"Allapattah. Old long snouts. You may be called allapattah by some, but your real meaning is death. You would like to eat me, heh? You would kill all you touch, like instant death. But in the end you'll die too. You'll see. Only four of you are left, and someday soon there will be none. They will kill you, just as they are killing me, and there's nothing for both of us but death."
-Toby Tiger, from the novel
I am teaching an adult class using Patrick Smith's novel A Land Remembered. Until recently it was the only book by the author that I had read. Earlier this year I read Forever Island which also involves the plight of the Florida Seminoles. Allapattah was a short read at a mere 200 pages and it did get better the more I read. I will rate it a 3, enlightening but no fun at all. If you read it, you will see what I mean.
In the novel, Toby Tiger, a young Seminole is very bitter toward white men. He blames them for the destruction of his homeland and the death of his parents. He is married to Lucy Cypress, a Seminole whose father is a Christian pastor. Toby sees even Christianity as a threat to his way of life. His anger causes him to make some rash decisions and his poor judgment brings on more and more trouble. Even with good friend Josie Billie trying to talk sense into him, he is heading down a road of despair.
Toby's story is sad and one cannot help hoping that it is more exception than rule among these Florida native people. But, alas, I suspect it is all too common. With an elderly grandfather and pregnant wife to take care of, he loses his job and is forced to wrestle alligators and carve cypress figures for the tourists. Luckily Big Jim Bentley, owner of a small café/grocery store and the only likeable white man in the story, gives him a job. Unfortunately, Toby still tries to retaliate for the hurt he's experienced and the law is not on his side.
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