The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I found myself swept into this historical tale and its many mysteries. Set initially on a slave plantation in Jamaica, the protagonist is a mulatto child slave who is eager to learn to read and ultimately learns to read, write and do so much more. But her knowledge is both a blessing and a curse, and leaves her with a constant yearning, and a enduring struggle to walk a line between the intelligent, capable woman she knows she is and the caricature of a coloured maid she is seen as by others. This becomes even intense when her master brings her to London and dumps her in the home of a scientific colleague. Is he benevolent, sinister, or both? As if this weren’t enough, a double murder mystery is unfolded throughout the book, and we are left unsure till the very end whether Frannie is guilty of the murders. (Don’t worry — it is resolved!)
I listened to an audiobook version of this novel, and it added to my delight in the book. The narration, with its gentle lilt, was almost dreamlike.
As someone who is working on my own nascent skills as a novelist, I was also struck by the beauty of the many metaphors used. I don’t think they’d be distracting even to a non-literary fiction fan, as they enhanced but didn’t overpower the writing, in my opinion. I was also impressed by how she wove together the many strands of the story, across time and place. While it does jump back and forth a lot, it never lost me, and seemed so true to the way the human mind works.
I’m looking forward to reading more by Sara Collins.
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