What a fitting title! What a gruelling account of Manon Gaudet life as a white woman in New Orleans in 1828. But how much more cruel and it was if you happeded bo be born with black skin. Manon's life was so raw. She was owned and frustrated by her primitive type husband but she in turn was jealous and spiteful towards her slave servant Sarah. Survival was all they could both hope for in a land where disease was rife and the Negroes were treated like animals. Neither trusted or respected each other amd so lived in constant fear of reprisal and murder. Yet Manon tried to analyse herself and her surroundings, was ready to admit her family's wrongs and even learned to tolerate and even show signs of affection fot Walter the deaf son of her servant Sarah and her husband.
The scene and the charactors are well set and the story moves along with pace and tension. I wanted to find out what happened next and I am so glad that I have so many friends with black skin who I look up to. Where and when I was born is is not my doing but I am delighted to live at a time when the President of the United States is a black man. Is that because as an Irish person I remember that I read the signs 'No black, no dogs, no Irish need apply, posted on some houses to let?
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