I AM NOT YOUR EVE, Devika Ponnambalam.

Blue Moose paperback 2022

NEW

Pick up Morningside or courier as advised.

A polyphonic novel of Teha'amana, Tahitian muse and child-bride to Paul Gaugin, from her point of view conveyed through the myths and legends of the islands.

History has been particularly unkind to Paul Gauguin, his art now recognized as exploitative and his Tahitian travels, well, unseemly. Gauguin infamously wed child bride Teha’amana - his “muse” - who was featured in Merahi metua no Tehamana and whom he also painted in rather grotesque states of undress. Enter Devika Ponnambalam whose debut novel tackles this legacy head on, focusing not on Gauguin directly but instead giving voice to Teha’amana and other women, including Gauguin's 13-year-old daughter, the same age as Teha’amana. The narrative is told in fragments, frequently shifting speakers and points of view, mirroring Ponnambalam's effort to reconstitute history from forgotten female speakers. Ponnambalam also weaves in Tahitian creation myths, which are themselves problematic celebrations of rape and female disempowerment. Others have noted the potentially problematic aspect of a 21st century Western writer giving a first-person voice to Teha’amana that is itself full of our own cultural assumptions. That is a fair point and an issue that is ripe for discussion. But for me, Ponnambalam's artistic choices seem respectful and at a minimum re-center the story around Teha’amana. Over all, the novel is lyrical and ephemeral, the prose reflecting Gauguin's visual work in that respect, but the result is an unequivocal deconstruction of Gauguin's art and the racist, patriarchal power structures that facilitated - and celebrated - his exploitation.

Genres Historical Fiction Fiction Historical Art Mythology Book Club 19th Century