FROM FRANCE: THE "SMITHEREENS" BOOK BLOG REVIEWS "BETRAYAL ON THE BAYOU"

ALL THE WAY FROM FRANCE

THE “SMITHEREENS” BOOK BLOG 

REVIEWS 

BETRAYAL ON THE BAYOU

Sheryl Bize-Boutte, Betrayal on the Bayou (2020)

"The One on the French Bayou

DECEMBER 3, 2020 

https://smithereens.wordpress.com/

 

I was approached by the publisher to review this book, and I normally don’t really take more books in, but I was intrigued. I’m so glad I took the chance! It really made me travel far from my own place, both in time and space (in a year where I really went nowhere!). I know really little about Louisiana, but I enjoyed the atmosphere and the characters, and the book was quite original. Beware, there’s another novel titled “Betrayal in the bayou” (not “on”) and it’s a whole different story!

Betrayal on the Bayou is set in a fictional valley in Louisiana , but it actually starts in France in the 1850s, with Emile, a wealthy young man who is a lazy and quarrelsome seducer, to his parents’ despair. They marry him off and put them both on a boat to Louisiana. He arrives there a widow and the father of a little girl, and discover a segregated world dominated by the French code noir and by the heirs of the original French settlers, who literally rule the whole community. Using his usual schemes he manages to marry the heiress of the family, who agrees to finance his lazy lifestyle because she has her own agenda.

The novel soon introduces us to several characters who are outside of the clichés and manage to survive against the odds. I don’t want to spoil the twists and turns of the novel but it’s a family (or community) saga that spans from the 1850s to the end of the 19th century and even more. I wondered whose singular betrayal the title is referring to, because there are so many different betrayals in this book! I liked that the characters had depth and justification even when they behaved quite immorally or outside the social norms. Racial and sexual injustices are at the core of the book but it is never preachy. When I finished the book I had to check if the Tassin valley was a real place or not! The story stretched credibility to some extent but as the pace was swift I really enjoyed the ride.” 

WWW.SHERYLJBIZE-BOUTTE.COM