A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE

In a Jamaican village, a 99-year-old woman uses modern tools to deal with a complicated past.

At the center of McCaulay’s seventh book is the towering character of Miss Pauline Sinclair, who at the age of nearly 100 is driven by the sense that the stones of her house are urging her to deal with the shady history of that edifice. The stones were originally part of a backra mansion in the bush—a house that belonged to white slaveholders. Miss Pauline came upon the backra estate when she was a child fleeing sexual assault by the local pastor and eventually decided to transport its stones to build her own dwelling on a more advantageous site. Her initiative was copied by her neighbors, creating a whole village of stone houses, and when Miss Pauline became a ganja grower in the wake of Hurricane Gilbert, she was able to put in an indoor bathroom and kitchen, pay for her children’s schooling, and support the family after their father’s death. But now, as she feels death approaching, she’s troubled by the memory of a white man named Turner Buchanan who came to her in 1987 with a pile of paperwork; he subsequently disappeared and a taxi driver was jailed for his murder. She has been keeping secrets about this situation for a long time. One of the most charming elements of the novel is Miss Pauline’s friendship with Lamont, a motorcycle-riding teen who helps her use Skype, Facebook, and email to reconnect with relatives and search out others connected to her story. McCaulay was inspired by the discovery of her own complex multiracial genealogy, as she discloses in an author’s note, and she’s even given some of the historic characters the names of her ancestors. As it makes its points about the complex legacy of colonialism and recaps a century of life in rural Jamaica through the eyes of one fierce and enterprising woman, the novel educates and entertains.

Alive with the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of Jamaica.