Book Review: "A Trace of Sun" by Pam Williams

Emotionally destructive books have always been a draw to me. In fact, it was only recently that I was reading a book called Go as a River and that was destructive enough. When it comes to dealing with touchy issues that are more than often difficult to discuss because of how sensitive they are, literature is probably the best way to do it. But, even though they may be difficult to talk about, literature opens the door because of how universal these issues actually are. They seem a lot more common and so, they not only bring people together who have experienced them, but they also teach those who have not directly experienced them a form of empathy by proxy. When it comes to A Trace of Sun, I feel like I kind of got halfway there with that latter lesson.

Raef lives with his mother and father plus his younger brother in Grenada. The atmospheric space is warm and inviting but also coated in poverty. As Raef's mother, Cilla, tries to put her children before herself - she experiences the brunt of what poverty has to offer. However, the fortunes begin to turn somewhat (or so they look as though they do) when Raef's mother and father state that they are going to leave for England in order to find the family a better life. The only problem is that the younger brother, Davey, will go with them since he is too small to be without his parents and the older brother, Raef, will be left in Grenada until they can afford a ticket for him.

Initially, it seems like an alright idea and the reader feels like Raef is just being a bit scared of being left alone without his parents. But as the book gets underway, we find that Raef's father has no intention of bringing his child to England to reunite with his family as his reckless spending of any disposable income and terrible attitude towards his eldest son become more and more apparent as the family try to make a new life for themselves. On top of this, whilst in England, Cilla gives birth to a daughter and yet again, the money is spent in another place. It will be many years until Raef reunites with his parents and by then, the damage has already been done.

When Raef finally arrives in the UK, it becomes obvious that he is not the same person he was before. He is more introverted, led by his trauma of being left behind and, as he believes, replaced by his sister. He tends towards darker thoughts and ultimately rages and attacks his younger sister out of jealousy and envy. He is then put away for some time to be treated for mental illness. This is then followed by some very horrific situations and thus, Raef chooses to leave the family and never see them again. All the while, Raef's mother is harbouring a horrific secret that will make the family question who they are and more importantly, it will threaten to tear apart the life of Raef once more.

The advantage that this story has is the many different issues it deals with. It is not a story about immigration but rather a story about priorities and being grateful, it is a traumatic story about the life of a family torn apart by need and finally, it is a family dynamic equivalent of a ticking time bomb. It is written with such calm from the beginning that the chaos kind of goes unsuspected and disappears under the radar, but the crescendo is hard to ignore and it finally comes to a peak after rising and bubbling for so long. The character of Raef may be at the centre of the action, but Cilla is its beating heart.

All in all, I thought this was a book of many different emotions. I don't think that all of them were fleshed out as completely as they could be although, I do think that the writer provided us with a good balance of everything. This is a really compelling read with some dynamic, traumatised and horrifying storylines worked in and if you are planning to read this book, I'd just like to ask you to hold on to something. This is not going to be a quiet ride.