Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell

A severe hurricane early in the twentieth century, and several smaller storms since that time had helped to give parts of the town the appearance of a temporary camp. But this was misleading, for Belizeans loved their town which lay below the level of the sea and only through force of circumstances, moved to other parts of the country. It was a town, not unlike small towns everywhere perhaps, where each person, within his neighbourhood, was an individual with well known circumstances. Indeed, a Belizean without a known legend was the most talked about character of all.

Beka Lamb is a young girl living in the small Central American nation of Belize. Her parents have gone to great lengths to provide her the kind of education few Belizean girls have, but she's squandered it, failing all of her classes. She must labor to convince them to send her back for the next year so that she might prove herself again. Meanwhile, her best friend Toycie is a straight-A student, but she has begun to have problems of her own: Toycie's boyfriend Emilio has abandoned her just as Toycie has begun to suspect she is pregnant. Beka struggles to keep up with her urgent studies and be there for her friend at the same time; while Beka re-commits herself and grows, Toycie begins to fall irrevocably apart.

I've been doing this project, in which I am trying to read a book from each country, for about a year now. Beka Lamb is just the kind of book you hope will appear when searching among small and less developed countries like Belize. Not because it's especially good--it is, but nothing earth-shattering--but because it captures something indelible about the country, its land and customs, its palpable essence. If you stop to reflect, you might begin to suspect that a book like this one is written consciously for outsiders, in the way it scrupulously records the cuisine, the rituals, the music and dance, of Belize, but when such things are done with expertise, it hardly bothers you. Beka Lamb is set at a time of great tumult for this small country: many are advocating for full independence from their British rulers, and others are fretting that an independent Belize will be gobbled up by its neighbor Guatemala. (Among other things, it is odd from an American perspective, which sees it as a relatively small and poor country, to think of Guatemala as a predatory power.) But of the country's vibrancy and pride Edgell leaves no doubt.

Beka Lamb is a tragedy: Toycie's child dies in childbirth, and Toycie becomes mentally unwell. She spends some time at an asylum, but her grandmother chooses to take her into "the bush" where she can rest, but a sudden hurricane ends Toycie's life. These final consequences are spelled out at the beginning of the book, as Beka holds a mental "wake" for her fallen friend; it's suggested that, through her struggle to support Toycie, Beka is finally allowed to grow. The symbol of this growth is that she wins an essay prize at school, claiming victory over older--and non-black--girls. Such tradeoffs, Toycie for an essay prize, are difficult to swallow. But in the end, Edgell suggests that to grow and prosper as a young girl in a proud but beleaguered country is no easy thing.

With the addition of Belize, my "countries read" list is up to 73!