SOURCE: A review of Une saison à Rihata, in World Literature Today, Vol. 56, No. 2, Spring, 1982, pp. 390-91.

In the following positive review of Une saison à Rihata, Bruner discusses Condé's depiction of her characters' psychology and their social relationships.

As she did in her novel Hérémakhonon (1976) and in her plays Dieu nous l'a donné (1972) and Mort d' Oluwemi d' Ajumako (1979), Maryse Condé constructs in Une saison à Rihata a situation of political conflict in which to place a variety of characters in psychological and moral conflicts with themselves and each other. The result is an excellent and convincing work of art.

Although the political situations and plottings are exciting and clearly revealed to the reader, and although the writer's grasp of political realities is intellectually compelling, the novel is not a "protest novel," a novel with a political "message" or even a roman à clef. It is a novel...