I prefer when it's substituted with a realistic description allowing me to see characters more as fully fleshed human beings. It’s really not as simple as that, Roffey points out: “I think if you unravel female jealousy, you find the patriarchy. It’s a competition for the alpha male, and we’ve ever been thus. Our patriarchy is highly internalised.” It’s hard if you’re a pale-skinned Caribbean writer to say what you think, for fear of being orphaned by your own kind One of the characters I couldn’t help but adore, called Reggie, is so open and curious about the world. He is the one to fall into such an easy and close friendship with Aycayia, with such an open-mindedness that I loved their bond together. This is David's first person account from his journal written 40 years later in the local creole, entries from which are interspersed with the third-person narration (mostly in more standard English) and Aycayia’s own thoughts, which are set down, in free verse: This enchanting tale of a cursed mythical creature and the lonely fisherman who falls in love with her is "a daring, mesmerizing novel … single-handedly bringing magic realism up-to-date (Maggie O'Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet).

I especially loved working out the Caribbean language and bringing these characters to life. This book was so immersive and I loved its focus on myths and transformation. And in this other interview with the New Statesman, Roffey also talked about the hybrid form of the novel — where an omniscient narrator appears alongside Aycayia’s verses and David’s journal entries. She says: One result of that internalisation has been the “madwoman in the attic trope”, which was transported into Caribbean literature by Jean Rhys via her novel Wide Sargasso Sea, which reinvents the first Mrs Rochester from Jane Eyre as a white Creole. “I think we’ve had enough of this historic, hysterical Freudian woman,” says Roffey. “I have every respect for Rhys, but we need new, different types of characters coming out of the region. An extraordinary, beautifully written, captivating, visceral book – full of mythic energy and unforgettable characters, including some tremendously transgressive women. . . . It is utterly original – unlike anything we’ve ever read – and feels like a classic in the making from a writer at the height of her powers. It’s a book that will take you to the furthest reaches of your imagination – we found it completely compelling.” —Suzannah Lipscomb, chair of Costa Book Awards Judges, 2020This was my first book I’ve read (listened) by author Monique Roffey. Her writing is gorgeous and completely engrossing. Priscilla sat in his office chair, one leg up on his desk. One hand rested on her pussy. Teacher's Pet, I wanna be Teacher's Pet... And I do find it fascinating how so many other authors we’ve read — Mexican author Fernanda Melchor who wrote Hurricane Season; Jamaican-born Nicole Dennis-Benn who wrote Patsy; Japanese writer Mieko Kawakami, who wrote Breasts and Eggs; and now Monique Roffey — have all created outsider/othered characters, other women characters, to explore complex social issues, from misogyny, to femicide, to homophobia and transphobia, to colorism and racism. And in keeping with the theme comparisons with other books we’ve read and mentioned in this podcast, I do feel this book is an interesting examination of the impact of patriarchal influence on what it means to be a woman, for example like we read in Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs, and how convention has it revolve around men — I mean, take Patricia’s jealousy in the book that mirrors the jealousy of the women who cursed Aycayia, just centuries later. All because of men, and it reminds me of a point Roffey makes in an Irish Times article, where it is noted:

He wanted to keep her safe, always. But he also suspected that wasn’t what she necessarily wanted, or needed. In fact, now she had the sneakers, he expected her to disappear some day, just like she’d appeared. […] He wanted her, but he also hoped she could be free to be whatever she wanted. One day while David is singing, he attracts the attention of “sea-dweller” he thought only existed in fairy tales and island “ole talk”. David sees the Mermaid, goes through a range of emotions one being curiosity. Daily he revisits the spot where he first sights the Mermaid, she begins showing up to hear him sing and play the guitar. They form a sort of bond that continues for weeks until the Mermaid begins listening for the hum of David’s boat. Ah, I love this idea of verbal acrobatics as kind of like this superpower. I mean, colonizers often didn’t learn the language of the people they colonized; but in being forced to learn the language of their colonizers, the colonized learned to wield it like a weapon, I would say. One can’t help admiring the boldness of Roffey’s vision. . . . Sentence by sensuous sentence, Roffey builds a verdant, complicated world that is a pleasure to live inside. . . . Aycayia is a magical creature, though rendered so physically you might start to believe in the existence of mermaids.” —Shruti Swamy, The New York TimesDavid was strumming his guitar and singing to himself when she first raised her barnacled, seaweed-clotted head from the flat, grey sea, its stark hues of turquoise not yet stirred. Plain so, the mermaid popped up and watched him for some time before he glanced around and caught sight of her. It’s really not as simple as that, Roffey points out: “I think if you unravel female jealousy, you find the patriarchy. It’s a competition for the alpha male, and we’ve ever been thus. Our patriarchy is highly internalised.”

And then when Aycayia reflects on the moments when she realized she was falling in love with David: I mean, it’s such a complex response to such a complex issue, right? For me this book was just amazing, this complex love story being shared about these two couples whose lives are intertwined. But that these relationships are both impacted by forces outside of their immediate impact and control, primarily the curse of those women centuries ago and the lingering impact of colonization, amongst other things. During a fishing competition a couple of wealthy Americans manage to capture the mermaid and plan to exploit her, that is until David saves her. These sections are narrated by the author. I have to mention that this mermaid had been a young performer who was cursed with a mermaid tail by jealous women of her community because they feared their husbands wouldn't be able to resist their desires for her. Put a pin in that.And we see this with all the characters in this book, but I thought it was especially clever to have the mermaid Aycayia speak in verse, which is how cultures and stories used to be passed down. In terms of crafting the story, it’s also an efficient way to give readers a sense of history without getting bogged down in it.