The Great Divide, Cristina Henriquez
Cristina Henriquez’s The Great Divide features divisions of more than one sort. The titular division is the splitting of Panama along the Cordillera mountains in order to build the United States’ ‘Great Canal’ of 1907. Connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the canal was designed to place the US in control of shipping routes and, therefore, global trade.
The novel explores other divisions too: the separation of Panama from Colombia, the severance of the relationship between a Panamanian fisherman, suspicious of the canal, and his son who works extracting land for its passage. There are divisions between classes, between races, between colonists and locals. For every division, however, there is a connection. The canal throws people together from all corners of the globe in a melting pot of labourers, servants, traders, and scientists. People fall in love. A rural town, threatened with being uprooted by the canal excavation, join together in community activism. A young lady from Barbados saves the life of a malaria victim she happens upon in the street. In this sweeping epic, Henriquez weaves together disparate narratives all centred around the canal that, in the act of tearing apart the land and engulfing cultures, homes, and livelihoods, also cements the story together.
It's a fascinating subject with plenty of narrative perspectives typically excluded from historical fiction. Henriquez deserves recognition for highlighting the important contribution of the workers who risked their lives digging into the earth for North America’s dream, as well as for dissecting the sociopolitical waves the construction of the canal sent across Panama. However, I found the prose a little flat, meaning that it reads more like a YA novel. It would make an excellent introduction for a young person into racial and gendered power dynamics and the colonial history of Latin America, but for more seasoned readers, its symbolism is far from subtle.
The Great Divide is ultimately about faith. From Willoughby, who persistently courts Lucille no matter how many times he is rebuffed, to Ada who isn’t afraid to take risks because she believes God will protect her, to Henry Oswald, determined to find a cure for malaria – there’s an abundance of people who face adversity and refuse to back down. For this reason, The Great Divide is a tonic of hope in these troubling times.
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