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samranakhtar's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
ritrotman's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
caterpillarnotebooks's review
4.0
so excellent ! the decision to imagine multiple voices, all short of nothing when it comes to the power to haunt, against the isolation of wuthering heights is perhaps the most generative, wonderful inclusion
jessicaxmaria's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
4.5
(Whispers: this is better than Wuthering Heights.)
audreyapproved's review
2.0
I struggled getting through this. It's a retelling of Wuthering Heights set in Guadeloupe with the added themes of colonialism and race. The main storyline is familiar - but Conde really takes the story further with LOTs of 1st person narrated chapters from various characters. Too many characters. Maybe twenty perspectives total? It's a lot to keep track of, especially when one character will show up to tell their POV, and then never show up again as a character. I think Conde is trying to pull her themes through many people, but all it ended up doing is just making this real hard to wade though. There were also many unfamiliar words (this was originally written in French) which just made reading quite slow.
Also wow, not a commentary on Conde but of Bronte - I forgot how fucked up the characters in Wuthering Heights are.
Also wow, not a commentary on Conde but of Bronte - I forgot how fucked up the characters in Wuthering Heights are.
dandelionfluff's review
3.0
On one hand, I didn't gravitate to Wuthering Heights, so these characters struck me as being just as dysfunctional and insufferable as Emily Brontë's. On the other, there was beautiful language in this novel, so I can respect it as a literary work. So, basically, my rating goes between "meh" and "yeah, I did like it."
lizcaruth's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2treads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
'Only the departed remain handsome and desired forever.'
Condé is masterful. The depth of description in her prose and the passion of her dialogue, set against the backdrop of islands still yoked to the hierarchy of colonialism even while fighting for freedom and autonomy heightened and made this read resonant.
I adore an author who is so attuned and aware of the space from which she writes and represents, which translates to rich cultural context and portrayal. Condé does this in the first few chapters of this lush novel.
The threads of desire, love, hate, revenge, socio-economic, and political change rage through this novel, making it addictive, instructive, and complex. Condé writes with mastery, unveiling and coiling the tethers of her characters and their situations to the times in which they live.
Such attention to detail with respect to the changing landscape of Guadeloupe as Slavery is abolished and new ways of working and interacting must now be adapted and adjusted to. The racial tensions that never go away, the observance of old ways and rituals makes the prose vibrate with nuance and tension.
The contour and social hierarchies of the island also play a huge part in the foundation of the story and Condé writes the colourism, familial expectations and desires, birth of political socialism, neglect, obsession, and unhealthy attachments sharply and without apology. Her style is heady with history and social significance.
Condé renders her characters with such rawness, that one can feel their desperation to escape a destiny that seems to have been carved out for them because of their birth, skin colour, and name; the reader is pulled along as they claw their way to a freedom that they are able to grasp.
Condé is masterful. The depth of description in her prose and the passion of her dialogue, set against the backdrop of islands still yoked to the hierarchy of colonialism even while fighting for freedom and autonomy heightened and made this read resonant.
I adore an author who is so attuned and aware of the space from which she writes and represents, which translates to rich cultural context and portrayal. Condé does this in the first few chapters of this lush novel.
The threads of desire, love, hate, revenge, socio-economic, and political change rage through this novel, making it addictive, instructive, and complex. Condé writes with mastery, unveiling and coiling the tethers of her characters and their situations to the times in which they live.
Such attention to detail with respect to the changing landscape of Guadeloupe as Slavery is abolished and new ways of working and interacting must now be adapted and adjusted to. The racial tensions that never go away, the observance of old ways and rituals makes the prose vibrate with nuance and tension.
The contour and social hierarchies of the island also play a huge part in the foundation of the story and Condé writes the colourism, familial expectations and desires, birth of political socialism, neglect, obsession, and unhealthy attachments sharply and without apology. Her style is heady with history and social significance.
Condé renders her characters with such rawness, that one can feel their desperation to escape a destiny that seems to have been carved out for them because of their birth, skin colour, and name; the reader is pulled along as they claw their way to a freedom that they are able to grasp.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship
angrysmileyface's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Racism, and Toxic relationship
kikireads's review against another edition
5.0
Update: January 23, 2019.
Emily Brontë wrote of violent, obsessive passion mired in the classism, sexism, xenophobia, and addiction in an English village backwater, contained in a favoured servant’s tongue. The slip to a tenant’s mean, self-involved mental energy served as no boon, no invigorative jolt to proceedings. If Wuthering Heights is the wind’s dull roar Windward Heights is the source.
In an inversion of this ordered system–the original and the retelling–Condé saw the dark moor and formed a Caribbean cosmos in 19th century Spanish Cuba, British Dominica and primarily in the French Guadeloupe islands: from Papaye nestled in the volcanic hillside to the arid soil and wind beaten razyés at Grand-Fonds-les-Mangles. Amongst this varied terrain Condé voiced a multitude: Nelly, Catherine, Razyé (the Heathcliff), his wife Irmine, her brother Catherine’s husband, their children, several named servants, politicians, and friends.
The basic story remains the same. Hubert Gagneur, “a tallow-coloured mulatto”, one day brought home a “little black boy or Indian half-caste”, and the story continues. What Brontë slyly hinted at Condé states baldly and in the loaded language of the time. Pretty much everything Wuthering Heights hinted at Windward saturates in technicolour: racism, classism, white feminism, misogynoir, sex, toxic masculinity, homosexuality, and even a few glances at genderqueerness.
I don’t know why we don’t hear and read more about this novel. It is glorious, messy, shocking, and explosive, with a narrative that strode beyond its predecessor’s confines into new spheres. If you considered historical fiction to be a soft genre meant to neatly carry you through specific highlights as you cry and tut tut at humanity’s cruelty before it ended with the usual bromides about love, family, and the resilient human spirit, drink the tea before you start this book. I don’t want you to mess up your copy.
Bookstagram | Twitter
4.5 ⭐
You know the drill by now. Need to think about my written response. It basically blew Wuthering Heights out of the water, sky high. Don't even mention them in the same sentence unless it's to genuflect in front of Windward's messy (it is messy, I have questions) greatness.
Emily Brontë wrote of violent, obsessive passion mired in the classism, sexism, xenophobia, and addiction in an English village backwater, contained in a favoured servant’s tongue. The slip to a tenant’s mean, self-involved mental energy served as no boon, no invigorative jolt to proceedings. If Wuthering Heights is the wind’s dull roar Windward Heights is the source.
In an inversion of this ordered system–the original and the retelling–Condé saw the dark moor and formed a Caribbean cosmos in 19th century Spanish Cuba, British Dominica and primarily in the French Guadeloupe islands: from Papaye nestled in the volcanic hillside to the arid soil and wind beaten razyés at Grand-Fonds-les-Mangles. Amongst this varied terrain Condé voiced a multitude: Nelly, Catherine, Razyé (the Heathcliff), his wife Irmine, her brother Catherine’s husband, their children, several named servants, politicians, and friends.
The basic story remains the same. Hubert Gagneur, “a tallow-coloured mulatto”, one day brought home a “little black boy or Indian half-caste”, and the story continues. What Brontë slyly hinted at Condé states baldly and in the loaded language of the time. Pretty much everything Wuthering Heights hinted at Windward saturates in technicolour: racism, classism, white feminism, misogynoir, sex, toxic masculinity, homosexuality, and even a few glances at genderqueerness.
I don’t know why we don’t hear and read more about this novel. It is glorious, messy, shocking, and explosive, with a narrative that strode beyond its predecessor’s confines into new spheres. If you considered historical fiction to be a soft genre meant to neatly carry you through specific highlights as you cry and tut tut at humanity’s cruelty before it ended with the usual bromides about love, family, and the resilient human spirit, drink the tea before you start this book. I don’t want you to mess up your copy.
Bookstagram | Twitter
4.5 ⭐
You know the drill by now. Need to think about my written response. It basically blew Wuthering Heights out of the water, sky high. Don't even mention them in the same sentence unless it's to genuflect in front of Windward's messy (it is messy, I have questions) greatness.
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