The Pirate's Daughter: Summary and book reviews of The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson, plus links to an excerpt from The Pirate's Daughter and a biography of Margaret Cezair-Thompson.
The Pirate's Daughter
by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Hardcover: Oct 2007,
432 pages.
Paperback: Aug 2008,
432 pages.
“Back in America, little was known of my life in Jamaica,” wrote Errol Flynn.
In 1946, a storm-wrecked boat carrying Hollywood’s most famous swashbuckler shored up on the coast of Jamaica, and the glamorous world of 1940’s Hollywood converged with that of a small West Indian society. After a long and storied career on the silver screen, Errol Flynn spent much of the last years of his life on a small island off of Jamaica, throwing parties and sleeping with increasingly younger teenaged girls. Based on those years, The Pirate’s Daughter is the story of Ida, a local girl who has an affair with Flynn that produces a daughter, May, who meets her father but once.
Spanning two generations of women whose destinies become inextricably linked with the matinee idol’s, this lively novel tells the provocative history of a vanished era, of uncommon kinships, compelling attachments, betrayal and atonement in a paradisal, tropical setting. As adept with Jamaican vernacular as she is at revealing the internal machinations of a fading and bloated matinee idol, Margaret Cezair-Thompson weaves a saga of a mother and daughter finding their way in a nation struggling to rise to the challenge of independence.
Inspired by a few facts from Errol Flynn's life, and rooting her story firmly in Jamaican history, Cezair-Thompson vividly imagines the life of Ida, who is little more than a child herself when she gives birth to her daughter May, the illegitimate child of 1930/40s movie star Errol Flynn - known as a swashbuckling adventurer on screen, and for his glittering parties and affairs off screen. Most of the action takes place in Jamaica, but even when Ida leaves the island for some years the author stays true to the Jamaican experience because, for at least a century, one of Jamaica's primary exports has been its people. (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
O Magazine - Michele Owens
Once you get past a slightly-too-literary wrapping for the narrative, including a confusing prologue, this speedboat just buzzes along. The real star? It’s not Errol Flynn, it’s Jamaica.
The Washington Post - Amy Alexander
Set in the golden years between the end of World War II and the onset of the political and economic upheavals that began under Prime Minister Michael Manley in the 1970s, "The Pirate's Daughter" sparkles with characters real and imagined
Cezair-Thompson unravels a surprising yarn that is rich, salty and ultimately satisfying.
Publishers Weekly
For all the high drama, the reader never feels fully privy to Ida or May, but Cezair-Thompson otherwise succeeds magnificently in evoking a world distant in both time and place.
Angela Bobbitt, Reed's Gum Tree Bookstore
"A very clever read...the excitement and glamor of Old Hollywood mixed with the rich and bold characters of Jamaica make for a great adventure. But what makes this novel such a standout is the author's talent of evoking place! I was there...I could smell the dampness, the rotting bananas..feel the languor brought on by the heat, and taste the Otaheite apples. Sometimes after I finish a book I think of what I would have done differently...not in this case. The Pirate's Daughter is perfect."
Fred Powell, Main Street Books
Great story, wonderful/fully developed characters (will I ever forget Ida?), a little bit of Hollywood charm and name dropping (Capote, Monroe), but most interesting to me were all the political and social changes that were happening in Jamaica during the time period of the story.... Altogether a great book.
Susan Diffenderfer, Tall Tales Book Shop
After spending two straight days reading, I guess you could say I was totally absorbed. The chance meeting of an aging, ever vain Errol Flynn and Ida, a young, mixed-race girl and their ensuing brief relationship is the beginning of a poignant story of unrequited love and its ripple effect over two generations of family and friends. Imperfect yet intriguing characters made the narrative come to life, and the setting on the island of Jamaica is so vividly described, I almost felt the ocean breezes, smelled the frangipani, and listened to the island's patois. What is it about pirates and other swashbuckling types that continues to hold our interest over the years? Is it the freedom from ordinary rules? I wonder.
Stephen F. Shapiro, Rainy Day Books
After the tumultuous drama of her first novel The True History of Paradise, Margaret Cezair-Thompson’s new novel takes on a lighter air, but one no less atmospheric, about the unique way of life that is Jamaica. Combining elements both real and imagined—the actor Errol Flynn’s wayward years there, spent in mischief, like Gauguin’s time in Tahiti, as well as the author’s own romance with the high seas and Robinson Crusoe—The Pirate’s Daughter is a fantasy which unfolds in its own time, and on its own level of entertainment. Island characters who grow chapter by chapter are accorded respect as much as a sense of the comic (and, even, the cosmic), as they seek to entangle the secrets behind Flynn’s life and the mysteries of fiction. This is not the book that the title leads one to think it will be, or should; it flowers all on its own as a perfect word-of-mouth family fantasy.
Jamie Kornegay, Turnrow Books
I was completely caught off guard by how wonderful it is.... Everything here is very real and alive. The story is light and swift as a sea breeze, and imbued with the genuine essence of Jamaica. Her characters bound off the page, and while many writers would be tempted to give Errol Flynn run of the show, the mother and daughter outshine the matinée idol. I won't soon forget this family. The Pirate's Daughter has the makings of a sleeper hit.
Marva Allen, Hue-Man Bookstore (NY)
There are books and then there are great books . Once in awhile, these days, a great book comes along that makes a bookseller proud to be a part of its success ... The Pirate's Daughter is a literary triumph that combines all the elements of a great novel: romance, intrigue, history, glamour and suspense. What an unforgettable masterpiece. I can't wait for the giant to awaken!
Kathy L. Patrick, Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs
A treasure to read…A splendid adventure in reading and one that I would highly recommend for any armchair traveler.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Kaley Fantastic book This is one of the most entertaining books I've ever read!
I pray the author is writing another book soon.
Rated of 5
by Kathy Excellent - didn't want to put it down I SO enjoyed this book. I thought the premise was intriguing (Errol Flynn fathering a child in Jamaica), although Flynn is not the main character, and actually, comes off as sort of a self-absorbed, pitiful character. the book was rich with... Read More
Rated of 5
by Deborah Family and Identity An imaginative, touching book about love, the longing for family, and the search for identity. Both Ida and May are caught among racial identities (African, Chinese, Caucasian) in the changing Jamaica of the 1960s and beyond. The author portrays... Read More
Rated of 5
by Kathy Excellent - didn't want to put it down I SO enjoyed this book. I thought the premise was intriguing (Errol Flynn fathering a child in Jamaica), although Flynn is not the main character, and actually, comes off as sort of a self-absorbed, pitiful character. the book was rich with... Read More
Rated of 5
by Sandra Hooray for Cezair-Thompson I can hardly wait to hear from Margaret Cezair-Thompson again. I was delighted to read a book in which I enjoyed the main characters. I did not always like what they did but I still liked them The supporting characters lent such a wonderful and... Read More
Rated of 5
by Deb Just a lovely book! I would recommend this book to anyone as it has something to offer a reader at many different levels. Family, romance, Hollywood, Jamaica, and the areas where they connect. I was apprehensive about writing a review, but this book made it easy.... Read More
The island nation of
Jamaica is in the Greater
Antilles about 385 northeast of
the Central American mainland,
and about 90 miles south of
Cuba. Within a century of
Columbus sailing the ocean blue
and the subsequent Spanish
occupation of the island in
1494, the native Arawaks (who
called the island Xaymaca) had
effectively died out, due to
smallpox and interbreeding with
European and African settlers
(the term Arawak is used to
describe the Amerindians the
Spanish encountered in the
Caribbean, which included the
Taino, Lucayan, Bimini, Nepoya,
Suppoyo and Caribs).
The Spanish used the island that
they called Santiago as a base
for supporting the conquest of
the...
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