Reading Shameful Shadows reminded me of watching a multi-perspective movie like Go or Crash. Essentially, the book does not have a single central character, but rather the author focuses on members within an extended family to present her arguments.
Ditta Sylvester uses the themes of love and family relationship and faith to present what the synopsis at the back of the novel calls a story of redemption. The author introduces her readers to family whose members are dysfunctional and who take their experiences – both good and bad – into other relationships. Interestingly, there is no single protagonist or hero in this book, so characters are crafted through their personal experiences, and the viewpoint of others – almost from a first-person perspective, which the reader rejects or accepts.
Sylvester skilfully employs a retrospective approach (using memory of past events) to paint a more complete picture of each character’s psyche.
The first chapter introduces us to Earl Masters, the father of a nuclear family that he has dreamt about most of his life. Although Earl has the family he needs, he is faced with the dilemma of making his family complete: marrying his children’s mother, Daisy. His apprehensions to marry Daisy are soon justified as we discover that his mother, Pauline Masters, is twice divorced, and was a single mother to him and his sister, Vinell Templeton.
Pauline Masters, though a strong single mother who endeavoured to take care of her children, seeks redemption in her later life by caring for her granddaughter Eva. Her effort to redeem herself stems from earlier decisions to pursue relationships with the fathers of her children, inadvertently at the expense of a relationship with the children themselves. Pauline’s decisions negatively affected Earl and Vinell, with the latter becoming pregnant and fleeing after having the child.
Vinell, because of the rejection she feels from her family and the non-existent relationship with her mother, even worse with her father, seeks love and acceptance from a young preacher’s son, Dennis Barton. She subsequently becomes a victim of rape – twice by different men. Vinell attains a sense of family when an older couple welcomes her into their home; but even there, disaster strikes and her life seems to descend into havoc. She eventually returns home to find redemption – Dennis, the presumed father of her child, playing his paternal role.
Dennis Barton is the son of a travelling evangelical preacher. Dennis’ mother died in childbirth and he too feels unloved because his father, the only parent he knows, only nurtures him through discipline. As a teen, he grasps at the opportunity to have true love with ‘Shirley’ Templeton, but is soon charged for statutory rape as she is underage. After serving his sentence, he learns of his father’s death; he again takes up service in the field of ministry, beginning in Elfin where he had met Miss Templeton. He begins his quest to find her and be the father he didn’t have.
The colliding perspectives of each character – again, with somewhat a first-person perspective – is successful and effective in building each profile. The decision of each character impacts another, at times, having an indirect domino effect on multiple persons. However, from each character’s point of view, we are able to see common attributes, identify the antiheroes and find the redeemable qualities in the true protagonists.
Share this post:
Reading Shameful Shadows reminded me of watching a multi-perspective movie like Go or Crash. Essentially, the book does not have a single central character, but rather the author focuses on members within an extended family to present her arguments.
Ditta Sylvester uses the themes of love and family relationship and faith to present what the synopsis at the back of the novel calls a story of redemption. The author introduces her readers to family whose members are dysfunctional and who take their experiences – both good and bad – into other relationships. Interestingly, there is no single protagonist or hero in this book, so characters are crafted through their personal experiences, and the viewpoint of others – almost from a first-person perspective, which the reader rejects or accepts.
Sylvester skilfully employs a retrospective approach (using memory of past events) to paint a more complete picture of each character’s psyche.
The first chapter introduces us to Earl Masters, the father of a nuclear family that he has dreamt about most of his life. Although Earl has the family he needs, he is faced with the dilemma of making his family complete: marrying his children’s mother, Daisy. His apprehensions to marry Daisy are soon justified as we discover that his mother, Pauline Masters, is twice divorced, and was a single mother to him and his sister, Vinell Templeton.
Pauline Masters, though a strong single mother who endeavoured to take care of her children, seeks redemption in her later life by caring for her granddaughter Eva. Her effort to redeem herself stems from earlier decisions to pursue relationships with the fathers of her children, inadvertently at the expense of a relationship with the children themselves. Pauline’s decisions negatively affected Earl and Vinell, with the latter becoming pregnant and fleeing after having the child.
Vinell, because of the rejection she feels from her family and the non-existent relationship with her mother, even worse with her father, seeks love and acceptance from a young preacher’s son, Dennis Barton. She subsequently becomes a victim of rape – twice by different men. Vinell attains a sense of family when an older couple welcomes her into their home; but even there, disaster strikes and her life seems to descend into havoc. She eventually returns home to find redemption – Dennis, the presumed father of her child, playing his paternal role.
Dennis Barton is the son of a travelling evangelical preacher. Dennis’ mother died in childbirth and he too feels unloved because his father, the only parent he knows, only nurtures him through discipline. As a teen, he grasps at the opportunity to have true love with ‘Shirley’ Templeton, but is soon charged for statutory rape as she is underage. After serving his sentence, he learns of his father’s death; he again takes up service in the field of ministry, beginning in Elfin where he had met Miss Templeton. He begins his quest to find her and be the father he didn’t have.
The colliding perspectives of each character – again, with somewhat a first-person perspective – is successful and effective in building each profile. The decision of each character impacts another, at times, having an indirect domino effect on multiple persons. However, from each character’s point of view, we are able to see common attributes, identify the antiheroes and find the redeemable qualities in the true protagonists.
Share this post: