Pat Lowery Collins’ The Fattening Hut is a lyrical novel, told in vivid and eloquent free verse, that hauntingly explores the ramifications of a ceremonial rite of passage in a tropical island culture.
Our narrator, a smart, imaginative and free-spirited girl named Helen, is in her father’s fattening hut. The fattening hut is where all early-teen girls of the tribe go to put on a lot of weight in preparation for their arranged marriages. Helen prefers her own way to live – exploring the island with her childhood friend, being free to run and play and explore – and she doesn’t believe she’s ready to be married to an older tribesman. Helen’s Aunt Margaret, who taught her to read against her father’s wishes, secretly visits Helen in the mornings, giving her books to feed her mind while the tribeswomen encourage Helen to gorge on mountains of succulent foodstuffs. Into one of the books Aunt Margaret slips a story she wrote for the English missionaries who once visited about the history of their unnamed island, which mentions “the fattening and ceremonial cutting of young women.” This is as explicit as Collins gets about the procedure (until an afterword), but it is enough to plant a seed in Helen’s mind and turns her thoughts towards escape.
I was instantly captivated by Helen’s voice: her cadence and rhythm are compelling; her language is descriptive and rich; and her perspective is simultaneously naive and perceptive. Collins treats her characters and the island’s culture with a fair hand; she doesn’t pass judgment on the customs of the tribe per se, but she demonstrates the impact such a culture can have on the individuals within that society. Readers will feel a kinship with and connection to Helen as she bravely chooses to go against everything she knows to stay true to herself.
- Posted by Cori