Book Review
Every Shut
Eye Isn't Asleep
“Man is born free
but everywhere he goes, he is in chains.” These
are the words of a French philosopher: Jean Jacque
Rousseau. He was referring to the fact freedom in
itself denotes limitation. The world is peopled by
different characters with different abilities.
However, one thing that is common to all
individuals is the limitation of the human person.
These limitations are imposed upon us either by
our very nature or by the society. In her book, ‘Every
Shut Eye Isn’t Asleep, Patricia Barbee shows
that it is possible to transcend these limitations
and end up successful in life. This book is a
historical fiction told with great expertise that
would make you want to turn the page ad nauseam
once you read the first chapter. Her style of
writing is appealing, full of humor, healthy
satire and is easy to follow. The chapters in the
book are short and consistent. This makes reading
a pleasure rather than an inconvenience.
The setting
commences down South in
Georgia and ends up North in the City of
Boston. The time is in the early fifties. During
this period, the United States is facing a
quagmire along many facets of life especially
racism and segregation. The ugly head of
xenophobia sticks out both in the South and in the
North but at varying degrees. The author uses the
story to condemn this social evil, albeit she is
careful enough not to rush to conclusions or shift
blames on different groups of people. She
understands that prejudice, as a human trait is a
product of nurture and not nature. Consequently it
can be unlearned through education and a rigorous
process of socialization.
The whole story
revolves around an iron lady by the name Valley
and her brilliant daughter Heidi. Valley is a
daughter of a Cherokee Indian father. She faces
gazillion problems due to her mixed descent. Her
mother dies when she is still a baby and so she
has to live with different people during her
childhood. Later on she gets married to a very
abusive husband. The husband, Denis, strikers her
in her pregnancy and she loses their second child
in this violence. This leads to a divorce. In
Boston, Valley struggles to bring up her brilliant
daughter Heidi Rose in this densely populated
city. Despite this undesirable predicament, Heidi
is full of energy so much so that her mother
refers to her as a dynamo. She is so brilliant
that she takes classes in the fifth grade when she
is just six years old. At her age, she
understands what her mother is going through and
she works hard in school with the hope of
mitigating the cross her mother has to bear for
her sake. In this moving piece of literature,
themes such as hard work, perseverance and filial
piety dominate the scene. One step at a time, day
by day, Valley crosses the bridge of poverty and
ends up owning a piece of property of her own,
securing both her future and that of her daughter.
To understand how she achieves her much-coveted
America dream, you must read the book.
CJ Ohulo, Kenya
