Magda
I have read this book several times over the years and one of its themes which I find most powerful is the comparison of maternal relationships and breastfeeding between the white and black women. Manon's mother sent her out to nurse by a slave, as was the custom. When her mother dies, pouring black liquid from her orifices, Manon turns to a black woman's body for sustaining white milk. This treatment of the literal and metaphorical issues of breastfeeding is rare in literature, despite it being one of the fundamental biological experiences a woman can have. For this alone, this book gets my vote.
Michael
There was a misuse of the word 'affair' in the interview with Ahdaf Soueif. In an affair there must at least be consent by the weaker participant and preferably an equality of desire. A slave is not free enough to consent because ultimately there is no option of refusal. The intercourse is rape though the violence is institutional not personal.
ANNA DREDA
Property is a spare, cold novel told from the point of view of a young, unhappily married slave-owner's wife. From the opening pages we are shown the perverted cruelty of Manon's husband; her own misery and selfishness, and the sullen but strong silence of Sarah, the slave, who is the "property" to which the title refers. Cleverly, Martin resists our desire for there to be sypmathy or complicity between the two women; instead they are firmly posiitioned as adversaries, and while we may sympathise with both, we cannot like either. This is a chilling and horribly good book; reading it, we become voyeurs, with all the discomfort and distaste that voyeurism provokes. The awfulness of the slave owning system and the complete damage it wreakes on the emotional and physical lives of all who are part of that evil institution is painstakingly portrayed with the most brilliant writing. A courageous book, it's in my top three!
Penny Vincent
Brilliant - but confused in my mind with Wide Sargasso Sea which I have read since.
Carol
I've just finished this - what an extraordinary book. It is so sparingly and succintly written, and so rich -dealing head on with the evils of slavery alongside the effective subjugation of women regardless of wealth and status. Still filtering thru' my thoughts on it, but of the 5 orange prize winners I've read (a way to go yet!) it may well get my vote. Real competition from the Shriver tho'!
