Unpacking the Bittersweet Themes of "Sweetness In The Skin": A Shelf Interest Book Club Review
Sweetness In The Skin by Ishi Robinson is a book about 13 year old Pumpkin, based in Jamaica. She lives with her grandmother, aunt and mum. Her relationship with her mother isn't great. When her grandma passes away and her aunt moves to France, Pumpkin is forced to confront her strained relationship with her mum and rely on community efforts to raise money to change her circumstances.
Ishi sets a beautiful scene of Jamaica, inviting the reader to almost miss it, even if you have never been there before! The author focuses on the the remnant social themes of colonialism such as classism, colourism and patriarchy that cause so much strife between the characters. Other themes include community, friendship, code-switching and education. These themes are more implied than boldly discussed, which left something to desire for our book clubbers, however some people prefer a more subtle approach. We see colourism in how Pumkin and aunt Sophie are treated favourably in many parts of the books, they subsequently gain more favour than they would have if they were darker skinned. When speaking to Ishi, a lighter-skinned black woman, she expressed how Pumkin has aspects of herself, and Ishi expressed awareness of the privileges that being lighter-skinned afforded her. This book helps us to understand how skin-tone is a big marker of class and treatment in Jamaican society.
Pumkin's mother, Paulette, is a jaded and darker skinned, and always chasing after the approval of Pumkin's father. Her being jaded is assumed to be the result of being treated poorly by her mother, Pumkin's grandmother, due to her darker complexion. This constant rejection throughout life and negative comparison to her lighter sister, Sophie, leaves Paulette craving the approval of Pumkin's father, and in not receiving that, she openly resents and abuses Pumkin. Though Paulette is a villain in this story and in Pumpkin's journey, Ishi did a great job in highlighting how such a harsh and unforgivingly colourist society can create such a woman.
The focus on intergenerational dynamics was evident throughout the book as we see how Pumpkin's grandmother's colourist attitudes and favouritism between her daughters, indirectly caused Pumpkin to suffer through the treatment of her mother. While Pumpkin's grandmother loved her, she heavily contributed to Pumpkin's troubles.
Poverty is a limiting factor for Pumkin, despite being intelligent and talented, she is unable to afford the opportunities she desires. Our book clubbers loved how the community rallied around Pumpkin to support her to raise money. From helping her to conceal her baking, to buying her baked goods, to supporting her with education, Pumkin would not have been able to achieve any of her goals if she was not favoured by those surrounding her, especially as her mother was so negligent. One of our book clubbers mentioned how the support that Pumkin received could have been argued to have been earned by her lighter skin, as it is hard to imagine the community rallying behind a dark-skinned girl in the same way - this shines light on how determinant skin tone is in Jamaica, and the wider world.
In our book club we felt that this was an easy read. We appreciated the integration of Patois and found it easy to understand, however one of our Jamaican book club members wished for more Patois that was less palatable to non-Jamaicans.
Overall, our book club rated this read highly and we cannot wait to read more from Ishi Robinson!
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