A Sitting in St. James, is for older teens and adults. It’s a vividly rendered portrait of the putrid institution of white Creole plantation culture in antebellum Louisiana. Who and what is A Sitting in St. James about? The book follows the life of a plantation mistress, Madame Sylvie, but is really about everyone connected to the big plantation house. Madame Sylvie survived the French and Haitian Revolutions and a forced marriage at 13, along with a heap of suffering and humiliation. Now 80, Madame feels entitled to all that she wants—specifically, a portrait sitting. Ultimately, Madame’s insistence on the portrait affects the lives of her son, her grandson, the granddaughter she denies, the enslaved people on the plantation and an unusual young boarder.