14007: Antoine: Review found on Amazon.com

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy Antoine <GuyAntoine@windowsonhaiti.com>

A Cold Indictment of Slavery, November 18, 1998

Reviewer: jbunnel3@slis.ua.edu from Tuscaloosa, AL

In BABOUK, Guy Endore continues along the same artistic heights he hit
the previous year with THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS, this time turning
his attention to the Haitian slave trade and the brutality of Western
civilization.

In reading this, it's no surprise that it was a commercial catastrophe for
Vanguard Press in 1934, especially since the original jacket contained the
paratextual blurb "From The Author Of THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS",
obviously desperate at marketing the controversial content by associating it
with the former success. The story is told from the perspective of a young
slave, Babouk, and, as always, Endore does an extensive amount of research
on his subject matter. This new Voices of Resistance edition (the first
since '34) is excellent, with an outstanding preface and postface that
place both the text and the revolution into a historical context for the
reader unfamiliar with Haiti's struggle for freedom. The typeface has
improved (Endore consented to having the original plates melted down to
aid the war effort) and the overall design is far superior. The material
is disturbing and for good reason. I highly recommend
this work, not only because Endore is a brilliant storyteller, but because
he relentlessly attacks Western patterns of domination and oppression at a
time in history when it was incredibly unpopular to do so. The author, in
a 1963 inscription, once wrote accurately: "BABOUK is my unknown
masterpiece.

At any rate, unknown."