The Pagoda

This book takes Patricia Powell's extraordinarily sensual writing to a new level. I felt myself carried away in the stream of dreamlike possibilities this book launched within me! Brava, Ms. Powell for your courage and vision!

I consider this novel to be well-written. The plot is exceptionally original.The novel revolves around characters who have been so wounded and so traumized they are unable to truly communicate and connect with one another.Some well kept secrets began to unravel, and lives began to change, following the night the main character, Lowe, a Chinese man's small shop is burned down and with it the death of a mysterious man named Cecil.

This is a serious story of desperate connections, the kind of unconventional connections or couplings that happen between people when a life has been hard or traumatic. The challenge here is for the reader to stretch a little and trust the author to tell a difficult and compelling story, a story definitely beyond our usual mainstream, quick-fix way of thinking. Yes, Lowe has a distant and remote way of loving those around him, but he cares about his world, past and present, and it is the twisted and difficult integrating of those worlds that Patricia Powell attempts here. For this reader, her story is a huge success. This psychologically intense story might not be light enough for the beach, but for a stormy weekend inside, it's perfect.

This powerful and evocative novel uses the metaphors of hiding and disguise to explore themes of trauma, uprootedness and loss. Against the riveting backdrop of a turn-of-the-century Jamaica wracked by political and racial upheaval, the main character, Lowe, struggles mightily with the legacy of a cache of secrets that have left him lonely and emotionally straitjacketed. The story, like Lowe, unfolds like a lotus flower, revealing layer upon layer of buried hopes, fears and memories as it tracks Lowe's lurching progress toward his elusive twin goals: to express love and to be seen. Ultimately, Powell captures the unquenchable will of the human spirit to reach toward wholeness and connection. The prose is spectacular - as dense and tactile as the island's tropical heat.