The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

I picked up The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey after it was recommended by Nancy Pearl on NPR as part of the summer reading list.

Set in Trinidad, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle is a story about love, marriage, colonialism, race and so much more. It is set up in three sections, starting with the present and then going backwards to trace Sabine and George Harwood's arrival and early years in the country.

Something about that set up was confusing to me - I knew what happened in the end, but didn't have the context to understand why and then when I had the context I forgot some of the details of what happens.

I think it would have been better to stay in chronological order so that there wasn't any question of what was happening and why.

But overall Roffey tells a story that details life in Trinidad, the fall of colonialism, the rise of a democracy and corruption and race relations throughout.