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catpdx's review
4.0
While reading up on Haitian writer Evelyne Trouillot, I came across a great interview she did with Edwidge Danticat:
http://bombsite.com/issues/90/articles/2708
In discussing a short story of hers, she had this to say:
As for the novel itself - I hope to put together a more eloquent review, but it's more poignant and more full of genuine pain than anything I've read recently. She knows the history of Haiti (here still Saint-Domingue) intimately, and she spares nothing; however, she brings deep, vital humanity to the "invisible" women she hoped to pull from the shadows of the brutal past - there's inspiration to be found in the horror. I hope more of her works are available soon.
http://bombsite.com/issues/90/articles/2708
In discussing a short story of hers, she had this to say:
"We think we know our history when in fact we only know a part of it. We do not talk about the enslaved men and women, we talk about the heroes, and since most of the heroes in the traditional history books are men, we talk mostly about great men. I rather like the big mass of enslaved people, the ones I called the “invisible,” since nobody wanted to pay attention to them. And of course, there were many invisible women."She brings those women vividly to life in The Infamous Rosalie.
As for the novel itself - I hope to put together a more eloquent review, but it's more poignant and more full of genuine pain than anything I've read recently. She knows the history of Haiti (here still Saint-Domingue) intimately, and she spares nothing; however, she brings deep, vital humanity to the "invisible" women she hoped to pull from the shadows of the brutal past - there's inspiration to be found in the horror. I hope more of her works are available soon.
inherbooks's review
5.0
“These words come back to remind me that I am a slave, and it is in this truth that my strength lies. Whether a field slave or a house slave, man, woman or child, the slave is a creature who has lost his soul between the mill and the sugarcane, between the ship’s hold and its steerage, between the crinoline and the slap in the face. Shame stains our every gesture. When we place our feet, undeserving of shoes on the ground, when we let our exhausted bodies fall on cornhusk mattresses, and when we swing the bamboo fahs, we crush our souls under the weight of our shame. Only our gestures of revolt truly belong to us.”
130 pages deep, The Infamous Rosalie, titled after the slave ship Rosalie during the Middle Passage, tells the tale of Lisette, a house slave in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) living in the shadowing stories of her grandmother, godmother and the disappearing lives surrounding her. The author, Haitian herself, was inspired by the tale of an Arada midwife who killed 70 babies to protect them from the life of a slave and kept the knotted umbilical cords.
The stories are told with detail, harrowing but necessary, given the atrocities humankind (read: colonizers) enacted sickeningly proudly. Slaves were subjected to horrors on simply a whiff of suspicion that they may be involved in plots to poison their masters. I couldn’t stomach reading Lisette’s voice recount the stories of death and disappearing potential for the sake of…??? The white man? And his gluttony?
Evelyne Trouillot writes: “I wasn’t intending to write a historical novel. May I be forgiven, then, for the few discrepancies and creative liberties I’ve taken. I only seek to acknowledge my characters’ humanity. Yet I must refuse any responsibility for the torture and punishment described in the text. They are all unfortunately true, born of the cruel and perfidious imagination of those who proclaimed themselves to be civilized.”
This is a historical novel everyone needs to have on their shelves. Be reminded, history isn’t about the heroes – that stories of those who did and did not survive must also be told. This isn’t a story of celebration but of revolution through life and death.
130 pages deep, The Infamous Rosalie, titled after the slave ship Rosalie during the Middle Passage, tells the tale of Lisette, a house slave in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) living in the shadowing stories of her grandmother, godmother and the disappearing lives surrounding her. The author, Haitian herself, was inspired by the tale of an Arada midwife who killed 70 babies to protect them from the life of a slave and kept the knotted umbilical cords.
The stories are told with detail, harrowing but necessary, given the atrocities humankind (read: colonizers) enacted sickeningly proudly. Slaves were subjected to horrors on simply a whiff of suspicion that they may be involved in plots to poison their masters. I couldn’t stomach reading Lisette’s voice recount the stories of death and disappearing potential for the sake of…??? The white man? And his gluttony?
Evelyne Trouillot writes: “I wasn’t intending to write a historical novel. May I be forgiven, then, for the few discrepancies and creative liberties I’ve taken. I only seek to acknowledge my characters’ humanity. Yet I must refuse any responsibility for the torture and punishment described in the text. They are all unfortunately true, born of the cruel and perfidious imagination of those who proclaimed themselves to be civilized.”
This is a historical novel everyone needs to have on their shelves. Be reminded, history isn’t about the heroes – that stories of those who did and did not survive must also be told. This isn’t a story of celebration but of revolution through life and death.
sheonlywantsmybooks's review
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
timartin's review
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
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