[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
29868: Hermantin(News)In the Land of Mountains (fwd)
From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>
Miami Sun Post
Posted January 18, 2007
In the Land of Mountains
Madison Smartt Bell Scales the Heights — and the Depths — of Haiti
If the U.S. hadn’t stretched its military to the breaking point in its effort
to start and sustain World War III, we could staff a UN mission in Haiti.
By John Hood
Madison Smartt Bell is no ordinary scribbler. A Nashville son of Vanderbilt
alum who’d been friends with Allen Tate and other Fugitive poets, he learned to
read at 4 and write, for real, in high school, when he was sidelined by a
collapsed lung. His early ’80s work — which includes the novels The Washington
Square Ensemble and Waiting for the End of the World — unerred on the tough
side of fanciful New York during a time when fancy seemed to be de rigueur. His
characters, he says, “are the guys that would have been mugging McInerney’s
characters as they stumbled out of the Odeon at three in the morning.”
In ’95 Bell returned to the scene of a certain previously explored spirituality
and unleashed All Souls’ Rising, the first of what would become a revered
Haitian trilogy. Both mad and maximalist, the book not only induced nightmares,
but it too became a finalist for both the National Book Award and the
PEN/Faulkner.
Now fully fluent in the patois of this hemisphere’s most mysterious island
nation, Bell continues his Haitian chronicles with Toussaint Louverture
(Pantheon, $27), the story of the country’s most storied character. We caught
up with the rad cat on the eve of his East Coast onslaught and shot him a few
questions — here’s how he answered:
Why Toussaint Louverture?
Well, I think one can make an excellent case that he is the greatest African
American of all time. Certainly the only such hero to overthrow slavery from
within and lay the foundation of an independent black nation. And, his career
has the pattern of classic tragedy, which is appealing to the storyteller. And,
I believe his story can be very valuable to many more people than it has so far
reached.
Why Haiti?
When I was researching my first novel in the early 1980s I read a handful of
books about Haitian Vodou. Later on, it seemed to me that a Haiti based project
would give me a good opportunity to spend time in the Caribbean and practice my
French. Fifteen years later when I actually did start going there, I fell in
love with place, as all foreigners who aren’t driven mad by it do (and some who
are driven mad by it for that matter....).
Do you think Preval can stabilize the country?
He has a better chance than any other single individual. I admire him
tremendously, and I think he is the best president that could possibly have
been elected the last time out. Turning Haiti around is a taller order than it
was 10 years ago ... much. I hope and pray Preval can do it. I do think he has
the fortitude, the talent and the will.
Should America stay out?
Depends on what you mean by that. U.S. involvement in the last couple of
decades has had a nasty double-edge to it — i.e., we keep exporting our own
partisan strife to Haiti — e.g., with one hand we restore Aristide to his
elected office while with the other we underwrite and organize his overthrow by
the same far-right elements that ran the military dictatorship of the early
’90s ... this sort of thing is not very productive and it has made a lot of
Haitians despise and mistrust the United States.
On the other hand, the intervention of 1990s did have a positive side. The
troops on the ground, especially Special Forces groups, had a good relationship
with Haitians around the country and they were actually prepared and motivated
for a nation-building effort. If the U.S. hadn’t stretched its military to the
breaking point in its effort to start and sustain World War III, we could staff
a UN mission in Haiti with Haitian Americans who speak the language and
understand the culture. That’s a very hopeful idea, though unlikely to happen
under present conditions, and it would require a longer-term commitment than we
were willing to make previously. Meanwhile I think there are certain advantages
to having a UN mission staffed by Latin America and the Caribbean community
instead of the US.
Did you read/dig Graham Greene’s The Comedians?
Oh yes. I read it in my teens, and again after my first trips to Haiti in the
mid-’90s. It’s not his best book but interesting if you’ve been there — plus in
Port-au-Prince I stay in the Hotel Oloffson, the model for Greene’s “Hotel
Trianon.” But the situation in Haiti in the ’90s reminded me more of The Quiet
American — a better Greene novel, and quite apropos....
Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World?
Yes. I didn’t know that book existed when I started my trilogy on the Haitian
Revolution and I waited to read it until I was done. It’s the opposite approach
to mine — fantastic, brief, idiosyncratic in the sense of playing around with
the facts. It’s curious that while he names the other big leaders of the
Revolution, he doesn’t name Toussaint, although there is a character that
resembles him in some ways.
Zora Neale Hurston’s Tell My Horse?
It’s an interesting book, full of impressionistic vigor (though her picture of
Vodou is fragmentary).
The work of Hugh Cave?
I missed him. Had to Google to learn who he was ... looks interesting. I did
read Francis Huxley’s book on Vodou [The Invisibles], which maybe comes about a
decade later.
Wade Davis’ The Serpent and the Rainbow? The movie?
The two best books in English on Vodou are The S & R and Maya Deren’s Divine
Horsemen. (Her book’s a little better but Davis’ is much easier to find.) Most
writers on Vodou get distracted by external rituals and so on. Davis and Deren
have an unusually firm grasp of the heart of the matter.
The Serpent and the Rainbow movie is a so-so horror flick (at best) which has
practically nothing to do with the book. I don’t blame Davis for taking the
money, but the association has cost him a lot of credibility (especially since
he was enthusiastic about publicizing the movie, so I’ve been told).
Any Haitian or Haitian-centric writers/filmmakers you care to recommend?
Haiti has one Nobel-quality novelist I know of — Lyonel Trouillot. He’s a great
master, but not much of the work is translated in English, and that not too
well. See also: Yannick Lahens, Rodney Saint Éloi, Ephele Milce. Franketienne,
for sure. I am a huge admirer of Edwidge Danticat, who has solved the language
problem by writing directly in English.
I’m not an expert on Haitian film but [Port-au-Prince-born director] Raoul Peck
is awfully good....
Off topic, your novel Straight Cut made a great pulp paperback, any plans for
any more for Hard Case Crime?
Perfect, really. They are doing an anthology of original stories I mean to
contribute to ... and there has been a little talk of putting a couple other of
my quasi-thrillers on their list.
We can’t wait.
Madison Smartt Bell is scheduled to speak about his latest book on Wednesday,
Jan. 24 at 6 p.m. at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. Admission is
free. Call 305-442-4408.
_________________________________________________________________
Type your favorite song. Get a customized station. Try MSN Radio powered by
Pandora. http://radio.msn.com/?icid=T002MSN03A07001