Main plot is a cliché and subplots go nowhere. Evelyn Waugh interest, which directed me to the book, is very minor. But the description of life in the Guyanese interior is consistently engaging.

I’ve been putting off writing about this book because….well, where to begin? No, really, where should it begin?

Perhaps it should begin with what I liked the most about The Ventriloquist’s Tale. Its setting. Guyana.

I know not of other books that are set in Guyana, do you?. I’ve never been to Guyana, nor has that thought – or any Guyana-related thought – ever crossed my mind. So it was a really refreshing setting, a nice change from the modern, western, or made-up world which most books I read live in. Guyana is a land of sounds, of smells, of animals, of cassava, rain and rivers and heat.

It is a story told by a ventriloquist, although I have to profess that I don’t quite understand why. And when that ventriloquist’s prologue began, I was a bit wary – was this going to end up as magical realism? I wasn’t all that keen on that genre. But the narrator throws the reader into the ‘real’ world of Chofy McKinnon, a Wapisiana Indian (who also has some Anglo blood – Scottish more precisely – in the mix). A farmer who lives with his family in the savannahs, he is driven to nearby Georgetown for work. Tagging along is his aunt Wifreda, who is due for an eye operation. There, he meets and falls for Rosa Mendelsohn, who is researching Evelyn Waugh and his journey to Guyana in the 1930s, supposedly spending time with the McKinnon family. But most of the narrative follows the McKinnon family in the early 1900s, offering a comparison of cultures and lifestyles, of different times, religion, and two different love affairs.

After getting over my initial disinterest in this book, I actually found myself quite immersed in this unusual story. But there’s still something about it that I’m not sure about. I can’t say that I liked it enough to gushingly recommend it to anyone, neither did I dislike it to the point of abandoning it or throwing it across the room. The Ventriloquist’s Tale is quite an intriguing debut novel with a unique and quite wondrous setting. The story itself though, isn’t exactly something that will stay with me.

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I was overjoyed to see a book that so cleverly balanced the thinking of a native people with that of a modern philosophy. This book has found a way to show you the way the Indians think and how it is totally rational, just as the way the Whites think is totally rational and it doesn't do it by telling you that it is totally rational, it just shows the train of thought and moves on as if there is nothing remarkable. Of course someone playing the violin can turn into a grasshopper once it has been pointed out by an observer that this is what he appears to be, that is certainly no different than knowing a priest will begin to spread the word of god around the community once he has established himself among the people.

The story was beautifully written and I enjoyed reading about the various generations of the family and seeing how they dealt with what life was throwing at them. In the beginning, I worried that there would be far too much to the descriptions and storytelling, as it felt like every sentence was trying to introduce something new, but that feeling left as soon as everyone and everything was properly introduced. I quickly became caught up in the read and could practically feel the rain on my back as it dripped through the cracks of a shelter or experience the full heat of the savannah as I read my way from location to location. I never thought it would be possible to explore life from the perspective of two different cultures without picking one side or the other when it comes to an issue that must be resolved, but I found myself completely understanding both sides of every situation that came up in the book. I simply can't say enough about how unique and enjoyable this experience was. ( )

Not only do we Indians know how to make ourselves attractive. We are also brilliant at divining what you would like to hear and saying it, so you can never be really sure what we think. ... Ventriloquism at its zenith. (p. 354)

Pauline Melville's debut novel is a multi-generational story of Amerindian people in Guyana. One thread in this novel focuses on Chofy McKinnon, a young man who leaves his rural village for the city of Georgetown, to find work that will support his wife and young son. In Georgetown he falls passionately for Rosa, a European woman visiting the country to conduct research. Chofy feels out of place in Georgetown, and escapes from his discomfort by spending most of his free time with Rosa in her bedroom.

Partway through Chofy's story, the reader is transported back in time to the early 1900s, when Chofy's Scottish grandfather first settled in the village, married two sisters, and fathered several children. Most of the novel centers on two of McKinnon senior's children: Beatrice and Danny, and on an English priest who traversed the country baptizing children and converting adults.

The story itself was interesting, if somewhat predictable, but Melville's descriptive prose brought the country and its native people to life. The imagery was so vivid; I often felt as if I were right there, experiencing the scenery, the heat, and the heavy rains. This was an excellent choice for my "Reading Globally" journey. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2005/10/84-ventroloquists-tale-pauline-melville.ht... ( )