The Cursed Village

A deeply flawed but nonetheless compelling coming-of-age tale set in Trinidad in the 1940s and 1950s. Usati is a child of 4 when we first meet him and his life living with his grandparents after his mother’s death is not just hard but brutal. Yet in spite of all the obstacles put in his way – and there are many of them – and in spite of all the deprivation and hardship, Usati somehow finds the inner strength to not only survive but to get an education and then strive to bring literacy and a more enlightened outlook to his whole community. What I found disconcerting was the voice – sometimes Usati speaks like a child or young boy, at others he speaks eloquently and knowledgeably about things he couldn’t possibly have known at the time. There’s a whole long passage about his grandmother's diabetes, for example, which reads like a textbook. He has a strange distanced relationship with a young woman, about whom he waxes lyrical without ever having spoken to her, and plans his life with her in a long eloquent letter, but at an age when this seems most unlikely. And then there’s the violence. The endless brutal violence, particularly against children. The beatings are astonishing. I’ve read other memoirs of life in Trinidad – V S Naipaul, for example – and yes, beating children is seen as acceptable, but here the beatings are beyond belief. It's not for me to question the credibility or authenticity of the story, I can’t possible know that, but it certainly demands a willing suspension of disbelief at times. It’s not clear to me how much this is a novel and how much memoir, nor can I find anything out about the author (Feb 2021). However, the more I continued to read the more intrigued I became, and overall I found the book compelling and memorable. But it did leave me with a number of unanswered – and for the moment at least – unanswerable questions.

There was much of this book that I enjoyed. The setting was Trinidad in the 1940's and 1950's and it was interesting to hear some of the traditions and practises of the time. The novel tells the story of a young boy Usati who recounts the story of growing up in a small village.
At times I wondered is this book autobiographical and how does this relate to real life? At times it was a difficult read, with violence against children and women. I did however have to read it to the end and see how things worked out. The book covers many different life events and raises a lot of points to discuss. I could imagine this would be a good book to share in a book group.