#4697: Gary victor's new novel (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:JAALLEN181@aol.com

    I highly recommend reading the new Gary Victor novel :A l'angle des rue 
paralleles ( At the corner of parrallel streets), a fictionnal story taking 
place in Haiti.
    If this is the depiction of the new Haitian society, it is a shockingly 
brilliant rendition of the author's views on a range of subjects.  Politics, 
societal values, mysticim, religious beliefs, everything is there.
    Eric the anti-hero and main character is animated by hate and wants to 
destroy a society which he believes has failed and has no future.   He 
criticizes all elements of it  with equal vehemance.  
    It is a  modern "les Dix Hommes noirs"  (The Ten Black Men) with a more 
brutal reality and absolutely no hope.  There is no nobility assigned to any 
of the characters.  Manuel in Gouverneurs de la rosee (Masters of the Dew) 
had a message; he promoted ideas of togetherness and hoped the society could 
find a way out of its problems because of  the nobility of his ideas.  Eric 
has no message; he only comes to realize the ugliness of the society because 
he has lost his job, his fiancee and his prestige.  He is here to tell us 
that we have never been a nation, have not had an elite and have only had a 
succession of crooks at the helm. 
    At the end of the novel, God himself is killed by l'Elu who is the real 
power behind a drunk President in a totally demented country with generalized 
corruption.  Haiti becomes further isolated as a result of all other nations 
having sealed our borders in order not to be contaminated by our serious 
problems.
    Is this only fiction? Or is it  the satire of a society living its 
imposture, only pretending to be a nation when in fact it has mastered the 
art of missing the train.  
    I am not sure of the book's literary value but I know that Gary Victor 
has found a way to shock me to the core!
    What do the other Corbetters think?
    JAAllen
    Miami