Primitive People (1993) byFrancine Prose

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Primitive People (1993)

by Francine Prose

Hudson's Landing, New York 

New York: 11/105

Upstate: 10/23

  I'm pretty sure that Primitive People, a novel written by a white American woman from the point of view of Simone, an illegal Haitian immigrant would have issues getting published in 2023.  It's not like Simone is one character among multiple narrators, Primitive People is written exclusively from the perspective of Simone, starting with her life in Haiti, where she has a career as an assistant to an American diplomat working in Port-Au-Prince.  Her life is turned upside down when her kind boss is replaced by an unkind boss, and her painter fiance starts cheating on her with a different woman.  Time to go!  She swipes some money from her fiancee- who is never heard from again- hooks up with an agency that arranges a fake husband for her and finds a job as a Nanny (child care, not cleaning) for a ditzy upstate New Yorker who is going through a divorce from her wealthy husband.  

    This was my first encounter with Prose- who got a National Book Award nomination  in 2000 for Blue Angel, a campus novel (sigh).  Prose has written a ton of books but no hits that I can see on her Amazon author page. Her inclusion on the 1,0001 Novels list is very on-brand for editor Susan Straight, who has already introduced me to over twenty American women authors of fiction that I hadn't heard of or read before I started this project. 

 

   Primitive People also had me wondering how many books I'm going to have to read about women working as domestic servants- somehow New England didn't have any that I can recall but New York has already had two.  The first, a legal Puerto Rican immigrant and his book, about an illegal Haitian immigrant.   At a little over 200 pages, it's hard to be offended by Prose's depiction of Simone- although her education isn't discussed, she speaks English fluently (Haitians speak French or a creole French) and sounds like an American college students.  Her recollections of life in Haiti often sound like they come out of a New York times article. 

   I went back and read the New York Times book review from 1993- they obviously didn't see any issues with Simone back then- there was even an excerpt from the book included with the review.   But again, I'm not someone who sees cross-racial characters as particularly problematic, but I am surprised that Susan Straight doesn't see it as problematic given her general concern with gender equality and economic diversity within the 1,001 Novels project thus far (100 books in).