SOURCE: "Tied to a Spinner's Shuttle," in Belles Lettres: A Review of Books by Women, Vol. 9, No. 3, Spring, 1994, pp. 48, 52.

Newman is an American educator. In the following review of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem and Tree of Life, he discusses Condé's use of apparitions and ghost imagery.

Maryse Condé's Tree of Life is a story of a West Indian family on the island of Guadeloupe. Told by the adolescent great-granddaughter, Coco, the story begins with the family's sire, Albert Quentin Louis, and his decision to leave the bondage of the island's cane fields in search of a better way of life. Albert travels to Panama, lured by the prospect of a job with the Americans who are paying $.90 an hour for laborers to work on the canal project. Coco recreates her ancestor's encounter with the first of his life's trials, and a family legacy of...