Ruby by Cynthia Bond – Madness and Magic in An Ethereal Love Story

Ruby by Cynthia Bondis the story of a girl and a boy, the persistence of their memories, the darkness that crouches behind to engulf them and their faith in redemption and love.

You know those books that take you back to the time you first opened its pages whenever you see it on the shelf? Ruby is one among that for me. Whenever I glimpse at the novel, I get transported to the day I was sitting on my balcony during a power outage and got bewitched by the story of Ruby Bell and Ephram Jennings, as the rains outside sprayed my bare feet and the edges of the pages. This is one among the ten books in a list that I recently compiled, about books that are close to my heart You can read about it if interested in –Ten books that Crashed on me like a Tidal Wave – Its Personal

The story begins with Ephram taking a White Lay Angel cake to the hut of Ruby, whom he has loved since childhood. Liberty, though her native place, had only unpleasant memories for the child-Ruby, forcing her to make her escape to New York in the 1950s, “where Colored girls and White pretended to be equal”, to look for her mother. Here she merges into the seedy and glamorous life of New York only to be forced to return to Liberty where she is scorned at by the town folks . Little does she realise then that the demons she had left in the town while running away are still waiting to consume her. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy. Between this journey from behind his sister’s apron to Ruby’s hut are the multitudes of hurdles created by the Church, the villagers and even some djinns.
Ruby is the story of darkness of pine forests, human minds and strange beings that haunt the town of Liberty, trying to break down seams of love, friendship and loyalty that bind those who live there.

1. THE OPENING LINE :
Ruby sucks you in with the opening lines. “Ruby Bell was a constant reminder of what could befall a woman whose shoe heels were too high…She wore gray like rain clouds … Blackened nails as if she had scratched the slate of night…Her eyes, the ink of sky just before a storm.”
Why would Ephram Jennings, a good man of the Church, want to visit the mad woman branded a ‘whore’ and shunned by the whole town? I couldn’t stop reading.

2. LYRICAL PROSE :
The book is strewn with beauty. Words like “a piece of thunder broke off”, “drunk with storm”, “innocence tastes like peach cobbler” and “wild pines spearing the clouds” are to die for!

3. MAGICAL REALISM :
A few pages into the book, I knew this was a journey of a good man Ephram to gift the crazy lady, Ruby, with a White Lay Angel cake. But why? And there were djinns watching from trees and a crow that leads him onward the journey. I was enthralled.

Ruby weaves together the natural and the supernatural with an indiscernible fine line of separation between the two. Add to this a few strands of superstitions and magic stirred in copious amounts, and you have a masterpiece which is this book.

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4. NARRATION :
I loved the way Cynthia Bond narrated the story. The story moves back and forth in time and as each layer falls off we are brought closer to the demons that lurk around and inside Ruby.

5. A MAN’s WORLD :
Ruby is set in a man’s world – how they control women through sex, shame and religion.

6. THE CHURCH :
I loved the interplay of orthodox beliefs of the ‘saved’ and African witch crafts. Also commendable is how untruth when twisted well enough might seem like the truth. I loved the touch of magic in Ruby. It makes it an even more harrowing read than it ought to be.

7. IDENTITY AS A BLACK PERSON :
The black people are seen as nameless, faceless by the Whites. The book has an all-black cast, so it is more of the troubles within the community in spite of what they have in common. Ephram is described as “only a pair of hands carrying grocery bags to White folks’ automobiles… They didn’t see the ten crescent moons held captive in his fingernails.”

The black girls are brought up believing they are bad – “Ruby knew that the White girls were always good girls even when they were bad, but Negro girls started bad and could be anything after that”.
Also, Ruby’s mother, Charlotte’s strong contempt for the white men who raped her is in this silent protest to make sure Ruby inherits nothing ‘white’ in her because of the rape “They say she willed that baby brown. Eating coffee grounds, chocolate cake, even brown eggs from a black hen. Wouldn’t eat nothing white while she was with child.”

The real story behind Ruby

Cynthia Bond grew up hearing stories of how her aunt, a young black woman, was believed to have been murdered by Ku Klux Klans’ men in the 1930s for her relationship with a white man. The crime went unpunished. Bond herself was the victim of sexual trafficking as a child. She grew up close to the East Texas town of Liberty where her book is set.You can read about how these real events shaped Ruby here – On Writing : Cynthia Bond

Final Verdict

Ruby is visceral in its impact, and bursting with beauty in every line. It shocks you, as well as makes you cry. In a book liberally littered with violence, the goodness of one man, Ephram, made me reaffirm my belief in love and humanity. This is a book I want to thrust into the hands of every book lover. I would call it a must-read-book. This is easily a top contender for my best books of 2016. Bond puts together a perfect brew with insights into sexual and domestic abuse, Satanism and the supernatural, racism, myths, sexuality, family secrets and love. I salute Cynthia Bond for churning up such a brilliant debut. This isn’t just a book, it is art in all its brilliance.

Above all, Ruby is a love story. And at the heart of the story lies the redemption of not just Ruby but also Ephram. It is a story of two people who ‘saw’ each other when they remained unseen to the rest of the world. It is a story that will haunt you for a long time. And here in lies its magic. Highly recommended.

Trigger Warning : The book contains child abuse, violence towards women and dehumanizing acts towards black people.

Title : Ruby
Author : Cynthia Bond
Publisher : Hogarth Press
Published : 2015 (Originally 2014)
Language : English
Pages : 351
Rating : 5/5