Krystal A. Sital

What a beautiful and heartbreaking account. I am still reeling from the extent of violence this family endured. Sital does an incredible job of weaving together the storylines, bouncing between past and (relative) present, and keeping the reader engaged...not because Shiva's violence is sensationalized, but because you need to know that these people made it out OK. With the recent exposure of domestic violence as horrifically commonplace, this is a very timely book. Sital deftly tackles how muddy the waters get when domestic violence is so pervasive in a society and the complex twists families become when living in fear of an abuser (not to mention the added factor of mores specific to a particular culture--in this case, the Trinidad desi).

Let's also talk about the feel of Secrets We Kept. It is very much a "place as character" book. Sital's descriptions put you right there in Trinidad--the sights, smells, tastes, people, culture, everything. It also reminded me how much I love conversation written phonetically in the local patois. It probably took me longer to read because I was so caught up in the language; by the end, I was putting much of the non-conversational script in the dialect.

Thank you to WW Norton and Co. and Net Galley for this ARC.… (mais)

Trinidad is a mélange of descendants of Venezuelans, indentured servants from India, and African slaves. This family history reveals the splendor and agony of the author's family life. As her grandfather Shiva Singh, a ruthless and violently abusive husband, dies slowly in New Jersey, author Krystal urges her grandmother and mother to share the miseries of their childhoods and marriages. Singh, a wealthy farmer, uses his children as unpaid labor to expand his holdings, treating his entire family with extreme brutality. Arya, one of his daughters, Krystal's mother, has a brief period of independence and joy working in a city before marrying Dharmendra, who drinks and cheats on her. Krystal herself leaves most of her own story untold, other than sharing her tangled relationship with her grandfather, who adores her while despising and tormenting everyone else in his life. The book is told both in English and in Trinidadian patois, which slows the reader but would probably be really lovely in an audio book. It's really a deep look into one of the Caribbean islands where the world takes their leisure and the tortured history of slavery and poverty are removed from view of the cruise ship tourists. Powerful stuff, especially the impact of racism within the hierarchy on the island.… (mais)