectic in a voice easy to follow, this title shows the dynamic between African Jamaicans and Chinese Jamaicans, which seems indicative of her own experience as a person of mixed heritage. Like Alex Wheatle's Island Song, this work will appeal to lovers of Caribbean fiction.--Ashanti White, Yelm, WA

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