A Marriage of Opposites

I read Alice Hoffman's A Marriage of Opposites in a hurry.  I had the book from the library for only three weeks and I spent one of those weeks reading another book I had.  But it wasn't hard to finish this book because it was riveting.  I would almost call it historical fiction because it is based on the life of impressionistic painter Camille Pissarro's mother, Rachel.  Rachel was born in the tropical island of Saint Thomas.  The heat, the sun, and the smell of the tropics comes across the pages to me.  Rachel is  a rebel.  She doesn't do what is expected of her and ends up ostracized by the society on St. Thomas.  Her son is like her in that way.  He doesn't want to be a part of the family business on Saint Thomas.  He doesn't care about the store and invoices and  inventories.  He cares about art and painting and colors and impressions.  Such a story!  I especially enjoyed reading about Rachel's lifetime friendship with her BFF Justine.  Despite their differences in color, religion, and rank in society, they remain good friends until the end.