This book is indescribable. It's a poem of the Caribbean where blood ans sweat mingles with suffering and love and pride. It's a chorus of voices that Maximin has brought forth to us in order to give voices to the speechless. It's pathetic and glorious. It's sad and beautiful. It's a haunting book that tells the story of Guadeloupe through several generations of a family that never was. It's an epic and a bourgeoisie drama and a deep meditation on what a novel, and what poetry, and what language is. And Maximin writes the most beautiful French I have ever read to the point that it is sometimes painful to read it.
Bien qu'il y a des petits contes personels qui illuminent certaines parties de ce livre, par exemple quand Simea et Louis-Gabriel se rencontrent pour la premiere fois, en general les pensees politicaux ecrasent ces moments et rendent ce livre trop lourde. J'ai appris beaucoup de l'histoire des Antilles du temps coloniaux jusqu'a aujourd'hui, mais je pense que je ne savais pas assez d'histoire avant de lire ce livre pour vraiment apprecier toutes les references ceans.