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Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy
Available in English for the first time, Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s stunning trilogy of novellas is a remarkable literary event. In a brilliant translation by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokur, Love, Anger, Madness is a scathing response to the struggles of race, class, and sex that have ruled Haiti. Suppressed upon its initial publication in 1968, this major work became an underground classic and was finally released in an authorized edition in France in 2005.
In Love, Anger, Madness, Marie Vieux-Chauvet offers three slices of life under an oppressive regime. Gradually building in emotional intensity, the novellas paint a shocking portrait of families and artists struggling to survive under Haiti’s terrifying government restrictions that have turned its society upside down, transforming neighbors into victims, spies, and enemies.
In “Love,” Claire is the eldest of three sisters who occupy a single house. Her dark skin and unmarried status make her a virtual servant to the rest of the family. Consumed by an intense passion for her brother-in-law, she finds redemption in a criminal act of rebellion.
In “Anger,” a middle-class family is ripped apart when twenty-year-old Rose is forced to sleep with a repulsive soldier in order to prevent a government takeover of her father’s land.
And in “Madness,” René, a young poet, finds himself trapped in a house for days without food, obsessed with the souls of the dead, dreading the invasion of local military thugs, and steeling himself for one final stand against authority.
Sympathetic, savage and truly compelling with an insightful introduction by Edwidge Danticat, Love, Anger, Madness is an extraordinary, brave and graphic evocation of a country in turmoil.
In Love, Anger, Madness, Marie Vieux-Chauvet offers three slices of life under an oppressive regime. Gradually building in emotional intensity, the novellas paint a shocking portrait of families and artists struggling to survive under Haiti’s terrifying government restrictions that have turned its society upside down, transforming neighbors into victims, spies, and enemies.
In “Love,” Claire is the eldest of three sisters who occupy a single house. Her dark skin and unmarried status make her a virtual servant to the rest of the family. Consumed by an intense passion for her brother-in-law, she finds redemption in a criminal act of rebellion.
In “Anger,” a middle-class family is ripped apart when twenty-year-old Rose is forced to sleep with a repulsive soldier in order to prevent a government takeover of her father’s land.
And in “Madness,” René, a young poet, finds himself trapped in a house for days without food, obsessed with the souls of the dead, dreading the invasion of local military thugs, and steeling himself for one final stand against authority.
Sympathetic, savage and truly compelling with an insightful introduction by Edwidge Danticat, Love, Anger, Madness is an extraordinary, brave and graphic evocation of a country in turmoil.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
Marie Vieux-Chauvet
12 books35 followersMarie Vieux-Chauvet (1916–1973) was a Haitian novelist, poet and playwright. Born and educated in Port-au-Prince, her most famous works are the novels Fille d'Haïti (1954), La Danse sur le Volcan (1957), Fonds des Nègres (1961), and Amour, Colère, Folie (1968).
(from Wikipedia)
(from Wikipedia)
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August 11, 2022
Una espléndida novela sobre perdedores que es en realidad tres novelas muy distintas. El nexo común a todas ellas es el miedo impuesto a un país por un grupo paramilitar (como los realmente utilizados por Duvalier), la sed de venganza de una parte del pueblo y la dejadez por parte de la otra, el vudú como impotente arma ante las desgracias, por un lado, y justificación de los castigos divinos, por el otro, y el racismo como coartada del odio que impregna a unos y a otros.
Aunque tardé un poco en saber apreciar la primera parte, terminé enamorado de su personaje principal, Claire; me gustó mucho la segunda novela y no consiguió conmoverme el tercer relato.
La primera de las tres novelas, Amor, es un diario empezado muy tardíamente por una cuarentona mulata, hija mayor de una familia venida a menos, castrada por el peso de la tradición y la situación social de la familia y con un volcán tántrico por alma que solo es capaz de lanzar su apasionada lava hacia el interior... aunque el humo mancha ahora su diario (gran personaje y excelentemente retratado). Un diario en el que tampoco disfruta de una libertad completa, se recata, se retrae. Sus frases son cortas, como disparos, duras, frías, pedazos de hielo que se desprenden de un iceberg que se derrite por dentro. En él nos va relatando su pasado con un padre severo e intolerante, hipócrita, como toda la sociedad a la que pertenece; y su presente, lleno de autodesprecio al observar en lo que se ha convertido, al ver lo irremediable que es ya su situación y como se le escapa la vida sin haber sabido sobreponerse a sus miedos, a sus prejuicios, por no haber sabido luchar por lo que quería. Una situación paralela a la de su clase social, incapaz de soliviantarse ante el poder autoritario que ahora les somete cuando hasta hace bien poco eran ellos los “sometedores”.
La segunda novela, la que más me ha impactado de las tres, Ira, es la narración del poder devastador de una autoridad no sometida a norma alguna y como el miedo se impone a toda una sociedad que mira hacia otro lado siempre que el tsunami autoritario no llegue a sus bonitas playas. Pero sobre todo es la narración de la pérdida de la dignidad, de cómo ese poder omnímodo puede anularte como persona, puede hacerte preferir la muerte, o, lo que todavía puede ser peor, de cómo ese poder puede trastocar hasta tal punto el orden de las cosas que puede llegar a hacerte sentir culpable de tu propia situación de indefensión. Una narración capaz de removerte por dentro y entre la que destaco el monólogo interior de Paul, el hijo mayor de la familia humillada.
La tercera novela, Locura, una mezcla de melopea, locura y realidad, donde unos poetas, locos y borrachos, son los únicos capaces de intuir la realidad que se les viene encima (un personaje parecido aparece también en la primera de las novelas y sus destinos son el mismo). Quizás la puesta en escena, muy teatral, es la causa de que me haya llegado menos que las dos partes que la preceden.
En conjunto, una gran lectura.
September 7, 2015
Here are three powerful, well-written novellas from a female Haitian author. Like most of the Haitian upper class, Marie Vieux-Chauvet (1916-1973) was a light-skinned mixed-race person educated in Haiti in the French tradition and who eventually moved to New York. All of the novellas reflect the incredible chaos, brutality and societal inequity that Haiti has undergone. Haiti is essentially an African nation in the Western Hemisphere. In 1804 the African slaves revolted and killed or drove off all the white population and in imitation of their former white masters, the new black and mulatto leaders basically enslaved an entire nation.
In the first novella, Love, three sisters live together in the same antiquated mansion and they all love the same man – the husband of the plainest one of the three. The story is told by the most beautiful of the three who is a very dark-skinned woman who feels outcast by the lighter-skinned upper-class society including her own family. She develops a self-hated, thinking: “…I look like a fly in a bowl of milk.” To give you an idea of the atmosphere in the wealthiest part of the city: the sisters throw cocktail parties while beggars live under their front porch and they play music loudly so their guests can’t hear the screams of those being tortured in the nearby prison. The story ends with a murder.
In Anger, another wealthy mulatto family suddenly finds their property seized. They end up sacrificing their daughter to right this wrong. Again the story ends with multiple murders and despair, to put it mildly.
In Madness, three young male poets of various racial mix are outcasts of society. They are starving and have had only rum for a week. They start to hallucinate and their antics attract the police; they are arrested with a predictable outcome. As in all three stories, terror and despair prevail. Beggars march through the streets in each story; “we could smell them before we could see them;” the beggars wait for someone to arm them with guns or machetes and make them into an “army.”
There is an introduction by Edwidge Danticat and a preface by the translator that give away a lot of the plot so you may want to read those last.
In the first novella, Love, three sisters live together in the same antiquated mansion and they all love the same man – the husband of the plainest one of the three. The story is told by the most beautiful of the three who is a very dark-skinned woman who feels outcast by the lighter-skinned upper-class society including her own family. She develops a self-hated, thinking: “…I look like a fly in a bowl of milk.” To give you an idea of the atmosphere in the wealthiest part of the city: the sisters throw cocktail parties while beggars live under their front porch and they play music loudly so their guests can’t hear the screams of those being tortured in the nearby prison. The story ends with a murder.
In Anger, another wealthy mulatto family suddenly finds their property seized. They end up sacrificing their daughter to right this wrong. Again the story ends with multiple murders and despair, to put it mildly.
In Madness, three young male poets of various racial mix are outcasts of society. They are starving and have had only rum for a week. They start to hallucinate and their antics attract the police; they are arrested with a predictable outcome. As in all three stories, terror and despair prevail. Beggars march through the streets in each story; “we could smell them before we could see them;” the beggars wait for someone to arm them with guns or machetes and make them into an “army.”
There is an introduction by Edwidge Danticat and a preface by the translator that give away a lot of the plot so you may want to read those last.
September 7, 2020
The reputation of this masterpiece is truly well deserved. Three thematic and geographically linked novellas written with power and control, sentences bubbling over with violence and brutality, pain and hatred.
The arbitrariness of life under a murderous dictatorship, and the deeply ingrained divisions of race and class and gender. Choice when there is no choice. Love when it has turned bitterly in on itself, growing rank and rotten, festering in its madness and eroticism. The contradictions and confusions of an amoral, inhuman and inhumane world.
Highly recommended.
The arbitrariness of life under a murderous dictatorship, and the deeply ingrained divisions of race and class and gender. Choice when there is no choice. Love when it has turned bitterly in on itself, growing rank and rotten, festering in its madness and eroticism. The contradictions and confusions of an amoral, inhuman and inhumane world.
Highly recommended.
July 21, 2019
C’est sans aucun doute, et je pèse mes mots, un des livres les plus puissants et sans concession que j’ai lu depuis longtemps. C’est une force de la nature, cette écrivaine: rien ne peut arrêter son souffle, ni la morale bien-pensante ni les pouvoirs en place. Elle comme un ouragan qui rase tout sur son passage. Sérieux, je suis flabergasté. En plus, l’histoire qui entoure la publication du livre est tout aussi fascinante.
December 16, 2010
Breaking the Silence
“Anger” By Marie Vieux-Chauvet. Modern Library: 2010. $15.
Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s “Anger” is truly a testament of courage and defiance amidst one of the most oppressive and violent regimes of our time. Written in Haiti during the infamous dictatorship of Francois Duvalier (also known as “Papa Doc”), “Anger” is a rare experience for American readers because it brings to life the state-sanctioned terror inflicted on Haitian people. The novella confronts remarkably one of the most disturbing elements of Haitian history—Duvalierist sexual violence and the use of rape as a weapon of terror to control individuals and families.
First published in French in 1968, the novella’s distribution was repressed and made practically unavailable for over thirty years in fear that it would prompt state-initiated attacks on the author and her family. Duvalier’s use of violence to systematically silence any expression of opposition to his regime was not new to Haiti’s intellectual and literary communities. In the years leading up to “Anger,” Marie Vieux-Chauvet lost three family members at the hands of the Duvalier regime and a well-known, female political figure had been kidnapped, beaten, and raped. While Haitian people had endured despotic rulers in previous regimes, the Duvalier dictatorship was different in that women, children, and the elderly were no longer protected from horrific, state-inflicted violence. There’s no doubt that rage over these sickening injustices is infused in “Anger” and that the author’s shocking and explicit portrayal of violence is intended to elicit that response in readers.
The story is told from the perspective of an upper class family that is targeted by “men in black,” a fictional militia group in the novella that closely resembles the police force of then-president Duvalier—the Tonton Macoutes. There is no suggestion in the narrative that the Normil family has broken the law or even opposed the state government, and yet such instances of random and irrational violence against Haiti’s citizens are commonplace both in the story and throughout the Duvalier regime. The ways in which the novella explores the issue of guilt in this context is fascinating. Although the family is outraged at the unjust seizure of their property, characters such as the father experience guilt for remaining silent when other members of their community were targeted.
As the events of the novella unfold, readers develop a sense for how each of the characters internally deals with the fear and suffering brought about by the “men in black.” The grandfather endures this struggle by preserving romanticized memories of his father’s rise in social and economic status. The mother survives through alcoholism and drunkenness that provide her an escape from the family’s predicament while the son copes with the situation through selfish fantasies of revenge against the “men in black.” The internal dialogues contained in “Anger” allow readers to enter the minds of those who face militia groups like the Tonton Macoutes. What’s striking about these accounts are the ways in which gender roles are portrayed from the standpoint of resisting Duvalierist violence and oppression. As “Anger” develops the father makes an unspoken deal with a member of the “blackshirts” to use his daughter’s beauty in return for the protection of his family and property. The men seem to lose their masculinity in that they are no longer capable of protecting their family by facing an armed militia. On the other hand, the only ways in which the female members of the family—the daughter, Rose and her mother, Laure—can resist the “men in black” is through receiving violence and effacing themselves.
The Duvalier era represents a devastating event in Haitian history in which people demonstrated tremendous courage and endured immense suffering. The most recent event that has entered our global consciousness is the horrific earthquake and ensuing cholera outbreak that continues to inflict immeasurable pain and anguish in Haiti. The disparity in how much attention these two occurrences receive outside of Haiti is extraordinary; the exceptionally violent oppression imposed by the Duvalier state remains a relatively untouched issue in the United States compared to the natural disaster of January 2010. From this perspective, “Anger” reveals a neglected chapter of Haitian history that we undoubtedly ought to know more about.
By Alex Rosinski
“Anger” By Marie Vieux-Chauvet. Modern Library: 2010. $15.
Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s “Anger” is truly a testament of courage and defiance amidst one of the most oppressive and violent regimes of our time. Written in Haiti during the infamous dictatorship of Francois Duvalier (also known as “Papa Doc”), “Anger” is a rare experience for American readers because it brings to life the state-sanctioned terror inflicted on Haitian people. The novella confronts remarkably one of the most disturbing elements of Haitian history—Duvalierist sexual violence and the use of rape as a weapon of terror to control individuals and families.
First published in French in 1968, the novella’s distribution was repressed and made practically unavailable for over thirty years in fear that it would prompt state-initiated attacks on the author and her family. Duvalier’s use of violence to systematically silence any expression of opposition to his regime was not new to Haiti’s intellectual and literary communities. In the years leading up to “Anger,” Marie Vieux-Chauvet lost three family members at the hands of the Duvalier regime and a well-known, female political figure had been kidnapped, beaten, and raped. While Haitian people had endured despotic rulers in previous regimes, the Duvalier dictatorship was different in that women, children, and the elderly were no longer protected from horrific, state-inflicted violence. There’s no doubt that rage over these sickening injustices is infused in “Anger” and that the author’s shocking and explicit portrayal of violence is intended to elicit that response in readers.
The story is told from the perspective of an upper class family that is targeted by “men in black,” a fictional militia group in the novella that closely resembles the police force of then-president Duvalier—the Tonton Macoutes. There is no suggestion in the narrative that the Normil family has broken the law or even opposed the state government, and yet such instances of random and irrational violence against Haiti’s citizens are commonplace both in the story and throughout the Duvalier regime. The ways in which the novella explores the issue of guilt in this context is fascinating. Although the family is outraged at the unjust seizure of their property, characters such as the father experience guilt for remaining silent when other members of their community were targeted.
As the events of the novella unfold, readers develop a sense for how each of the characters internally deals with the fear and suffering brought about by the “men in black.” The grandfather endures this struggle by preserving romanticized memories of his father’s rise in social and economic status. The mother survives through alcoholism and drunkenness that provide her an escape from the family’s predicament while the son copes with the situation through selfish fantasies of revenge against the “men in black.” The internal dialogues contained in “Anger” allow readers to enter the minds of those who face militia groups like the Tonton Macoutes. What’s striking about these accounts are the ways in which gender roles are portrayed from the standpoint of resisting Duvalierist violence and oppression. As “Anger” develops the father makes an unspoken deal with a member of the “blackshirts” to use his daughter’s beauty in return for the protection of his family and property. The men seem to lose their masculinity in that they are no longer capable of protecting their family by facing an armed militia. On the other hand, the only ways in which the female members of the family—the daughter, Rose and her mother, Laure—can resist the “men in black” is through receiving violence and effacing themselves.
The Duvalier era represents a devastating event in Haitian history in which people demonstrated tremendous courage and endured immense suffering. The most recent event that has entered our global consciousness is the horrific earthquake and ensuing cholera outbreak that continues to inflict immeasurable pain and anguish in Haiti. The disparity in how much attention these two occurrences receive outside of Haiti is extraordinary; the exceptionally violent oppression imposed by the Duvalier state remains a relatively untouched issue in the United States compared to the natural disaster of January 2010. From this perspective, “Anger” reveals a neglected chapter of Haitian history that we undoubtedly ought to know more about.
By Alex Rosinski
August 26, 2021
Love
The narrator of Love, Claire Clamont, is the eldest of three daughters, of a landowning upper-class family. She is the son her father never had and he wishes her to runs things as he would have them done. However, he hasn’t reckoned on her stubbornness and refusal to affiliate with some of the old ways he indulges, having raised her to think of them as superstitious. As a result she is neither feared nor respected by the workers, whom he had sold parcels of land to fund his political campaigns, a futile effort that has left the family near penniless.
The three sisters of this aristocratic family live together, all coveting the same man, Felicia’s husband. Annette succeeds in seducing him, Claire silently, voyeuristically encouraging her.
Meanwhile, a man sent to reform Haiti is known to use violent, torturous means to get his message across, preying on the innocent.
The love this elder daughter practices is tinged with jealousy, revenge and resentment, laying blame at the feet of an ancestor with dark skin. She resents this ancestor who made her so, resents her father for trying to turn her into the son he never had, resents one sister for marrying a man she loves and the other for having seduced him.
Anger
Anger centres around a family and the day a group of black uniformed paramilitary seize their land, putting stakes in the ground, the grandfather and the young disabled grandson are indignant, the son and his wife wary and afraid, their older daughter Rose is practical, the young adult son Paul going crazy, desires revenge.
Men arrive and plant stakes in the ground of land belonging to a family, they wear black uniforms and invoke fear. Each of the family inside react. Then the concrete arrives. They’re seizing the land and building a wall.
The family is observed, tries to address the injustice, is compromised.
He told himself that his crippled and sickly grandson was the faint beginning of the next era of heroes and that the arrow had begun its slow ascent only eight years ago. Hundreds more must have come into the world the same time he did, he thought, and with feet and legs as well as a brave soul. A day will come when they will grow up and the birds of prey will have to account for their deeds to every last one of them.
Madness
Madness is narrated by René, a lower class mulatto poet hiding inside his shack, paranoid about what’s going on outside his door and inside his mind, finding solace in a bottle, in rituals to do with voodoo beliefs that most of his life he has rejected and the poet friends he fearfully opens his door to, to offer them refuge. Unclear, what is real and what is the projection of a man’s fearful mind, we read on, aware that under oppression anything is possible.
A thought provoking read that invites the reader to understand more about the historical and present situation in Haiti.
The narrator of Love, Claire Clamont, is the eldest of three daughters, of a landowning upper-class family. She is the son her father never had and he wishes her to runs things as he would have them done. However, he hasn’t reckoned on her stubbornness and refusal to affiliate with some of the old ways he indulges, having raised her to think of them as superstitious. As a result she is neither feared nor respected by the workers, whom he had sold parcels of land to fund his political campaigns, a futile effort that has left the family near penniless.
The three sisters of this aristocratic family live together, all coveting the same man, Felicia’s husband. Annette succeeds in seducing him, Claire silently, voyeuristically encouraging her.
Meanwhile, a man sent to reform Haiti is known to use violent, torturous means to get his message across, preying on the innocent.
The love this elder daughter practices is tinged with jealousy, revenge and resentment, laying blame at the feet of an ancestor with dark skin. She resents this ancestor who made her so, resents her father for trying to turn her into the son he never had, resents one sister for marrying a man she loves and the other for having seduced him.
Anger
Anger centres around a family and the day a group of black uniformed paramilitary seize their land, putting stakes in the ground, the grandfather and the young disabled grandson are indignant, the son and his wife wary and afraid, their older daughter Rose is practical, the young adult son Paul going crazy, desires revenge.
Men arrive and plant stakes in the ground of land belonging to a family, they wear black uniforms and invoke fear. Each of the family inside react. Then the concrete arrives. They’re seizing the land and building a wall.
The family is observed, tries to address the injustice, is compromised.
The mother got up slowly, put down her needlework, walked over to the old man and spoke into his ear.
“Look at him, Grandfather,” she whispered, “just look at him.”
The child was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth.
“Who will flog those who have taken our land?” he said without paying any attention to the mother. “Is there no longer a steward who can do it?”
“Alas, no!” the grandfather answered.
“Why not?”
“Because there are ups and downs in the life of a people. As the arrow rises, it gives birth to heroes; when it falls, only cowards come into the world. No steward would agree to stand up to those who have taken our land.”
He told himself that his crippled and sickly grandson was the faint beginning of the next era of heroes and that the arrow had begun its slow ascent only eight years ago. Hundreds more must have come into the world the same time he did, he thought, and with feet and legs as well as a brave soul. A day will come when they will grow up and the birds of prey will have to account for their deeds to every last one of them.
Madness
Madness is narrated by René, a lower class mulatto poet hiding inside his shack, paranoid about what’s going on outside his door and inside his mind, finding solace in a bottle, in rituals to do with voodoo beliefs that most of his life he has rejected and the poet friends he fearfully opens his door to, to offer them refuge. Unclear, what is real and what is the projection of a man’s fearful mind, we read on, aware that under oppression anything is possible.
A thought provoking read that invites the reader to understand more about the historical and present situation in Haiti.
October 4, 2021
En las solpas del libro se da brevemente cuenta de la aventura que este libro tuvo que vivir para ver su publicación. Es uno de esos libros que al parecer, permanecieron como tesoro de libreros y coleccionistas por algún tiempo, esta obra por si misma es una sobreviviente de su tiempo y no podemos más que dar gracias por llegar a conocerla. Marie Vieux-Chauvet escribió esta tercia de novelas cortas en 1968, en Haití, durante la dictadura de François Duvalier. Durante la dictadura, no antes ni después. La familia de la autora según se nos cuenta, compra todos los ejemplares para evitar la distribución y así evitar más consecuencias en su familia a la cual la dictadura ya le habría quitado a tres de sus miembros. Los hijos de la autora, años después, pondrían a la venta algunos ejemplares y los libros andarían por aquí y por allá, en varias librerías y colecciones. Existen entonces aquí dos narrativas importantes contra la censura y la capacidad de la literatura y la gente que la protegerá para sobrevivir incluso a los regímenes más opresivos, la del libro como objeto físico que migra por el mundo y la del libro en su contenido y sus ideas.
Las tres novelas son apabullantes, el hilo conductor será la exploración de las pasiones humanas en un ambiente dictatorial. Seguimos siendo crueles, envidiosos, soberbios y terribles aún en el momento de mayor necesidad, en los momentos en que nuestra fuerza sería la diferencia, fallamos constantemente, sí, somos capaces de poner en primer lugar nuestros anhelos más avariciosos por encima del bien común, las dictaduras se develan como las formas extremas del comportamiento individualista y mezquino, son el reflejo colectivo de nuestras fallas reflejadas en la forma en que la política se degenera. Somos todo lo anterior y aún así podemos ser la esperanza confundida con locura, el amor fraterno y al final la resistencia activa contra la imposición.
El libro es trágico y catártico, se lee como si se leyera historia viva por que es increíblemente cercana, el horror y la ternura son tan palpables que intimidan, se cuelan por todos lados y una como lectora no puede hacer más que recibir el mensaje, comprenderlo, obtener un aprendizaje de el y desde luego dejarse fascinar ante una obra de arte total que tuvo todo en contra y termino floreciendo en la tierra de la muerte. Dicho esto, hay que darle la bienvenida de brazos abiertos a obras como esta, existen con el único propósito de transformar a quién toquen.
Las tres novelas son apabullantes, el hilo conductor será la exploración de las pasiones humanas en un ambiente dictatorial. Seguimos siendo crueles, envidiosos, soberbios y terribles aún en el momento de mayor necesidad, en los momentos en que nuestra fuerza sería la diferencia, fallamos constantemente, sí, somos capaces de poner en primer lugar nuestros anhelos más avariciosos por encima del bien común, las dictaduras se develan como las formas extremas del comportamiento individualista y mezquino, son el reflejo colectivo de nuestras fallas reflejadas en la forma en que la política se degenera. Somos todo lo anterior y aún así podemos ser la esperanza confundida con locura, el amor fraterno y al final la resistencia activa contra la imposición.
El libro es trágico y catártico, se lee como si se leyera historia viva por que es increíblemente cercana, el horror y la ternura son tan palpables que intimidan, se cuelan por todos lados y una como lectora no puede hacer más que recibir el mensaje, comprenderlo, obtener un aprendizaje de el y desde luego dejarse fascinar ante una obra de arte total que tuvo todo en contra y termino floreciendo en la tierra de la muerte. Dicho esto, hay que darle la bienvenida de brazos abiertos a obras como esta, existen con el único propósito de transformar a quién toquen.
January 15, 2012
Unbelievably rich with historic details of Haiti and it's political evolution. I enjoyed all three of the short stories in the compilation -- many readers did not enjoy the third -- "Madness". I suppose working with a population with psychiatric issues has made me more open to "madness".
The stories explained even more the psyche of the past and current residents and what it took and takes for them to survive while remaining resilient.
The sexual degradation of women and the battering of their bodies, the physical, mental, emotional and psychological abuse of the Haitian women was hard to read/reconcile at times, but again, the full description contributes accurately to what life was ... is.
The stories explained even more the psyche of the past and current residents and what it took and takes for them to survive while remaining resilient.
The sexual degradation of women and the battering of their bodies, the physical, mental, emotional and psychological abuse of the Haitian women was hard to read/reconcile at times, but again, the full description contributes accurately to what life was ... is.
November 12, 2018
This trilogy is a set of independent, unconnected novellas penned by Haitian author Marie Vieux-Chauvet. It was banned on its initial publication in the late sixties and the author was forced into exile in the United States.
LOVE tells the story of 39 year old unmarried Claire, who is the oldest of three sisters in an upper class Haitian family. She is black and her sisters are white, and she is in love with/obsessed by her youngest (and most boring) sister's French husband. It is a story of sexual repression on a background of fear/violence and deep divisions based on race, gender and class.
ANGER is about a middle class Haitian family whose land is seized by a paramilitary group and whose daughter is forced to sleep with a repugnant soldier in order to save the land. It is a devastating story, switching between perspectives of different family members.
MADNESS centres on a group of poets who spend over a week holed into a shack, not eating, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and hallucinating about devils. Again, it is a devastating tale of a community torn apart by poverty, fear and violence.
Although the novellas are not connected, there are definite common themes. The author portrays a country riven by civil wars, poverty and seemingly insurmountable divisions between different races, religions and classes. There is an undercurrent of fear and violence throughout all three novellas. It is easy to see why the dictatorship of 1960s Haiti wanted to suppress this work - it is certainly not a flattering portrayal of the country.
I am glad I read this book, because it was riveting, astonishing and extraordinary. Having said that, I am equally glad to finish and move onto something a little more lighthearted! It's certainly not an easy read, but highly recommended nonetheless.
LOVE tells the story of 39 year old unmarried Claire, who is the oldest of three sisters in an upper class Haitian family. She is black and her sisters are white, and she is in love with/obsessed by her youngest (and most boring) sister's French husband. It is a story of sexual repression on a background of fear/violence and deep divisions based on race, gender and class.
ANGER is about a middle class Haitian family whose land is seized by a paramilitary group and whose daughter is forced to sleep with a repugnant soldier in order to save the land. It is a devastating story, switching between perspectives of different family members.
MADNESS centres on a group of poets who spend over a week holed into a shack, not eating, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and hallucinating about devils. Again, it is a devastating tale of a community torn apart by poverty, fear and violence.
Although the novellas are not connected, there are definite common themes. The author portrays a country riven by civil wars, poverty and seemingly insurmountable divisions between different races, religions and classes. There is an undercurrent of fear and violence throughout all three novellas. It is easy to see why the dictatorship of 1960s Haiti wanted to suppress this work - it is certainly not a flattering portrayal of the country.
I am glad I read this book, because it was riveting, astonishing and extraordinary. Having said that, I am equally glad to finish and move onto something a little more lighthearted! It's certainly not an easy read, but highly recommended nonetheless.
March 6, 2020
Watch out ta petite âme de lectrice, Marie Vieux-Chauvet est indomptable. Ce sont les années Papa Doc en Haïti & la vie brûle par où elle entre : les pores de la peau, les oreilles qu'on ne peut plus boucher, les rêves étranges qui, au matin, secouent la réalité. Les trois histoires, chacune à sa façon, auscultent pour mieux perforer ; lues back à back, elles sont aussi accablantes que magnifiques. Nous n'avons de courage que pour vivre intérieurement, et c'est heureux. (Amour, p. 202) Dévastateur.
July 5, 2014
quite a number of people on goodreads have described this book as a book of short stories. it is not...stories that are over 100 pages long are not short stories, they are novellas. So this is a book consisting of three novellas, all written about Haiti. the author lived in Haiti, but was forced into exile in Paris after writing this book as it is quite disparaging of the Haiti government...no surprise there.
all 3 novellas are written brilliantly and are quite independent of each other. I must say that I enjoyed the first, and longest novella the best of the three. highly recommended.
all 3 novellas are written brilliantly and are quite independent of each other. I must say that I enjoyed the first, and longest novella the best of the three. highly recommended.
November 3, 2017
J'ai découvert ce titre il y a déjà deux ans grâce à l'émission "Livres en poche" sur France Inter. Un long moment donc que ce livre attend son tour sur l'étagère et finalement il m'a fallu près de deux mois pour tourner la dernière page. Difficile de revenir indemne de cette plongée dans les années noires d'Haïti, l'écriture est féroce et Marie Vieux-Chauvet met à nu toutes les faces sombres de cette société. Trois textes marquants qui n'en finissent pas de hanter son lecteur.
May 6, 2013
Page 156 marks the end of Love, the first novella in this trilogy about Haiti after the end of the American occupation. It's part History lesson, part glimpse into the sad life of a very strong woman. For very personal reasons, I identified very much with the character of Claire; much more, I think, that I have with any other literary character I've encountered. Told in diary entries by Claire, Love is heart-breaking in its revelation of Claire's turmoil, and eye-opening in the crude retelling of the conditions in Haiti during the 1930s. It's not hard to imagine that things haven't changed very much.
July 18, 2021
This book was fucking incredible and also heartbreaking. I loved the three novellas for each of their unique characters and storytelling. The characters a full and complex people, there is biting and incisive condemnation of authoritarians, and is a good reminder for non-Haitians that the country is far more complex than the French and American history that we are told. I think the thing I loved most about this book is the character development. There is a pragmatism and acceptance for the way life is and also space to grieve, be happy, be angry, etc. for the reason for these circumstances. Unlike any other book I’ve read and would highly recommend.
September 7, 2019
2019 Pop Sugar Reading challenge-a book with love in the title.
I didn't care for Love at all. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be rooting for the main character, but she was just awful. And as an old maid, I felt offended by our portrayal:)
Anger was pretty good. The anger the entire family felt towards each other and those taking over the county was realistic and well-portayed.
Madness was also good but a little hard to read. I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't.
They were all very well and beautifully written.
I didn't care for Love at all. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be rooting for the main character, but she was just awful. And as an old maid, I felt offended by our portrayal:)
Anger was pretty good. The anger the entire family felt towards each other and those taking over the county was realistic and well-portayed.
Madness was also good but a little hard to read. I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't.
They were all very well and beautifully written.
Read
March 13, 2022A triptych of novellas obliquely describing the nightmare of living in Haiti under the rule of Papa Doc Duvalier. In Love, an embittered, sex-maddened spinster obsesses over her brother-in-law and the brutalities of the coming regime; in Anger, a girl sells her virtue to save her family. Disturbing, erotic, insightful, excellent. Worth a read.
January 14, 2023
4.5 this made me so sad and made me think a lot about the Haiti my grandparents lived in. ugh i want to discuss this in a college class
January 31, 2014
Originally published in 1969, during Papa Doc's brutal and vindictive regime, where anyone showing signs of disapproval of his rule might be disappeared or suffer the wrath of his Tontons Macoutes (local militias made up of lower class citizens with axes to grind), Marie Vieux-Chauvet's husband apparently was so afraid of what this book would bring down upon their heads that he bought up all the copies available in Haiti. Her daughter did the same for the remaining copies selling in France. I wonder how this must have affected Vieux-Chauvet - it must have been quite devastating. At any rate, she left Haiti for the United States soon after and never returned (she died in 1973). Having read 'Love Anger Madness', it is easy to see how dangerous the book could have for Vieux-Chauvet and her family, particularly when the Tontons Macoutes were slaughtering people for much less. She was either very courageous or totally mad to have this book published at the time while still living in Haiti.
Arranged as a series of three novellas or stories that are only only connected in their examination of the effects of the regime on a small provincial town, all of these stories are extremely unnerving in different ways. Her characters are all bursting at the seams with nervous tension, trying to determine what is the best course of action in face of an enemy that they have little chance of defeating and that they really don't understand.
Love is a phantasmagoria of dread, lust and violence, intermixed with sylphlike shadows of hope, dignity and love. The heavy atmosphere that pervades the story was almost unbearable for me to read but the sharpness and intelligence of the narrative voice, an almost stream-of consciousness-like series of entries from the main character, provides the clearest glimpse into what it might be like to experience state terror. Our protagonist, Claire Clamont, a member of the provincial elite who lives with her two younger sisters and a brother-in-law on her family's aging estate,is at turns utterly deluded in her hopes of finding love with her sister's husband (she isn't the world's most likeable character as far as moral uprightness goes), and fully aware of the futility of these hopes as well as the ever-increasing dangers she and her community face in Haiti's repressive regime.
The second story, Anger, is also told from the perspective of the elite class, this time from one upper middle class family whose land is suddenly seized by the regimes 'blackshirts', most of which are made up of former peasants and others of the lower classes ostensibly seeking to revenge themselves of generations of injustices. Shifting from the thoughts and perspectives of the teenage children, whose promising futures are now thrown into disarray, the parents and the grandfather, we see how their impotence in the face of this loss affects them in turns with rage, despair, resignation, desperation and, above all, terror. This is a truly chilling and gruesome novella.
The final story in this trilogy reminds me of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground in that the reader is drawn into the mind of a character that you know is likely mad, and so you have to sort out where the blurred line between fantasy and reality lies. The ending is heartbreaking.
Really, I can't rave enough about these stories. Vieux-Chauvet has somehow managed to incorporate all the underlying tensions of race and class and the legacies of colonialism while at the same time keeping a laser focus on the terror of the regime. This is not an easy read, but well worth the effort.
Arranged as a series of three novellas or stories that are only only connected in their examination of the effects of the regime on a small provincial town, all of these stories are extremely unnerving in different ways. Her characters are all bursting at the seams with nervous tension, trying to determine what is the best course of action in face of an enemy that they have little chance of defeating and that they really don't understand.
Love is a phantasmagoria of dread, lust and violence, intermixed with sylphlike shadows of hope, dignity and love. The heavy atmosphere that pervades the story was almost unbearable for me to read but the sharpness and intelligence of the narrative voice, an almost stream-of consciousness-like series of entries from the main character, provides the clearest glimpse into what it might be like to experience state terror. Our protagonist, Claire Clamont, a member of the provincial elite who lives with her two younger sisters and a brother-in-law on her family's aging estate,is at turns utterly deluded in her hopes of finding love with her sister's husband (she isn't the world's most likeable character as far as moral uprightness goes), and fully aware of the futility of these hopes as well as the ever-increasing dangers she and her community face in Haiti's repressive regime.
The second story, Anger, is also told from the perspective of the elite class, this time from one upper middle class family whose land is suddenly seized by the regimes 'blackshirts', most of which are made up of former peasants and others of the lower classes ostensibly seeking to revenge themselves of generations of injustices. Shifting from the thoughts and perspectives of the teenage children, whose promising futures are now thrown into disarray, the parents and the grandfather, we see how their impotence in the face of this loss affects them in turns with rage, despair, resignation, desperation and, above all, terror. This is a truly chilling and gruesome novella.
The final story in this trilogy reminds me of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground in that the reader is drawn into the mind of a character that you know is likely mad, and so you have to sort out where the blurred line between fantasy and reality lies. The ending is heartbreaking.
Really, I can't rave enough about these stories. Vieux-Chauvet has somehow managed to incorporate all the underlying tensions of race and class and the legacies of colonialism while at the same time keeping a laser focus on the terror of the regime. This is not an easy read, but well worth the effort.
January 3, 2015
Izuzetno tužna, tragična, iritantna (po sadržaju) i divno napisana... Triptih o Haitiju, kroz tri sasvim različite priče-novele, strukturno i sadržinski, pobudio je u meni različite osećaje... Prvo zgražanje prema zabranjenoj ljubavi i osećajima jedne četrdesetogodišnje usedelice, ali tako divno sročeno da sam na trenutke i sama tražila opravdanja... Zatim bes, ljutnja i gorčina zbog tragične sudbine jedne porodice čiji su članovi izgubili zamlju, ali i svoje duše, svoj karakter i principe... Poslednja novela me je ostavila sa puno upitnika, i po meni je kraj malo neuobičajen, ali sve u svemu, ovo je predivno napisana knjiga o Haićanskom pejsažu, u kojoj je autorica htela pokazati kako je vojni režim dehumanizovao, demoralisao i uništio društvo, kulturu i narod jedne zemlje s toliko ljubavi i lepote u stilu da je svakako preporučujem od srca.
September 19, 2021
In three novellas’ capacity, Marie Vieux-Chauvet built a historical museum of perverted passions in post-occupation Haiti (1930s-60s). In a society that carries as many oppressions as the legacy of French colonization, the brutal military occupation and corporate exploitation by the US, the eroded natural environment and crumbling economy, the rising native dictatorship of the Duvaliers, the terror of the secret police Tonton Macoute, the Haitian-Syrian antagonism, and racism against black and mixed-raced citizens, perversion offers an insight into the nested subordinations that a neutralized view cannot.
LOVE
Born and raised in a well-to-do family in the early 1900s, Claire Clamont witnessed the downturn of the family’s prospect as Haiti became occupied by the US (1915-34) and her father drained the family assets in politics. In the place of French colonists who turned Haiti into lucrative sugarcane plantations (out of which arose a Haitian elite), the American corporations deforested the land for timber exportation and supported a corrupt local government to impoverish the population. As Claire struggled with her secret affection for her light-skinned sister’s French husband with whom she shared her family’s house, she couldn’t help but realize that all the intimacy he returned went no farther than a brotherly embrace and restrained appreciation of a dark-skinned maid. In the highly volatile time of wars and economic crash, a populist and militarized black nationalism took over the government, bringing dictatorship instead of democracy.
Through Claire’s diary of her maddening love, MVC made an allegorical comparison to the Haitian elite’s disenchanted nostalgia of the old French empire in the wake of the brutal damage made to their land and economy by the Americans and the emerging dictatorship. Her dark skin, outstanding from her mixed-raced family and a visible reminder of the uncomfortable legacy of colonialism, made her a perpetual “maid” despite her being the main heiress of her family’s heritage. More than once was the French gentleman’s innocent liberalism called out by black Haitians. With the “good” colonists, racism may be less confrontational, but it is as deeply entrenched as Claire was the perpetual other to the white European relative.
ANGER
A mixed-raced family of three generations, the Normils, woke up one day to the nightmare of their land, earned by the late black great-grandfather, being seized by the new government, one that insinuated François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s despotic rule. The devastation to save the property didn’t cement the existing conflict within the family, but rather plunged the family deeper into distrust. While each person resorted to a bitter expedition—spirituality, mistress, and revenge—the most effective bargain with power lay in the granddaughter’s sacrifice of her body to the local commandant. With the legal system terribly eroded and the administration filled with beggar- and bandit-turned officials brewing power out of hate. The bargain was a lost case as soon as it began.
On the periphery of both LOVE and ANGER is the Syrian business community in Haiti, a byproduct of Euro-American colonialism and the only foreign traders in early to mid-20th century that were willing to take up long-term work in native conditions. The antagonism against the Syrians rose when the former, using their network with the US government, surpassed the Haitian elite to claim privileged positions in both official and business ranks. Though marginal, the Syrians were used as a proxy trade leverage to keep Haiti subject to, and dependent on, the Global North.
MADNESS
The last but the most frantic novella, MADNESS tells about the terror of mass killing of intellectuals. A young biracial poet, René, hallucinated the invasion of devils dressed in red, black, and gold, and locked up himself and three fellow poets (including a French) starving in a shack he inherited from his poor black mother. His birth a result of the violent and racist collision between classes, René was drawn toward Francophone literature, meanwhile rejected by both white and black communities because of his “mulatto” identity. In the eight days spent in horror and hunger, René was enmeshed in the struggle against religious restraint, the imagination of a romantic relationship with a rich neighbor, but mostly the suffocating anticipation of a total conquest by the murderous devils that no one else saw. Deemed madmen, René and the friends he sheltered were delivered to the hands of the police, execution awaiting them.
Was madness tricking the eye to see what didn’t exist? Or, was despotism blocking the eye from seeing what should be seen? Madness and hallucination are widely used in world literature to argue with authority in regard to what can and cannot be seen and questioned. By a conscious self-distancing from “truth,” writings of insanity are able to problematize not just a truthful fact per se, as is claimed to be commonly sensed, but also the power that authorizes what to be granted the unquestionable throne of “truth.” Madness, in the body and language of the outlawed, subverts the true and the false to create a critical space to rethink, in the impossibility of democratic political action, what is being told.
This triptych cost MVC her right to stay in Haiti. It sent a blast of irony to the thirty-year dictatorship of the Duvalier administrations. In all three stories, she evoked the image of useless (male) doctors and their bias and powers veiled by their professional practice, pointing the criticism directly at François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, whose career started from medical training. In naming Claire’s baby nephew after Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, she infantilized the son dictator. Banished from Port-au-Prince, MVC spent the last five years of her life in exile. She died at age 56 in New York, in 1973.
LOVE
Born and raised in a well-to-do family in the early 1900s, Claire Clamont witnessed the downturn of the family’s prospect as Haiti became occupied by the US (1915-34) and her father drained the family assets in politics. In the place of French colonists who turned Haiti into lucrative sugarcane plantations (out of which arose a Haitian elite), the American corporations deforested the land for timber exportation and supported a corrupt local government to impoverish the population. As Claire struggled with her secret affection for her light-skinned sister’s French husband with whom she shared her family’s house, she couldn’t help but realize that all the intimacy he returned went no farther than a brotherly embrace and restrained appreciation of a dark-skinned maid. In the highly volatile time of wars and economic crash, a populist and militarized black nationalism took over the government, bringing dictatorship instead of democracy.
Through Claire’s diary of her maddening love, MVC made an allegorical comparison to the Haitian elite’s disenchanted nostalgia of the old French empire in the wake of the brutal damage made to their land and economy by the Americans and the emerging dictatorship. Her dark skin, outstanding from her mixed-raced family and a visible reminder of the uncomfortable legacy of colonialism, made her a perpetual “maid” despite her being the main heiress of her family’s heritage. More than once was the French gentleman’s innocent liberalism called out by black Haitians. With the “good” colonists, racism may be less confrontational, but it is as deeply entrenched as Claire was the perpetual other to the white European relative.
ANGER
A mixed-raced family of three generations, the Normils, woke up one day to the nightmare of their land, earned by the late black great-grandfather, being seized by the new government, one that insinuated François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s despotic rule. The devastation to save the property didn’t cement the existing conflict within the family, but rather plunged the family deeper into distrust. While each person resorted to a bitter expedition—spirituality, mistress, and revenge—the most effective bargain with power lay in the granddaughter’s sacrifice of her body to the local commandant. With the legal system terribly eroded and the administration filled with beggar- and bandit-turned officials brewing power out of hate. The bargain was a lost case as soon as it began.
On the periphery of both LOVE and ANGER is the Syrian business community in Haiti, a byproduct of Euro-American colonialism and the only foreign traders in early to mid-20th century that were willing to take up long-term work in native conditions. The antagonism against the Syrians rose when the former, using their network with the US government, surpassed the Haitian elite to claim privileged positions in both official and business ranks. Though marginal, the Syrians were used as a proxy trade leverage to keep Haiti subject to, and dependent on, the Global North.
MADNESS
The last but the most frantic novella, MADNESS tells about the terror of mass killing of intellectuals. A young biracial poet, René, hallucinated the invasion of devils dressed in red, black, and gold, and locked up himself and three fellow poets (including a French) starving in a shack he inherited from his poor black mother. His birth a result of the violent and racist collision between classes, René was drawn toward Francophone literature, meanwhile rejected by both white and black communities because of his “mulatto” identity. In the eight days spent in horror and hunger, René was enmeshed in the struggle against religious restraint, the imagination of a romantic relationship with a rich neighbor, but mostly the suffocating anticipation of a total conquest by the murderous devils that no one else saw. Deemed madmen, René and the friends he sheltered were delivered to the hands of the police, execution awaiting them.
Was madness tricking the eye to see what didn’t exist? Or, was despotism blocking the eye from seeing what should be seen? Madness and hallucination are widely used in world literature to argue with authority in regard to what can and cannot be seen and questioned. By a conscious self-distancing from “truth,” writings of insanity are able to problematize not just a truthful fact per se, as is claimed to be commonly sensed, but also the power that authorizes what to be granted the unquestionable throne of “truth.” Madness, in the body and language of the outlawed, subverts the true and the false to create a critical space to rethink, in the impossibility of democratic political action, what is being told.
This triptych cost MVC her right to stay in Haiti. It sent a blast of irony to the thirty-year dictatorship of the Duvalier administrations. In all three stories, she evoked the image of useless (male) doctors and their bias and powers veiled by their professional practice, pointing the criticism directly at François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, whose career started from medical training. In naming Claire’s baby nephew after Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, she infantilized the son dictator. Banished from Port-au-Prince, MVC spent the last five years of her life in exile. She died at age 56 in New York, in 1973.
July 3, 2016
Banned in Haiti under the Duvalier regime, this book's scathing criticism of the Duvalier reign of terror resulted in Chauvet's exile. I seem to think I acquired the original French text from the Denver Public Library back in grad school. When I saw that it was back in publication and in English, I knew I must read it again.
You can find a smattering of reviews that explicate the books triptych structure. But nothing prepares you for the palpable terror, turmoil, and pending madness that beset the collections' characters. Such a potent rendering of the violence and culture of fear instilled in Haitians by the Tonton Macoutes of the Duvalier regime.
Super translation with endnotes to help the neophyte to Haitian history and Krèyol.
**Read the French version in grad school...
You can find a smattering of reviews that explicate the books triptych structure. But nothing prepares you for the palpable terror, turmoil, and pending madness that beset the collections' characters. Such a potent rendering of the violence and culture of fear instilled in Haitians by the Tonton Macoutes of the Duvalier regime.
Super translation with endnotes to help the neophyte to Haitian history and Krèyol.
**Read the French version in grad school...
March 18, 2012
A trilogy of novellas, all powerfully written, about the devastating personal effects of racial and class politics in Haiti, its historical cycles of violence and retribution, and its brutal corruption. I much preferred the first two ("Love" and "Anger" which I'd rate 4/5) to the fevered surreality of the third ("Madness"), which felt less finished. The dark-skinned female narrator of "Love," with her frustrated desires and awakening sense of self, is particularly striking. The author, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, originally wrote this book in the mid 1960s, then sought exile in the U.S. and tried to remove published copies out of circulation, out of fear of how the Duvalier regime might retaliate against her remaining family and friends.
June 26, 2010
I can't say I enjoyed it, but I do appreciate the fact that this piece of literature exists. The three novellas show Vieux-Chauvet's incredible talent as a writer with each being distinctly different. My favorite is the first. It is wonderful to get into Claire's head. Although supposedly set in the late 1930's, this book paints a terrible portrait of US controlled Haiti under the Papa and Baby Doc regime.
April 16, 2021
«La lluvia es la bendición del cielo –afirma muy haitianamente el padre Paul en sus sermones. Entonces, ¡es que estamos malditos! Ciclones, terremotos y sequedad, nada nos perdona. Los mendigos pululan.». Una novela intensa, erótica y furiosa en un país de extremos donde se muere de amor y de hambre; por un ciclón y por un dictador. Buscadores de literatura caribeña: Haití, un Vulnerable que encontró ... Más en: https://readnfly.com/2021/04/15/amor-...
April 17, 2010
I read this in the original French and found it incredibly moving. All of the major issues that shape life in contemporary Haiti are here. I highly, highly recommend it. In fact, I'm excited it's now available in English so I can possibly teach it in a world literature in translation class someday.
November 9, 2010
I love love love this book. Vieux-Chauvet masterfully paints the complex nature of Haitian women in the oppressive Duvalier/early 20th century Haiti. At times both stark and dreary, both strange and endearing, the novellas are at once honest and true and stands as a confident affirmation of the character of perseverance in a terribly oppressive society.
January 1, 2011
I generally liked the book when there was dialogue between the characters; however, there was just way too much inner angst expressed throughout the narration. I suppose I should have expected that, given the title. I found the book tedious to finish and ended up stopping with just 40 pages to go.
October 16, 2015
Translated by my friends Rose and Val.
December 28, 2021
This novel includes three novellas independent and can read in any order!
with that said will rate them accordingly to my experience!
🌟🌟🌟Love :
Story takes place in Haitian province where rule of the dictator is absolute where peasants,poets and intellectuals are killed on the pleasures of commander of province where everything happens on whims of people in power while people suffer in silence.
We follow journey or to be exact the rant of Claire who is part of one of well known families. She lives her life tending to her sisters whims and problems. Through her streams of consciousness we are introduced to hypocrisies of society and to the people who live along with her. Her raw thoughts on pleasure, desire and want, will to live her life, to speak her mind is beautifully drawn out. For she is someone who is filed with hatred not just for cowardice of people in country or conservatives but even for herself. As reader we get to live through her life of desires, wants, anger, hatred, loneliness, hypocrisies, subtle racism and the despair brought about by country caught in dictatorship.
🌟🌟🌟 🌟Anger:
Beautifully pogiantly written novella in which one is trying to seek comfort in a affair only to let go feeling of dread to avoid wallowing in pit of despair and fear only trying to seek strength in someone else.. while another suffers loneliness the life had bore them with..
While everyone else scramble to find a piece of themselves gathering themselves up like a injured butterfly trying to have one last flight.
For their lives are trapped in maze ; a Labrinth of despair meanwhile far away an eagle circling in sky patiently waits to devour it's prey..
They act like a prey questioning their existence their inability to protect themselves.. their fate bound to their own country but instead like a puppet whose life is hung by a thread moving as and when master wishes who sits in his fort like caged lion with army of men in Black uniforms who march around with a grin on their faces only to mock their existence..
for they are like eagles in their black uniforms with guns in their hands waiting, holding power over lives of characters in their hands..
🌟🌟 Madness (in first person):
As I kneel down in slience in a dark room where i can hardly see myself i can hear my friend breathing slowly by my side, I warn "Don't you hear it...? don't make a sound!"
there it comes..
Bam! bam! bam! Gunshots outside..
i yell
"Haa alas they killed him too.. "
No one is spared.. Devils have rounded the town.. they spare no one..
with that said will rate them accordingly to my experience!
🌟🌟🌟Love :
Story takes place in Haitian province where rule of the dictator is absolute where peasants,poets and intellectuals are killed on the pleasures of commander of province where everything happens on whims of people in power while people suffer in silence.
We follow journey or to be exact the rant of Claire who is part of one of well known families. She lives her life tending to her sisters whims and problems. Through her streams of consciousness we are introduced to hypocrisies of society and to the people who live along with her. Her raw thoughts on pleasure, desire and want, will to live her life, to speak her mind is beautifully drawn out. For she is someone who is filed with hatred not just for cowardice of people in country or conservatives but even for herself. As reader we get to live through her life of desires, wants, anger, hatred, loneliness, hypocrisies, subtle racism and the despair brought about by country caught in dictatorship.
🌟🌟🌟 🌟Anger:
Beautifully pogiantly written novella in which one is trying to seek comfort in a affair only to let go feeling of dread to avoid wallowing in pit of despair and fear only trying to seek strength in someone else.. while another suffers loneliness the life had bore them with..
While everyone else scramble to find a piece of themselves gathering themselves up like a injured butterfly trying to have one last flight.
For their lives are trapped in maze ; a Labrinth of despair meanwhile far away an eagle circling in sky patiently waits to devour it's prey..
They act like a prey questioning their existence their inability to protect themselves.. their fate bound to their own country but instead like a puppet whose life is hung by a thread moving as and when master wishes who sits in his fort like caged lion with army of men in Black uniforms who march around with a grin on their faces only to mock their existence..
for they are like eagles in their black uniforms with guns in their hands waiting, holding power over lives of characters in their hands..
🌟🌟 Madness (in first person):
As I kneel down in slience in a dark room where i can hardly see myself i can hear my friend breathing slowly by my side, I warn "Don't you hear it...? don't make a sound!"
there it comes..
Bam! bam! bam! Gunshots outside..
i yell
"Haa alas they killed him too.. "
No one is spared.. Devils have rounded the town.. they spare no one..
September 1, 2022
Esta trilogía haitiana está compuesta por tres historias independientes y autoconclusivas. 𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑟 es el diario de la protagonista acerca de su vida, una reflexión prolongada. Nacida en una familia de clase media gracias al negocio del café, Claire se siente desplazada por su color de piel: es negra. No sería un hecho destacable si no fuera porque sus hermanas, Félicia y Annette, y sus padres, son todo lo opuesto.
Esto se convierte en su obsesión, que deriva en un autodesprecio constante. A sus cuarenta años, confiesa que sigue virgen por miedo a ser tratada como una negra más. Eso no impide que tenga libido y una imaginación erótica desatada; fantasías que protagoniza su cuñado, Jean Luze, el extranjero prototípico que acaba casado con la hermana más bella.
A todo ello, se le añade el comandante Calédu, quien se sirve de su poder y odio racial para ejercer la violencia libremente. Al final, Claire no podrá seguir tolerando el reino del terror y decidirá acabar con él.
𝐼𝑟𝑎 relata la caída en desgracia y humillación de la familia Normil. Establecidos en el terreno que levantó el abuelo a fuerza de trabajo duro y honrado, observan impotentes la amenaza; les expropian su hogar injustamente.
Los uniformados hombres de negro se mueven como una masa a voluntad del abogado, que promete devolver las tierras a cambio de violar de manera recurrente a la hija. Rose acepta su destino, muerta en vida, para conseguir un futuro mejor para su familia. Sin embargo, la ira no para de crecer hasta que logre salir a presión.
Por último, 𝐿𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎 se centra en el miedo que genera el régimen y la imposibilidad de pensar libremente. Los protagonistas son tres estudiantes que han abandonado la cordura, presos de una persecución inexistente, que los lleva a un aislamiento forzoso. Cuando los encuentran a la semana su destino está fijado: son locos y peligrosos para la vida pública.
El efecto sorprendente y lúgubre del primer relato eclipsa a los demás, en parte justificado por el final tan parecido con el segundo y la brevedad del tercero. Aun así, es una obra que merece ser leída.
Esto se convierte en su obsesión, que deriva en un autodesprecio constante. A sus cuarenta años, confiesa que sigue virgen por miedo a ser tratada como una negra más. Eso no impide que tenga libido y una imaginación erótica desatada; fantasías que protagoniza su cuñado, Jean Luze, el extranjero prototípico que acaba casado con la hermana más bella.
A todo ello, se le añade el comandante Calédu, quien se sirve de su poder y odio racial para ejercer la violencia libremente. Al final, Claire no podrá seguir tolerando el reino del terror y decidirá acabar con él.
𝐼𝑟𝑎 relata la caída en desgracia y humillación de la familia Normil. Establecidos en el terreno que levantó el abuelo a fuerza de trabajo duro y honrado, observan impotentes la amenaza; les expropian su hogar injustamente.
Los uniformados hombres de negro se mueven como una masa a voluntad del abogado, que promete devolver las tierras a cambio de violar de manera recurrente a la hija. Rose acepta su destino, muerta en vida, para conseguir un futuro mejor para su familia. Sin embargo, la ira no para de crecer hasta que logre salir a presión.
Por último, 𝐿𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎 se centra en el miedo que genera el régimen y la imposibilidad de pensar libremente. Los protagonistas son tres estudiantes que han abandonado la cordura, presos de una persecución inexistente, que los lleva a un aislamiento forzoso. Cuando los encuentran a la semana su destino está fijado: son locos y peligrosos para la vida pública.
El efecto sorprendente y lúgubre del primer relato eclipsa a los demás, en parte justificado por el final tan parecido con el segundo y la brevedad del tercero. Aun así, es una obra que merece ser leída.
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