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Brown Girl in the Ring (novel)
Encyclopedia
Brown Girl in the Ring is a novel
by writer Nalo Hopkinson
. It was the winning entry in the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and received the 1999 Locus Award for Best First Novel
and earned Hopkinson the 1999 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
It 2008, the actress and singer Jemeni
defended this novel in Canada Reads
, an annual literary competition broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
.
In the twelve years since the Riots, the city is now ruled by a criminal mastermind named Rudy Sheldon. Rudy is commissioned to find a heart for the Premier of Ontario, who needs a heart transplant. Normally, the Porcine Organ Harvest Program is used, but Premier Uttley deems the program "immoral" and prefers a human donor instead.
Ti-Jeanne is the heroine of the story. She's a new mother who gets visions of people's deaths, and her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, is a well-respected apothecary and spiritualist who runs an herbal and medicine shop. Ti-Jeanne left her former lover, Tony, but, after Tony defies Rudy, whom he works for by refusing to kill someone for their heart, he arrives on her grandmother's doorsteps asking for protection. Ti-Jeanne decides to help him with the aid of her grandmother.
Later in the novel, Rudy is revealed to be Ti-Jeanne's grandfather, Gros-Jeanne's husband. It turns out that Rudy was an abusive husband and Gros-Jeanne kicked him out and found a new lover, named Dunston, and since Rudy has been vengeful.
Meanwhile, Rudy summons the Calabash Duppy spirit and commands the duppy to kill Gros-jeanne, Ti-Jeanne and Tony, who was sent to kill Gros-Jeanne and take her heart for Primier Uttley). It's revealed that the duppy is Mi-Jeanne (Ti-Jeanne's mom).
In the CN Tower, Rudy sets the Calabash spirit on Ti-Jeanne who has come to confront him after Tony killed Gros-Jeanne. Ti-Jeanne is trapped and injected with Buff, a drug that paralyzes her. While in a state of paralysis, Ti-Jeanne slips into an "astral" state or spirit state, and she calls upon the ancestor spirits to help her. They kill Rudy by allowing the "weight of every murder he had done fell on him."
Meanwhile, Premier Uttley's new heart (Gros-Jeanne's heart) attacks her body. Eventually, it takes over her spirit and when she wakes up from the surgery, she has a change of mind about human heart donorship and declares that she will make an attempt to help Toronto return to a rule of law by funding small business owners.
On Gros-Jeanne's Nine Night event, all her friends arrive to help out, and so does Tony. Ti-Jeanne has trouble forgiving him for killing Gros-Jeanne, but Jenny tells her "he wants to do penance." She lets him into the event to say goodbye to Gros-Jeanne and is surprised that Baby doesn't cry around him anymore. It ends with Ti-Jeanne sitting on her steps, thinking of what she'll name Baby, who is possessed with the spirit of Dunston, Gros-Jeanne's former lover.
declared Brown Girl "one of the best debut novels to appear in years," although he acknowledged initial difficulty with the novel's "phonetic spellings and sometimes convoluted sentences."
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by writer Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican science fiction and fantasy writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her novels and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.Hopkinson has...
. It was the winning entry in the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and received the 1999 Locus Award for Best First Novel
Locus Award for Best First Novel
Winners of the Locus Award for Best First Novel, awarded by the Locus magazine. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year....
and earned Hopkinson the 1999 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
It 2008, the actress and singer Jemeni
Jemeni (singer)
Joanne Gairy, better known by her stage name Jemeni, is an actress, writer, activist, broadcaster and community worker. She was born in Grenada, but grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario and now lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She studied Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University, Toronto.She...
defended this novel in Canada Reads
Canada Reads
Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC.-Overview:During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series...
, an annual literary competition broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
.
Plot
The story takes place in the city core of Metropolitan Toronto (Downtown Toronto) after the economic collapse, which saw investors, commerce and government flee to the suburbs. After the police left, the city erupted in chaos and the Riots occurred. As a consequence of the Riots, Toronto is isolated from other satellite cities in the surounding GTA (North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke) by roadblocks and Lake Ontario has become a mudhole.In the twelve years since the Riots, the city is now ruled by a criminal mastermind named Rudy Sheldon. Rudy is commissioned to find a heart for the Premier of Ontario, who needs a heart transplant. Normally, the Porcine Organ Harvest Program is used, but Premier Uttley deems the program "immoral" and prefers a human donor instead.
Ti-Jeanne is the heroine of the story. She's a new mother who gets visions of people's deaths, and her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, is a well-respected apothecary and spiritualist who runs an herbal and medicine shop. Ti-Jeanne left her former lover, Tony, but, after Tony defies Rudy, whom he works for by refusing to kill someone for their heart, he arrives on her grandmother's doorsteps asking for protection. Ti-Jeanne decides to help him with the aid of her grandmother.
Later in the novel, Rudy is revealed to be Ti-Jeanne's grandfather, Gros-Jeanne's husband. It turns out that Rudy was an abusive husband and Gros-Jeanne kicked him out and found a new lover, named Dunston, and since Rudy has been vengeful.
Meanwhile, Rudy summons the Calabash Duppy spirit and commands the duppy to kill Gros-jeanne, Ti-Jeanne and Tony, who was sent to kill Gros-Jeanne and take her heart for Primier Uttley). It's revealed that the duppy is Mi-Jeanne (Ti-Jeanne's mom).
In the CN Tower, Rudy sets the Calabash spirit on Ti-Jeanne who has come to confront him after Tony killed Gros-Jeanne. Ti-Jeanne is trapped and injected with Buff, a drug that paralyzes her. While in a state of paralysis, Ti-Jeanne slips into an "astral" state or spirit state, and she calls upon the ancestor spirits to help her. They kill Rudy by allowing the "weight of every murder he had done fell on him."
Meanwhile, Premier Uttley's new heart (Gros-Jeanne's heart) attacks her body. Eventually, it takes over her spirit and when she wakes up from the surgery, she has a change of mind about human heart donorship and declares that she will make an attempt to help Toronto return to a rule of law by funding small business owners.
On Gros-Jeanne's Nine Night event, all her friends arrive to help out, and so does Tony. Ti-Jeanne has trouble forgiving him for killing Gros-Jeanne, but Jenny tells her "he wants to do penance." She lets him into the event to say goodbye to Gros-Jeanne and is surprised that Baby doesn't cry around him anymore. It ends with Ti-Jeanne sitting on her steps, thinking of what she'll name Baby, who is possessed with the spirit of Dunston, Gros-Jeanne's former lover.
Reception
F&SF reviewer Charles de LintCharles de Lint
Charles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and folk musician. He is also the chief book critic for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction....
declared Brown Girl "one of the best debut novels to appear in years," although he acknowledged initial difficulty with the novel's "phonetic spellings and sometimes convoluted sentences."