Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re in the Bs.
Country: Belize
Title: Beka Lamb
Author: Zee Edgell
Language: English
Translator: None
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books (1982)
While published just after Belize’s independence, Zee Edgell’s Beka Lamb is set in the 1950s. The novel covers mere months in the life of a 14-year-old girl living in a country fighting for a voice; it’s as much a political novel as it is a coming-of-age tale, and 1950s Belize was really when the fight for independence began in earnest with the formation of PUP (People’s United Party).
Beka’s grandmother attends the party meetings and marches, often bringing Beka with her, whereas Beka’s father struggles to maintain a neutrality that will best benefit his family and his people. But it’s Beka’s mother and her silent struggle to grow roses like those found in “English gardens” that beautifully captures the impact of colonization and a changing landscape seeking freedom.
Beka’s best friend is the 17-year-old Toycie. Toycie’s mother had left her with Miss Eila, who didn’t have children of her own, and fled to the United States. Miss Eila didn’t have much, but she had plenty of love. Driven by that love, she somehow managed to find the funds to enroll Toycie in the convent school and to get her music lessons. Toycie was brilliant, but she gets kicked out of school when she becomes pregnant. The novel opens just after her death, and Beka is out of sorts that she couldn’t give her beloved friend a wake. What follows are flashbacks or memories of the proceeding months leading up to the hurricane and Toyce’s untimely death. These memories serve as her “wake” and a way for Beka to grieve and let Toycie go while finding a bit of her country’s voice in her own.
Read this book.
A Girl Named Tommi 