The House of Plain Truth

October 2, 2023
A 60-something woman returns home to Jamaica to visit her dying father in this affecting family saga from Hemans (Tea by the Sea). In Brooklyn, where Pearline has lived for decades, people regularly ask her where she’s from and why she doesn’t want to live there. Upon arriving in Jamaica, she’s taunted by her sisters Hermina and Aileen for having spent too much time away (Aileen derisively calls her “Miss America”). Shortly before Pearline’s father, Rupert, dies, he asks her to “find them for me.” She believes his dying wish refers to the sisters’ older siblings in Cuba, whom Pearline knew as a child when Rupert temporarily moved the family there so he could work on a sugar plantation. Pearline examines her father’s documents and attempts to piece together the story of his life and track down the Cuban siblings. Meanwhile, Hermina and Aileen wish she would drop the search, as they plan to sell the house and don’t want any complications involving the estate. Though there are no big surprises when the family’s secrets are unveiled, Hemans ably depicts Pearline’s longing for acceptance and closure. This is worth a look.

December 1, 2024

The poet Cicero said, "The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living." No one knows this better than Rupert Greaves's living children, as they are faced with his sudden death and a new awareness of the broken trail of his history, which stretches from Cuba to New York to Jamaica. Pearline has returned home from New York to nurse her ailing father, only to hear his dying wish of finding his long-lost children. Suffering from imposter syndrome, yet driven by the call to be her father's memory, Pearline convinces her sisters not to sell the family home and to fulfill Papa's dying wish. The reading of his will catalyzes the unraveling of the family that Pearline remembers and the acceptance of an alternative possibility. Pearline's foundation has ruptured, and all she has are questions. Who is Annie Headlam, how is she part-owner of their homestead, and how will Pearline protect Papa's legacy? Culturally ingrained myths are ever-present for Pearline, while her sisters forge a bond with these enduring truths. Narrator Michele Dayes, a friend of Hemans (Tea by the Sea), captures the raw emotion and melodic language of the characters as she weaves patois throughout the rich dialogue, revealing the characters' vulnerabilities, their splintered relationships, and the resolving of a divisive past. VERDICT This evocative literary novel reveals the path of immigration, thwarted attempts to right a wrong, and the recalibration of the meaning of family and love.--Mitzi Mack

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