Download Your Copy The Polished Hoe Drafted By Austin Clarke Produced In EPub

didn't LOVE this book, but I didn't hate it, either, If you're expecting a mystery, sorry, this book isn't it, It reads more like historical fiction, but the author tells the story through dialogue that goes into EXTREME digression many times which can be quite offputting! Some characters e.
g. the Constable were pointless, and if the sex scenes real or imagined by the Sargeant were meant to be titillating, well, they didn't work for me.
Although the story is set in postcolonial Barbados during the's and ''s, I was a little confused by the references to plastic bags which came out in the late ''s as well as Buffalo wings supposedly first served publicly in.
Also, the author should have consulted an atlas before stating that Lake Superior borders Buffalo, N, Y. Would I read this book again and/or recommend it to others Nope!

I don't usually write reviews, but I felt compelled,

This book captivated my attention with it's cover image, A promise of slavery tales and that was not left unsatisfied, The way this book was written implies that the author wanted to bring out these stories in an unconventional way, Something, which may rub some people the wrong way, After having read one bad review, I can deduce that the reader has a short span for suspense,

Based on the writing, as you read, you already can guess what happened, But try as you might, you must read till the very end to know the motive and how it happened or did it Hahaha Go ahead and read it if you're so curious.


It was a plus that I have visited the island of Barbados and to some point could picture myself in the story as it unwinded.
I would read it again, but I do have many more books to go before the year has ended, So. Much. Dialogue. I thought theyd never stop talking, I skimmed most of it, Read a few interesting historical bits, Then, mercifully it was over, This is a very nuanced book that demands concentration, It's a shame that it is rated so lowly because it is quite well written, To me, this isn't exactly a slave narrative or a tale of postcolonial struggles, Percy, the sergeant who has come to take Mary Gertrude Mathilda's statement, is a black man who has managed to eke out a respectable living Mary Gertrude Mathilda has spent her life as the property of Mr.
Bellfeels, the plantation owner.

A number of readers here have mistaken the era that this book is set in, There is specific reference to the state of Israel, so this story could not have taken place prior to, and the characters reflect on segregated life in America, specifically, the segregation of buses.
Percy reminisces over Ella Fitzgerald's recording of "ATisket, ATasket", recorded in, which was the soundtrack of his childhood, It's likely that this story is set in the lates, or thes,

Both Percy and Mary Gertrude Mathilda are thoroughly detailed characters, We see their cunning, their ignorance, their empathy, their contempt, their conscious sexuality, their friendships and rivalries, their jealousy, admiration, and ambitions, Their relationship is tense with suppressed desire, and the anticipation of Mary Gertrude Mathilda's confession, which she delays and deflects from constantly by relating her personal history of the patriarchal and colonial violence of Bimshire Barbados.
The power dynamic between them is fluid, shifting between Percy's official authority and Mary Gertrude Mathilda's withholding of information, In a scene where the two dance, Mary Gertrude Mathilda literally leads Percy as she assumes the posture of a man with her hand supporting his back.


With few marked breaks in the story, I can see why some grew impatient while reading, This is not a quick and easy read, However, I found the time and effort I spent on this book quite rewarding, sitelink Very few novelists can hold a reader spellbound for almostpages utilizing only three characters in a story that takes place in a single night.
Such a teller of tales in the sweetest Bajan tongue was our late, great Austin "Tom" Clarke, Even the great Toni Morrison, another favorite of mine, needs to populate her books with a multitude of characters so that one has to keep flipping back the pages to keep track of who is who.
"The Polished Hoe" takes place in postcolonial Barbados, The main protagonist is an elderly village woman who kills her abusive master and calls the police to confess to the murder, The other characters are the police sergeant and his assistant who come to her home to arrest her, That's it unless you count the man she killed, But Austin Clarke uses this simple interaction between three characters not including the dead man to recap elements of our African past and the cruel enduring legacy of colonialism that led to this woman symbolically polishing a hoe for weeks and weeks with the single purpose of bashing the life out of the former slave master.

Rest in Peace, Tom Clarke, you son of de Bajan soil,
This was a great read, I love how the author tells a bit of history about Barbados, Lady of the night is one of the most popular plants in Barbados and around the Carribean which is shown in the book.
I love the main character as well as the plot throughout the book, First, I'll start with the good,
I listened to the audio of this book, The narration was wonderful. I loved the accent, the emphasis and the pacing of the reading, It added a dimension and texture to the story,
I enjoyed the history of Bimshire Barbados, This book covers a gamut of historical issues: slavery, class distinctions, opportunities or not of the people, climate, In here is world of many levels, people subdued amp terrified, people empowered by wealth there's a subtlety of the many different aspects that make up a society.
Things one wouldn't normally see when "just visiting", The society in Bimshire is an insecure one if one lives in the wrong level within the society,

However, this book repeats, repeats, repeats the stories over and over and over again, It's incredibly tedious and boring in that respect, This book needs a lot of editing, Take out the repetitiveness and the story would be marvellous,
The ending Nothing comes as a surprise but it's a fitting ending, And so I was right Bellfeels is her father, May God have mercy on her soul, MGMP, Oh my goddess. The pain. Here is the reason. The true reason. The justification, for sometimes it is just too much, And the murder of Bellfeels is justified, and her severing of his penis is right, My oh my. Amazing terrible and incredible book, Her confession, story, life, starts with the Constable and so it ENDS with the Sergeant, who loves her still,
"'I panicked. And fled. Dragging the hoe behind me, And thinking that I had gone made,
'It was not murder, It was a sacrifice. And did not demand motive, Motive was born on that bright Sunday morning, in a Church Yard, Motive was the continuation of events through years of carrying the wishbone tucked into my cotton petticoat, in my cotton bloomers, in my blue school uniform, taken from the body of a pullet killed by a lorry carrying sugar cane to the Factory carrying the wishbone through all these Easter Monday bank holidays, through all these interludes in the canes of the North Field, beginning with the Sunday after Matins, in the Church Yard, when for years I knew by heart the Collect that was read and now, I can no longer remember a word of it to save my soul or where in the Bible it comes from.

'But wait! It is coming back, in a whiff of its first reading by Revern Dowd: ", . . and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass to our everlasting resurrection, . . '
Sargeant closes his notebook,
'Please stay, Percy,' MaryMathilda says, 'Stay with me till you get the end of my Statement, Please. '
'I will stay to the end, '
'The Collect for that Sunday, . . I will remember it better now, like the Lord's Prayer, It will be my prayer for forgiveness, and I hope you will understand, '
The Plantation bell has just banged two times, to herald the start of a new, long day of toil, and labour in the broiling fields, just as the shortlived storm has come to its end.
They can hear the bell over the fading roar of the thunder which roams throughout the tenantries of the Plantation,
'Clean and pure,' she says,
'What' he says.
'The morning I am ready, now, Percy, Take me, please. '
They hear Gertrude moving about in the large house and they pick up the sound of her bare feet going down the steps and MaryMathilda Paul opens the bedroom door and leads Percy down the stairs to the kitchen.

Going down, he counts thirteen soft, carpeted safe steps, watches the way her body descends, and he smells the fragrance of her perfume that lingers.
"

Here is the crux of it here is the difficulty here is the price of Mary Mathilda's life and role:
"This is MaryMathilda's life.
Paid for by Mr. Bellfeels. But in a more serious manner, in a more deep and romantic way, her life is paid for by her body, Has always been. It is therefore HER life and her life only, She owns it. " Wow. And I mean it. Powerful, empathetic, feminist, painful, realistic,

Another reminder of the importance of fiction and imagination not the illness Wilberforce implies: "A person can be anywhere she wants to, Wilberforce tells me, even if the person has never actually been there.
And this is the kind of journey I am taking you on, "

I remember this song from Oh goddess, what was her nameshe was with Dionne Brand at the time, Faith Nolan, yes. Rascally gal, but although this isn't from her originally, she sang it too, and I can still hear her amazing voice, and the other songs she sang:
"If you're white," Gertrude said, "You're right.

If you're brown, you can stick around,
But if you black, you gotta stay a waaaaay back!"
And here's the important thing, There is white privilege and there is black injustice, A white man does not get charged with his wife's murder because she is a whore, but three black men fighting for better working conditions and wages are beaten and there was talk of lynchings.
There is no justice. There has been no justice, even in Barbados, Everywhere.
This book is the history of slavery throughout the new world, as well as the story of Bimshire and the mystery that surrounds MGMP, and the reason the Sargeant pays her a visit, to take her Statement on this Sunday evening.
What did she do
And she says: "Slaves is slaves, Bimshire slaves are Bimshire slaves, And Amurcan slaves are Amurcan slaves, But slaves are slaves. " So true. Even now.

Clarke has written this like a play, I realize, The dialogue is paramount and the descriptions are like stage directions or background information,

Why reading fiction is so importantthe most important part of education and I gave it up for soooooooooo long, too long:
"I see things when I sitdown in my chair, and I am studying.
And I see things when I dream, And I cannot make a distinction between livingout a story, and reading a story, " And then Clarke goes on to talk about story being the same as fact, in the segregation in the States when our heroine our true heroine went to visit with her white lover who was really her master, and her his slave.


Such an amazing book, this, Deep, spiritual, painful, feminist, black, history, herstory, therestory, it's all here, Inspiration for our move:
"Listening to foreign music is natural to me, because I live in a island, And because the water surrounding we, the Carbean Sea, is the same water flowing here from the oceans of the world, one being the Atlantic, everything that that Atlantic Ocean brings in, with the currents, touches the way we live in this Island and in any other island in the Wessindies.
And I just love to listen to the way foreigners talk, although I don't understand one damn thing they're saying, "

Thus, this brilliant and painful book BEGINS,
"'MY NAME IS MARY, People in this Village clale me MaryMathilda, Or, Tilda, for short. To my mother I was Marygirl, My names I am christen with are Mary Gertrude Mathilda, but I don't use Gertrude, because my maid has the same name, My surname that people 'bouthere uses, is either Paul, or Bellfeels, depending on who you speak to, . . '
'Everybody in Flagstaff Village knows you as Miss Bellfeels, ma'am,' the Constable says, 'And they respects you. '
'Nevertheless, Bellfeels is not the name I want attach to this Statement that I giving you, . . '".