My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl

Once on an island in Haiti, there was the story of a peasant girl and a boy from a wealthy family whose worlds were never meant to collide. “My Love, My Love” written by Rosa Guy is a Caribbean adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid”. I would personally consider this story a better representation of the message that Anderson was trying to convey. The true, raw emotions associated with love are more predominate in the story of the peasant girl than the story of the little mermaid. This book has all the elements that a book could contain. From romance to thriller, Guy knows how to pull on every single heart string with every different emotion. You start the book thinking that the girl is foolish for wanting to go after the boy, but in the end, you feel bad and root for her. Be prepared to expect the unexpected when reading this because it is not always sunshine and rainbows. Not all fairy tales have a happy ending. If you are a fan of the original little mermaid and are interested in how a different culture tells the story, this book may be for you.

I read this book as a major part of my research to direct the Broadway Musical, Once On this Island. It is the book on which the musical is based. The story is of Desire', a peasant girl who discovers an accident victim on the road near her village. He is a young prince, Daniel, a Beaux Homme. She nurses him back from the dead and follows him when his family returns him to the other side of the island. She falls deeply in love and willingly gives her entire self to nurse him to complete recovery. However their families are from two different groups and Desire's skin is too dark for the lighter skinned Daniel. The story is called a 'retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid. I would compare it more to Romeo and Juliet. Rosa Guy's tale is much darker than the Musical, even though the musical does a faithful job of adapting it to musical form. The book guided me towards a satisfying staging of the musical. The whole process was a wonderful experience.

I think the ending for Desiree was very sad.

Love this book. I was in a production of Once on This Island and we took a day to read this book and it made such a difference.

The book wasn’t a new as described. Appear old and used edges but it was a good read.

Very quick read! I read it in preparation for my musical Once On This Island. It's great for research.

It’s character building research for a student who was assigned as Ti Moune in “Once On This Island Jr.” musical.

A fantastic read. I picked this up since our theatre group was doing Once On This Island since the authors of the musical cited Rosa Guy's novel as source material. It was absolutely beautiful. Heartbreaking, inspiring, a Caribbean classic.

Tá a fim de chorar? Esse livro vai te tirar as estruturas. É uma releitura de A Pequena Sereia que se passa numa ilha do Caribe, onde vive uma jovem preta e pobre que se apaixona por um mestiço rico da cidade. Após perdê-lo, ela faz um acordo com os deuses do vodu haitiano para salvá-lo em troca de sua alma. É um livro magnífico, uma pena não ter sido traduzido no Brasil.