Nicole Dennis-Benn

Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis- Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas. At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman. As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman--fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves--must confront long-hidden scars. From a much-heralded new writer, Here Comes the Sun offers a dramatic glimpse into a vibrant, passionate world most outsiders see simply as paradise.

Here Comes the Sun

sage lynn

It is here, while sitting in a moonlit puddle in the penthouse suite with her fist clenched around another man, that the gigantic organism she imagines her secrets to be uncoils and pushes from her navel. She doesn’t take her hand away from Georgio, but feels, for the first time, the sadness she ought to. It floods the room and pulls her back into the night sea. She’s afraid she might drown. She remembers—too late—that Verdene had promised to teach her how to swim.

It was as though a veil had lifted from her eyes. When she looked down, all she saw was her black skin and how it clashed with the dress. With her surroundings. With everything. It had collided with the order and propriety of the colonial mansion that day, and the uniform line of those high-color Catholic schoolgirls. Something about that trip changed her, and on the bus ride back her home looked different: the sea-green pf the nauseating sea, the sneering sun in the wide expanse of the pale sky, the indecisive Y-shaped river that once swallowed her childhood, and even the red first from the bauxite mines caked under her worn heels, seemed like a wide-open wound that bled and bled between the rural parishes

And just as she says this, three John-crows appear. They circle low, casting shadows in the face of the new sun. Their black wings are like sharp edges that seem capable of slitting trees in half. Margot feels the hair rise on the back of her neck when the John-crows descend. She watches in horror as they sink their beaks into the carcass--one that could have been a sibling, a spouse, a mother, a child. Margot will never forget this image--the sight of the crows feasting on their own, their Kumina dance celebrating death.

Her hand barely moves, though other images come into focus: the chipped ceramic vase with red roses that Brother Smith keeps at the front of the room for inspiration, the Virgin Mary figurine on the windowsill, a pair of slippers with the heels rubbed down on a side table, the defiance within the straight backs of the wooden chairs. Every object has character. Substance. A story about the people who made them, owned them.

Bergen Anders Nelson Eickhoff

I'm glad I picked this novel up on a lark back in June, becuase this is an absolutely brilliant and beautiful intersectional novel that depicts just about everything that is messed up about life in the Caribbean. But beneath Dennis-Benn's elegant writing and deeply moving characters lies a chilling, post-colonial accusation of American responsibility for the horrors that her female protagonists are forced to endure, and the impossible choices they confront in every day. Upon completing the novel, with its surprising and bitter final chapters, it's near impossible to disagree with her argument, and I am left wondering how I can change to in some way alter the racial, sexist, and economic oppression of my culture onto so many others. It's a joy to read, but it's also painful to consider; it's a wonderfully woven story that highlights the many ugly parts of living in one of the most beautiful and tragic parts of the world. It's an essential read, and I would recommend it to just about anyone.

Sameer Vasta

The first and only time I stayed at a Caribbean resort (in the Dominican Republic), I befriended a local young man who worked at the resort; he took me to town and showed me how his family lived, how he was applauded for getting a good job at one of the tourist resorts. It was jarring, compared to the life I was living at the resort. Nicole Dennis-Benn’s novel is equally as jarring, an equally poignant yet unsettling look at the world hidden away from the tourism—a world of people looking to survive and thrive and build their hopes and dreams through the next generation to come.

(originally published on inthemargins.ca)

Caitlin Berger

Phenomenally written book, an absolute must-read. It immerses you in a world you might not know much about and it is written so amazingly well. I recommend it to anyone!

Here Comes the Sun

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