Pink House at Appleton / Matador (ePub)

The Pink House at Appleton is set in late 1950s Jamaica, during the period when the country was on the verge of independence. The novel covers a year in the life of a black middle-class Jamaican family at the Appleton Sugar Estate, and the story plays out against a background of subtle race and class prejudice and adultery. Jonathan Braham carefully describes the fate of the Brookes family when Harold Brookes, proud, ambitious and determined to establish himself and bring up his family with the right values, is unable to measure up to his own ideals. His clandestine relationship with Ann Mitchison, the white wife of the English assistant general manager of the estate, and the ramifications of a previous, secret liaison with a common woman, bring about the destruction of both families. The Pink House at Appleton is set against a changing political scene, Jamaica's luxuriant pastoral beauty, and portrays a time when Jamaica was a much more innocent place. It is a book about adult relationships, but is also a coming-of-age tale seen through the eyes of eight-year-old Boyd Brookes who is searching for meaning and smitten with seven-year-old Susan Mitchison. The two hypersensitive children nurture a secret relationship, musing and dreaming of meeting, and see each other as romantic characters in a book. Their relationship is cut short as their families disintegrate and a playful event brings about sudden tragedy.