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Street of Lost Footsteps
Lyonel Trouillot’s harrowing novel depicts a night of blazing violence in modern-day Port-au-Prince and recalls hundreds of years of violence stretching back even before the birth of Haiti in the fires of revolution. Three narrators—a madam, a taxi driver, and a post office employee—describe in almost hallucinatory terms the escalating chaos of a bloody uprising that pits the partisans of the Prophet against the murderous might of the great dictator Deceased Forever-Immortal.
The drama of promise and betrayal in Haitian life inform’s Street of Lost Footsteps with the grim irony and savage tenderness characteristic of writers for whom the repetitiveness of history has gone beyond tragedy, through farce, and on into insanity. With impressive originality and touching immediacy, Trouillot explores the nature of political oppression, memory, and truth.
The drama of promise and betrayal in Haitian life inform’s Street of Lost Footsteps with the grim irony and savage tenderness characteristic of writers for whom the repetitiveness of history has gone beyond tragedy, through farce, and on into insanity. With impressive originality and touching immediacy, Trouillot explores the nature of political oppression, memory, and truth.
- GenresFiction
115 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
153 people want to read
About the author
Lyonel Trouillot
62 books37 followersLyonel Trouillot (born Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on December 31, 1956) is a novelist and poet in French and Haitian Creole, a journalist and a professor of French and Creole literature in Port-au-Prince.
Lyonel Trouillot was born in a family of lawyers. The writer Évelyne Trouillot is his sister. Following his parents' divorce in the late 1960s, he went to the United States with his mother. He returned to Haiti at age 19, in 1975.
Between 1980-82, political repression forced Trouillot to emigrate to Miami.
He studied law, but switched to literature early in his career.
Trouillot has contributed to different newspapers and magazines in Haiti. He has published poetry, and also writes song lyrics for such musical artists as Tanbou Libète and Manno Charlemagne.
In 2014 he wrote together with Raoul Peck and Pascal Bonitzer the script for Peck's feature film Murder in Pacot.
Trouillot is known for his service to democracy in his country, and for his resistance to Haitian dictatorship. He was part of the Collective Non of intellectuals and artists that helped to force out the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was a member of the transitional government following the departure of Aristide, as a cabinet member of the minister of culture.
(from Wikipedia)
Lyonel Trouillot was born in a family of lawyers. The writer Évelyne Trouillot is his sister. Following his parents' divorce in the late 1960s, he went to the United States with his mother. He returned to Haiti at age 19, in 1975.
Between 1980-82, political repression forced Trouillot to emigrate to Miami.
He studied law, but switched to literature early in his career.
Trouillot has contributed to different newspapers and magazines in Haiti. He has published poetry, and also writes song lyrics for such musical artists as Tanbou Libète and Manno Charlemagne.
In 2014 he wrote together with Raoul Peck and Pascal Bonitzer the script for Peck's feature film Murder in Pacot.
Trouillot is known for his service to democracy in his country, and for his resistance to Haitian dictatorship. He was part of the Collective Non of intellectuals and artists that helped to force out the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was a member of the transitional government following the departure of Aristide, as a cabinet member of the minister of culture.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 11, 2013
What I enjoyed about the book:
1. Lyonel's prose - he is incredibly poetic (for lack of a better term). There's nothing more harrowing that to have sentences like "So. Monsieur, it began with a great gust of wind. Inevitably. All our stories begin with gusts of wind as if in a whirl of lazy legends. We are a drift of idle birds, midgets of memory, master craftsmen of counterfeit" combined with matter-of-fact statements about a man being split apart in half and laying splayed out across another body to form some "sort of recumbent cross." I think it emphasizes the brutality and the pain a lot more because of its juxtaposition.
2. I like the 3 narrators all with different ideas about what should be the future of Haiti, who should lead the country, and the problems that exist within that political frame. Different voices with different experiences - all of whom are hesitant about the Prophet (supposedly good because they are taking down the Dictator, no?)
3. The structure of time - while all the events occurred within one night, the 3 characters' past are brought up, they introduce 20 other characters, and they move back and forth in time/memory seamlessly. All of which raises the character's stakes.
4. The complicated nature of being a part of a failed system. The wanting to do better but the people are so angry with how they are treated, again and again, and how they still find hope in every day moments.
Trouillot does not concern himself with stereotypes on Haiti - he doesn't focus on the stereotypical voodoo culture, the impoverished having enough to live contently despite their odds, nor do any of his characters (and the book itself) get saved in the end for some form of positive resolution.
In fact, the book is narrated by three narrators all isolated from the violence that occurs within one night, THE night two warring sides (the Dictator Deceased Forever Immortal and the Prophet) meet on the streets. The images he paints will forever be tattooed in your mind - I cannot forget the image of the half man/half pig animal left to burn on the sides of one of the streets, a sight Lyonel himself claims to be real in an interview. The harrowing and gruesome depictions of violence are hard to read - but necessary. One cannot pretend these horrors did not occur, and were incapable of being performed by desperate human beings. Should we feel the need to, we are also capable of doing so. The story isn't just a Haitian story. It could be applied every where else too.
1. Lyonel's prose - he is incredibly poetic (for lack of a better term). There's nothing more harrowing that to have sentences like "So. Monsieur, it began with a great gust of wind. Inevitably. All our stories begin with gusts of wind as if in a whirl of lazy legends. We are a drift of idle birds, midgets of memory, master craftsmen of counterfeit" combined with matter-of-fact statements about a man being split apart in half and laying splayed out across another body to form some "sort of recumbent cross." I think it emphasizes the brutality and the pain a lot more because of its juxtaposition.
2. I like the 3 narrators all with different ideas about what should be the future of Haiti, who should lead the country, and the problems that exist within that political frame. Different voices with different experiences - all of whom are hesitant about the Prophet (supposedly good because they are taking down the Dictator, no?)
3. The structure of time - while all the events occurred within one night, the 3 characters' past are brought up, they introduce 20 other characters, and they move back and forth in time/memory seamlessly. All of which raises the character's stakes.
4. The complicated nature of being a part of a failed system. The wanting to do better but the people are so angry with how they are treated, again and again, and how they still find hope in every day moments.
Trouillot does not concern himself with stereotypes on Haiti - he doesn't focus on the stereotypical voodoo culture, the impoverished having enough to live contently despite their odds, nor do any of his characters (and the book itself) get saved in the end for some form of positive resolution.
In fact, the book is narrated by three narrators all isolated from the violence that occurs within one night, THE night two warring sides (the Dictator Deceased Forever Immortal and the Prophet) meet on the streets. The images he paints will forever be tattooed in your mind - I cannot forget the image of the half man/half pig animal left to burn on the sides of one of the streets, a sight Lyonel himself claims to be real in an interview. The harrowing and gruesome depictions of violence are hard to read - but necessary. One cannot pretend these horrors did not occur, and were incapable of being performed by desperate human beings. Should we feel the need to, we are also capable of doing so. The story isn't just a Haitian story. It could be applied every where else too.
April 2, 2010
The action in this novella takes place during one unspeakable night of violence in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, as the Troops of the Prophet engage in a bloodbath with the forces of the dictator Deceased Forever-Immortal. The three main characters, an aging madam, a post office worker and a taxi driver, all unreliable narrators, relay their tales of the night's events in alternating chapters to an unknown interviewer. They also paint portraits of life in the poverty- and war-stricken country, where even young boys seethe with hatred toward their neighbors. Trouillot includes frequent references to past revolutionary events and violent episodes in the country's history, including the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent Haitians by the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1937.
Unfortunately, I did not find this to be a particularly captivating or enlightening story. The taxi driver was the only character who was caught in the midst of the violence of that night, but even his account was not an engaging one. I did enjoy the only other book I've read by this author, "Children of Heroes", but this one wasn't nearly as good.
Unfortunately, I did not find this to be a particularly captivating or enlightening story. The taxi driver was the only character who was caught in the midst of the violence of that night, but even his account was not an engaging one. I did enjoy the only other book I've read by this author, "Children of Heroes", but this one wasn't nearly as good.
July 16, 2023
wow
8.5/10
8.5/10
February 12, 2025
Impressionistic, hallucinatory and terrifying recounting of life in
Port Au Prince in Haiti and events near the end of the 20th century. Short book, I didn’t understand much of it, but I certainly got something from it. I liked the way it was told from the perspectives of three different people.
Port Au Prince in Haiti and events near the end of the 20th century. Short book, I didn’t understand much of it, but I certainly got something from it. I liked the way it was told from the perspectives of three different people.
August 3, 2009
A very strange book told from two different points of view. Still don't know how I feel about it. Some very beautiful writing in certain phrases, but the stream of consciousness style just never really catches me, I guess. I was confused for a lot of the book and had to do some rereading.
June 21, 2015
A good read, but I felt like it could have been pulled together more.
July 14, 2011
I think I may need to reread this one.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews