Where can we get the book?
A. Backer
Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com> wrote:
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 idea! s 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 f! ound a way to shock me to the core!
What do the other Corbetters think?
JAAllen
Miami