Synopsis – Becoming Somebody
Everybody wants to be somebody but what does that mean and what is the price to pay to become somebody? Sandra grew up desperately poor and mistreated until she met her formidable grandmother who was determined that she would become the one who ‘made it’. At first Sandra thinks that education, marriage and a solid career will make her somebody but she finds that she wants more. And she gets more as she circumvents barriers of race, class and gender to acquire wealth and prestige and eventually become an international success in her own right. At every juncture she must make decisions that may or may not be the right ones. Sandra’s story is the story of Caribbean women who struggle to escape the natural limitations of Caribbean life and find their place in the sun and it reflects the questions that they ask as they make their way.
My Review
Becoming Somebody by M. Anne Crick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4.5 stars!
I greatly enjoyed this story. I have no idea where I heard about this book, but I am very glad that I did.
I was immediately engaged by the female main character and her life. She is not a likeable character and does nothing endearing yet I still wanted to know how her life unfolded. I got to a point where I could not put the book down because I wanted to know how it all turned out.
There are amazing themes to discuss, motherhood, ambition, family, poverty, etc.
The characters are not one dimensional which is the thing I liked the most. They were all deep, real, and flawed.
There were several times where I was completely stunned by events in the story.
This was chosen by my family book club and we all had a similar reaction to the book.
The ending was the only thing that stopped this from being a rare 5 star from me.
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Author Q&A
How did you get into writing?
I used to write in high school but once I got to university and then into work I stopped writing creatively. A few years ago I got some characters in my head and started writing about them. It was fun since my day job as an academic means that I do a lot of structured writing and this allowed me to be much more creative. It was just for fun and I shared with family and then my best friend. She started to nag me about publishing so with her and my sister nagging me I decided to go for it.
Is writing your full time job?
No. Up until last year my full time job was a management lecturer at the University of West Indies’ Mona School of Business and Management. I also sit on a couple boards and co-founded a business with my sister which we suspended during the pandemic and are about to resume. I also do some management training and consultancy from time to time so I have a lot going on.
Do you have plans for other books?
Yes I have some written already – just have to spend the time to edit them properly. I did this thing backwards – writing from heart and now I am learning the art of writing so I am trying the time to listen to webinars, etc, to figure out how to make my writing better. I thought I knew which one was coming next but there’s a very topical one that my editor/friend thinks that I should do next
