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A review by peeled_grape
The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier
1.0
I know I'm not a very focused person, and I have the attention span of a goldfish, but sometimes I just didn't really know what was happening. There were a lot of passive sentences so I couldn't really tell who was doing what, the way actions were described weren't super clear, and there are a ton of jumps between people and time (with third person narration, which always trips me up). I spent a lot of time confused. (I wonder how much of it was translation?)
That being said: this is very well done. It's centered around the Haitian Revolution and leaves out the actual revolution, which, first of all, is a power move. It actually leaves out most big historical figures, which places the emphasis on voudou/voodoo and the characters that Carpentier thought were more intriguing. The form lends itself to the definition of the "marvelous real" very well. If you're into magical realism, read the intro -- I thought it was interesting.
An update, 09/12/20: I originally wrote the review above three days ago and rated it three stars, but the longer I sit on this, the less I like it. There are things that Carpentier did that I really hate. The protagonist is canonically a rapist, but this is treated so casually. Was I supposed to empathize with him? Was I supposed to gloss over that fact like the narrative did? Because, if so, that's disgusting. He sees victory, and to mark that victory, he has to rape someone because "men can't control their appetites" or "it's been too long" or whatever. This is a fictional character! Carpentier really did not have to make this happen, or to make it happen so casually! The only prominent female character in the entire book is depicted in the stereotypical "man writing a woman" nonsense. Her body is the only one described (especially in this much detail!), and of course, it's focusing on the parts men can derive pleasure from. She's one of those "temptress" characters. God. I know that this book is supposed to be the origins of magical realism, and I know that it's one of the few fictional works on the Haitian Revolution, but the blatant sexism in this and the way it's been ignored is infuriating. TL;DR: Women only exist in this novel as sex objects, and this narrative disgusts me more the more time I sit with it.
That being said: this is very well done. It's centered around the Haitian Revolution and leaves out the actual revolution, which, first of all, is a power move. It actually leaves out most big historical figures, which places the emphasis on voudou/voodoo and the characters that Carpentier thought were more intriguing. The form lends itself to the definition of the "marvelous real" very well. If you're into magical realism, read the intro -- I thought it was interesting.
An update, 09/12/20: I originally wrote the review above three days ago and rated it three stars, but the longer I sit on this, the less I like it. There are things that Carpentier did that I really hate. The protagonist is canonically a rapist, but this is treated so casually. Was I supposed to empathize with him? Was I supposed to gloss over that fact like the narrative did? Because, if so, that's disgusting. He sees victory, and to mark that victory, he has to rape someone because "men can't control their appetites" or "it's been too long" or whatever. This is a fictional character! Carpentier really did not have to make this happen, or to make it happen so casually! The only prominent female character in the entire book is depicted in the stereotypical "man writing a woman" nonsense. Her body is the only one described (especially in this much detail!), and of course, it's focusing on the parts men can derive pleasure from. She's one of those "temptress" characters. God. I know that this book is supposed to be the origins of magical realism, and I know that it's one of the few fictional works on the Haitian Revolution, but the blatant sexism in this and the way it's been ignored is infuriating. TL;DR: Women only exist in this novel as sex objects, and this narrative disgusts me more the more time I sit with it.