12600: New children's book by Haitian author (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Merrie Archer <MArcher@nchr.org>

July 14, 2002, Sunday
New York Times
BOOK REVIEW DESK
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
By Jan Benzel

FRESH GIRL
By Jaïra Placide.
Wendy Lamb/Random House. $15.95. (Ages 12 and up)
Jaïra Placide's first novel begins with a swirl of names and settings, a
confusion of Haiti and Brooklyn, French Creole and American culture. A
reader may at first be daunted by the profusion of characters and jolting
switches in location. There's the family: Grandmère, Aunt Widza, Uncle
Perrin, Serina, Maman, Papa. There are friends: Jilline and Pierre. There's
Ike, a menacing boy at school, and Santos, a flirtatious hunk. One minute
we're in New York, the next in Port-au-Prince, fleeing from the violent coup
of 1991.
But perseverance pays off. As the images and characters begin to sort
themselves out, the center of this novel emerges: Mardi Desravines, a
14-year-old girl trying to make sense of life as a first-generation
immigrant. She lives with her large, loving family crammed into a tiny
apartment, in a world where her cultural touchstones include ''The Sound of
Music'' and ''To Kill a Mockingbird,'' a song called ''I Want Your Sex'' and
a sunny California sitcom.
With family and friends, a sharp mind and eagerness to do well in school,
Mardi seems to the world to be navigating her own coming-of-age and her
family's assimilation without too much trouble. Why, then, does she fill her
bed with rocks, so she won't fall into a sleep deep enough to lead to
dreams? Why does she sometimes hurt herself?
The arrival of Mardi's Uncle Perrin begins to stir up memories that Mardi
tries with all her might to keep at bay. Perrin resisted the coup. The
family thought he was dead, but he survived the violence and had been held
in camps in Cuba until he was granted political asylum.
Escaping alive, however, is never the whole story of survival, and Mardi too
has been a victim of the coup. This well-wrought book tells of harshness no
child should have to know. But it also offers strength: as the shaken
kaleidoscope of her young life comes into rich, colorful focus, Mardi finds
what she needs to survive. Jan Benzel