i would be private

I Would Be Private by Rose Macaulay (Harper & Brothers, 1937)

A trifling yet somewhat charming novel by Macaulay, set mostly on a fantasy Caribbean island called Papagano. ? and ? (their names are already forgotten),  a loving and sensible  young couple, find themselves the parents of quintuplets, who become immediate celebrities and shatter their parents’ quiet middle-class life in London.

In order to get away from all the bother and attention their amazing progency have caused, the ?s decide to move to a small island in the Caribbean, where the wife’s father, a former sailor, is now living with his native wife.  The wife’s sister and brother, and the sister’s Venezualan suitor (and later husband) accompany the ?s to the new world.  [Note: note total avoidance of proper names.]  Papagano is sparsely populated.  A British Church of England Rector lives with his two daughters, one man-crazy and the other crazy about boats, and three rather fey young British men who are spending an extended holiday in the abandoned insane asylum, pursuing different artistic endeavors.

Macaulay’s writing is bright and wryly funny, but the sunnyness and silliness of this book is frequently spoiled by its racist and misinformed depiction of the Native population, and all non-English people and animals in the world.