Review: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey

Perth Readers Circle member Linda Caston struggles to warm to this Orange-nominated novel set in steamy Trinidad.

By Linda Caston
Published in the Courier : 19.07.10
Published online : 19.07.10 @ 07.12pm

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We are introduced to a corrupt and violent society, as a young man is viciously beaten by Trinidadian police in the opening scene of the book. However, the story revolves not around this episode, but tells of the unwinding of a long marriage between British expats George and Sabine.

Told in reverse, the story starts near the end of their lives together, and moves backwards in years, like a home video in reverse. This is a somewhat unusual way of novel writing, which was executed with consummate success by Sarah Waters in her 2006 Booker-nominated The Night Watch.

The story is set against the backdrop of the hot, steamy, sometimes inhospitable island of Trinidad, where the couple began their married life, viewed with suspicion by their neighbours.

As we see her evident dislike for the island, we are drawn to discover what made Sabine remain, which the rewinding of their lives through infidelity, disappointment, persecution, child-raising, and their arrival gradually reveals. The first section of the book is the weakest, but worth sticking with, as the reader can look forward to more rewarding fare as we travel back in time.

Neither character is likeable or particularly sympathetic, as alcohol and sex both drives them apart and keeps them together, in equal measure.

While George works as a journalist, interviewing local celebrities such as cricket hero Brian Lara, she stays at home, drinking, and sweating profusely in the tropical heat to which she has never managed to become accustomed. Despite her frequently avowed dislike of the island, Sabine cares passionately about local politics and injustice, and is sensitive to the importance of the times, whilst George appears oblivious or uncaring, just having a good time in his tropical paradise.

This is a powerful, serious book but there are some light-hearted moments. The two indigenous maids, the couple's main contact with local society, are lovable, loyal, larger-than-life characters, whose patois is a delight, but may prove a little annoying to readers who are averse to dialect writing.

The book covers most of life's big topics — too many for one novel.

Not too far from the centre of the story is Eric Williams, Trinidad's first president for whom Sabine develops a strange and compelling love-hate relationship, which is played out in dozens of boxes of unsent letters.For me this was the weakest part of the book, as her strong feelings for a virtual stranger unconvincingly dominate her life. However, the political aspects of the book documenting the birth of a nation exhort you to jump on the next Caribbean-bound jet to explore this fascinating place.

Perth Readers Circle, who have just finished it, found many themes to discuss in the novel and the book is at times hugely moving, and worthy of having been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction this year, but the final analysis was that the weaknesses in the storyline and lack of characters we care about were not enough to give it that wow factor that we all ultimately seek from our fiction reading.