Wuthering heights is like a black version of Wuthering Heights. The love story is between Cathy and Rayze. Rayze is a guy Cathy's father brought off the street to work for him. The two fall in love, but it can never work because Cathy is white, and Rayze is black. When Rayze leaves, and then return Cathy is married to another guy which runs Rayze crazy. This novel is told through the eyes of the people Cathy and Rayze comes in contact with, each chapter is written like a short story. I wasen't expecting Cathy's tradegy to take place so early in the book, I ithrought her and Rayze would have more time together once he returned. Rayze considered Cathy his soul, he was always trying to find a voodoo doctor to bring her back alive. I felt so bad for him, he love Cathy her so much. Rayze never get's over her death, and end up treating everybody in his life bad, his wife, kids. The book was good, and sad.

I love Conde's books, and if you like the lazy, almost nostalgic style of so many of the South American and Caribbean writers you will no doubt find this book a great read.

The characters are at once powerful and vulnerable - the women are especially fascinating in that they breathe sexuality yet appear within the rigid confines of the society of the day.

The book is a 'remake' of Wuthering Heights, but don't let that put you off - it manages to deftly weave the original with Conde's own unique blend of interests and concerns - race, social injustice and hypocrisy. As modern as it is classic.

The passionate tragedy created by different social classes in WUTHERING HEIGHTS is hard to comprehend in contemporary USA. In WINDWARD HEIGHTS Conde renews the emotional reaction by changing classes to skin color in a 19th century Caribbean setting.

Conde following the Bronte storyline closely which means a plethora of characters with confusing relationships, the only weakness in the novel.

The sickness of spirit that results when a child is not loved or accepted by the society in which he or she lives is dangerous to all of society. In Conde's version the Heathcliff character wreaks havoc on the region, not just family members.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS was never the romance portrayed by Merle Oberson & Laurence Olivier, it is a story of obsession and revenge. Conde's version is beautifully written and seems more up-to-date.

Bronte fans will enjoy comparing the original to WINDWARD HEIGHTS & Alice Hoffman's version in HERE ON EARTH.

The beauty of this book is portioned out equally between the skill and dexterity of Hewitt and that of her subjects. Not only does Hewitt walk with ease across the tightrope of autobiography, her entire book is, as a whole, a perfectly balanced affair. It includes the distinct, prismatic effects of each of her selected modern French female autobiographers as she shines a new light on autobiography--but it also includes how each of the autobiographers' lights reflect upon and and influence one another. The book is balanced, as well, in the experiences of the French writers, themselves; Hewitt listens and gives her attention to a wide variety of French females. feminists, anti-feminists, being French in a foreign land, being Foreign in a French land, being lesbian, heterosexual, anti-gender, a black writer, a white writer--Hewitt values the distinct spice each experience adds to the overall genre of autobiography. Although this variety makes Hewitt's book seem to be a superficial sampler of modern feminine French autobiography, nothing can be further from the truth. With concise, yet exciting language, Hewitt sometimes digs so deeply into the experiences of her subjects and how they are novel and unique, this reviewer literally had an urge to go out immediately to the library and spend the rest of her life studying autobiography. This is not to say that Hewitt's book is flawless; no book is. In order to generate her great balance, Hewitt appears to stretch the genre of autobiography too far in order to fit her specifications. In searching for non-white, non-traditionally-gendered and foreign French voices, she included the work of Maryse Conde and Monique Wittig, skilled writers, but unfortunately for Hewitt, not autobiographers. Hewitt breaches the integral attraction/repulsion of autobiography in confusing what are clearly fictions with self-references, and the autobiographical genre. Although there is no clear-cut definition of autobiography, the easiest and most efficient way to discover what is and isn't autobiography is to ask the writer. In these cases, the works of the authors are certainly self-referential, but they are clearly not autobiography. Hewitt addresses these concerns, true, but her justifications for their inclusion in a book about autobiography are not ultimately satisfying. Yet, this book is a gem, filled with fresh insights into the work of the writers she studies and very interesting hypotheses. It is a fairly easy read, clearly digestible for the non-academic, and the readers' knowledge of Hewitt's subjects is not necessary to understand and appreciate this impressive book.

This series of interviews gives a lively introduction to the works by the West Indian writer from the French island of Guadeloupe. Biographical details as well as political observations contribute to the understanding of Condé's works. I have used it as a launch pad to Caribbean literature written in French.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I felt like I was pulled into this book and placed right before the characters. Conde is a wonderful writer who takes the reader on an exciting and thrilling journey. Potential readers, don't be put off because this book is not an easy read. It is well worth your time and you'll be surprised at how very interesting it is.

Ce livre etait magnifique; puissant, profond, triste au meme temps qu'optimistique. On peut vraiment comprendre le personnage de Tituba, on peut suivre ses sentiments d'isolation et ses difficulties avec la religion et la sexualite dans une societe chretienne. Je le recommende pour ceux qui aiment un bon livre francais.

This is one of the first comprehensive volumes that explains the process of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Through fifteen chapters, this book offers the reader the necessary tools to understand what is happening and what might happen in the Western Hemisphere from an economic perspective. The structure of the book is highly comprehensive as so are the vast majority of the chapters. Highly recommended!

I was glad to see that this book was about Tituba and her life instead of just about the Salem Witch Trials. She had a life before and after that tragedy, and the author has made that life one that kept me interested until the end. I probably didn't need all the references to penises, but I did enjoy reading about a life so different from mine. I liked Tituba very much as presented by this author. I think Americans need to read more international literature for the exposure to other cultures, and this book is a good place to start. Even though she was from Barbardos, Tituba is a woman, and I share that bond with her. I liked the way she doubted, but never completely lost faith in her fellow human beings. I've been to Salem, and what the author says is true: Tituba as a real person has really been forgotten. This book reveals her, finally.

It wasn't a European Witch that started the Witch-hunts in Salem; in fact it was a young Barbados Voodoo Practitioner. And although Tituba was no Voodoo Queen such as Marie Laveau, Tituba's life was just as interesting. This is a good read.

I bought this book years ago at in the gift shop of The Witch Museum in Salem, MA. Never got around to reading it until now...I can't believe I waited so long! I've only started reading it, but the first 5 chapters alone have been superb. Highly recommended!

Holder, a Ph.D. candidate in comparative literature, goes on personal odessey to Mexico, seeks sexual freedom, which she feels is denied to her in ultramacho heterosexual America, gets revelations, sends back letters in prearranged agreement with one friend to get letters published as book, and is murdered by lover whom she hoped to bring back to her home in New York City. Brilliant side essays on various topics, as well as investigation into true self (or selves).

Mindblowing, searingly honest search for self by woman whose true identity (beautiful, vibrant) had been masked by deformity (some facial paralysis on one side caused by childhood surgery). Maryse, a brillint academic (enrolled in Ph. D. comparative literature program in New York City , CCNY) set out on personal and sexual odyssey in Mexico.Graphic and hauntingly beautiful descriptions of Mexican culture, including machismo and violence.

I have to disagree with the reviewer below. Throughout this book, Maryse Holder was obsessed with her looks: "I had taken the last step--had killed my beauty." "I'm quite fat." "...my anxiety about my creepy nine-years-older flesh..." And on and on. In the epilog, after her death, the writer goes on at some length about her looks: "Her enormous chic made it difficult to regard her as squat, but she was...She had grape-trampling flat feet, which she ignored, except when she wanted sympathy." It's one of the central themes of the book and you can't help but wonder what she did look like.

There's shining beauty in the writing, but there's also ugly self absorption and vanity, the kind that's exacerbated by alcholism and days of taking drugs. To be fair, these are a series of letters home, published after her death. As such, they're raw and perhaps not how someone would choose to portray herself. The net effect of the book is to make you think Maryse Holder went to Mexico and remained drunk and stoned, picked up young Mexican men to try and shore up her disintegratingsense of self. This book is the rstory one woman's alcoholic descent, and it's heartbreaking. Because despite all that, she was an astonishing writer.

The last book assigned in my African-American Women's Literature course actually goes a little off the coast to look at a Guadalopean writer who now makes her home in the U.S. but writes about her island birthplace in her native French and Creole. This novel is her most recent, a study it seems of a community on the island and the changes brought about by an outsider.

The outsider, Frances Sancher, dies in Chapter One, and the reader expects a mystery here, in which an explanation for his death is revealed in the end. And it is true enough that Frances is a mysterious character, especially as seen through the many different eyes of the community, but Conde is not writing a detective story-- or, at least, not a traditional one. Even though Frances seems to be a catalyst for change in the community, he is not the center of the novel, even though his physical body in its casket serves as the candle to which the moths are drawn. Like the candle, Frances' life and death illuminates the other characters, sometimes singeing one or two, but when the candle burns out, the moths are free to move on and return to what they were doing before the candle arrived.

I really liked the structure of this novel, as each chapter is told from a new point of view (nearly 20 different in all). I realize that this is nothing new--William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and other novels have used a similar scheme--but this was the first time I had run into it.

I'm not sure the novel works for me in the end, either, unless Conde's purpose was to portray Guadalopean society as fractured and diverse. This definitely comes through, but works against the Western tradition of cohesiveness in the novel. The ending here is not Aristotelian; instead, it implies a multitude of beginnings.

I hate reviews of books because you either get a lame overstatement or a careless understatement. Most the reviews that I've read on this book speaks of a mysterious death that leads to an investigative story--- and the investigative assumption makes readers like me completely skip books of the nature.

BUT THIS BOOK HAS A STEW SO THICK IN CULTURE and COLOR SCENERY that it encaptures you so that shortly you'll realize that the book is over. Every character has an interesting story. I love this book and I plan to read more of Conde's novels. It's a journey in past times and current times, cultures varying from Negro, Mulatto, East Indian, French/Creole Carribean as well Spanish Carribiean and Americas..You'll love it.

This book is your perfect travel read; meaning that this book takes you places. You'll have a mix of French and Creole stew and the diverse cultures formed in the Carribean. If you have a love for Nature, Mystery, and a leading Storyline, please buy this book!

Heremakhonon takes a different bent for Conde in which it seems that she was writing to a rhythmn of very fast-paced drums. It is more complex than Segu. Looking for herself the young protagonist goes to Africa leaving behind the subtle effects of racism in the US. It is an adventure for her and the reader. Anyone who likes the direct contact with the protagonist's mind will love this novel. In reading it, you don't have to wait long to find out exactly what she thinks in any situation, Conde puts it right there for you. It is a book written in an abrupt and intriging style.