the Black Madonna

Comments about “the Black Madonna”

I think this story concern the gap between the whites and the blacks and the discovery that the later has pride and justifiable resentment. The girl who wanders into the native village describes wonderfully the feeling of alienation that the natives must feel back in her world.
The author manages to use a few pages to deal with racial, class and sexual issues that other writers might have resorted to acres of print to get the same message across. Her character portraits are deep but never overpowering and there is often an autobiographical feel to it with the leading characters being young girls.
Most of these stories reserve the insight into the racial colonial world to girls and women. That is something that might make me read more because there is a style here that is distinctive.
In the Black Madonna an Italian prisoner of war manages to befriend a captain and unlock his tongue with brandy but also the power of art. The Black Madonna in question both scares and attracts the captain who is envious in a way of the Italian’s simple view of love and the world. That is maybe the advantage he has being the captured man. He shows friendship for the captain but when spurned knows how to wound him deeply with just a couple of words.