The Girl with the Golden Shoes

By Colin Channer

Book Overview

"This is a jewel of a book. Channer's language is dancing and juicy, his vision penetrating, and his hero is magnificent." --Booklist, Starred Review

"Channer is a gifted storyteller." --Washington Post

The Girl with the Golden Shoes is a dazzling and picaresque novella of equal parts Gabriel Garc a M rquez, Mark Twain, and Bob Marley. Set in 1942, on the imagined island of San Carlos, a cultural cocktail of Trinidad, Cuba, and Jamaica, it tells the story of Estrella Thompson, a 14-year-old who's forced to fend for herself when she's banished from the isolated fishing village where she's lived all her life. Her crime? Wanting to read and write.

But Estrella is no victim. Neither is she an ordinary child. Prematurely ripe in body and mind, and contemptuous of the boundaries placed on her by gender, race, and social class, she takes the villagers' rejection as a chance to change her life. She wants to go to Europe, the place where everything interesting seems to happen, including the war, which she's heard about incessantly on rediffusion radio. But she has to get money for a ticket on a steamer, which means she has to get a job--which means she has to get a pair of shoes . . . and she's never worn a pair in her life.

Estrella's journey goes awry when she takes the wrong bus and ends up in a hostile town. From the one-armed madman who steals her belongings, to the lonely black truck driver who forces her to listen to his lecture on politics and race, to the Spanish Creole seducer who rides into her life on horseback, to the white soldiers who attempt to break her spirit--the characters that come into Estrella's life are as changed by her as she is by them.

The Girl with the Golden Shoes is a deftly-written story that swims against the tide of cynicism that has come to dominate the best American fiction. Its propulsive plot is driven by a heroine who's too naive to back down and too smart to swap hope for disillusion as a central belief.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933354267
• ISBN13: 9781933354262
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Akashic Books, Ltd.
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Lyrical Exploration...(4.5 Stars)

The Girl With The Golden Shoes by Colin Channer is a lyrical exploration of a young woman's internal and external journey. Estrella Thompson is a fourteen year- old girl, living on the island of San Carlos, who dreams of life beyond the shores where she exists. A chance meeting with a scuba-diver who washed up on the shore propels her forth on her journey. No one believes her when she explains what she has seen and she is viewed as a liar. Her biggest struggle seems to be her quest for a better life, something other than what she has known. The islanders believe that she feels she is better than they are and she needs to accept her destiny as a fishmonger. Their lack of belief forces her on her quest to get to a better place; in her mind that place is Europe. However, to get on her way she needs to get herself a new pair of shoes, golden shoes. That is a major undertaking for someone who has never owned or worn shoes. Though the story starts in 1942, the message is so timely because it deals with how one must make their own way. I loved how the gentle message of making your own choices was layered throughout the story. Mr. Channer paints such a vivid picture with his use of language that I was swept along with Estrella as she ventured out. She travels from her village, allowing herself to become intertwined in the lives of the people she encounters. The people she encounters on her way are as ethnically and culturally diverse as any I have seen in recent literature. The Girl With The Golden Shoes takes us on a journey that explores class, sexuality and racism with dignity and a use of language that causes the scenes to dance off the page. Mr. Channer explores sexuality in a way that is non-sensational, yet thought-provoking. Watching Estrella strive to overcome her beginnings and work towards her inner strength as a proud African woman is beautiful. In the larger view the changes may not seem huge, but in terms of her growth they are phenomenal. I highly recommend this work to anyone interested in a beautifully wrought work, by a storytelling master. Angelia Menchan APOOO BookClub