The Star Side of Bird Hill
By Naomi Jackson
304 pages;
Penguin Press
In this keen-eyed debut, Naomi Jackson
introduces two young girls suffering an acute case of culture shock:
Self-centered Dionne, 16 (“going
on a bitter, if beautiful, forty-five”),
and naïve Phaedra, 10, have been yanked from their home in
Brooklyn, where their mother is ailing, to live with their grandmother
Hyacinth, in Barbados. Far from the picture-postcard image presented in tourist
guides, the Caribbean island here feels hot, sticky and overflowing with
complicated relationships. (When the girls’ long-absent
father comes knocking, it’s not exactly good news.) Add to this: three-hour
church services and Hyacinth’s
possibly dangerous folk medicines. But at the novel’s core is a tender coming-of-age story that explores
the complications of Dionne's first affair with a young suitor (the title
refers to her favorite churchyard getaway spot) and the realizations that Phaedra has about her family and her
connection to them all, despite their flaws. As Hyacinth puts it, “It wasn’t
so much the mistakes that people made but how flexible they were in their
aftermath that made all the difference in how their lives turned out.” A lush and sensitive read with a setting well matched
for a sultry summer afternoon.
— Mark Athitakis