Allie

Allie is the main character and first person narrator of the novel. Allie’s full name is Alethea Lopez. While her family and friends called her Girlie throughout her childhood, Allie most often goes by Allie as an adult.

In the narrative present, Allie is almost 40 years old. She is living in Carenage, a town in Trinidad and Tobago, with her abusive boyfriend Leo. Although Leo’s version of love makes Allie hate herself, she feels incapable of leaving him (10). She is afraid that without a man and without any children, she will be societally disregarded. Allie also has no friends and no family with whom she communicates at the start of the novel. She often chooses isolation over friendship and connection, because she fears Leo’s jealousy and wrath.

Allie grew up with her mother Marcia, or Mammie, her uncle and father Allan, and her brother Colin...