Spirit of Haiti

by Myriam J. A. Chancy

A moving tale of contemporary Haiti dogged by a fascinating history and the fragile lives born of it, this novel tells how the lives of four witnesses of military-ruled Haiti during the terror-filled years of the Duvalier regime of the early 1990s intersect. These vivid characters include Léah Ochún, who rises from the sea like a siren one morning off the coast of Cap Haitien, clothes untouched by water, blue stones wrapped around her neck, eyes blind to light; Carmen, soon to be a mother, who returns to Haiti from Canada as if to the call of the vodou; Alexis, who flees the island in search of a land without strife; and Philippe, who walks the northern hills alert to ancestral voices still haunting its peaks and valleys, his gay identity exploited in tourist trade as he struggles to maintain spiritual dignity and a hold on hope, his body decaying from AIDS. This is ultimately a novel about confronting the failings of the human heart and the triumph of memory over despair.

Genres: Literary Fiction

294 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll write a review after mi done bawl.

[Celia Lisset Alvarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chancy writes with passion this sweeping saga of what it is like to struggle to survive both in and outside a country as troubled as Haiti. It is impossible to write the Caribbean. The readers' expectations, the crushing legacy of tourism, exploitation, and fetishization contrive to make even the attempt at truth perilous. Yet, Chancy dives in, tackling important subjects such as tourism, violence, and expatriation. The novel is lush and surreal, a mixture of magical realism and didacticism, Marquez meets Frances Harper. The characters are mythical, bearing the weight of history, trapped in a confluence of personal, political, spiritual, and physical forces beyond their control. An ambitious project, an attempt to make sense of centuries of despair.

[Avril_ITC · Rating 5 out of 5]

A MASTERPIECE. This story turned me upside down, broke my heart and stitched it back together. The writing of Myriam J. A. Chancy is so pleasant to read, poetic at times and overall beautiful. And what should I say about the protagonists ? I grew so attached to them and I'm sad to have to let them go. And what about Haiti ? Haiti is the main character of the story and I wouldn't even know where to begin: the nature, the culture, the traditions and spirituality, but also the horrors inflincted by humans to other humans on this land, and yet the hope remaining and tangible, being passed on between generations and inside the diaspora.

This book, the characters and this story of Haiti will stay with me for a long time, I'm sure.

[Batya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful read, though a difficult one. As one who, like Carmen, has moved back and forth between Haiti & the U.S. as a child during the Duvalier (pere) years, and who it took until her adult years to really delve into the culture, it further illuminates the insistent question, how could things have gotten worse since the departure of the Duvaliers? I like how the eternal optimism, the hopefulness, comes through despite everything.

[Régine Michelle]

I was reading this book as I finished my dissertation, wishing I could incorporate Chancy into my study. Most striking about the spirit of Haiti is how she uses "ghosts" of the past and of the future from the Roi Christophe and Defile to the little girl. I really enjoy her writing style in which her lit crit background is obvious.

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

From sea water, pearl oyster shells and sand stones, from blood, memory and ancestral voices-these are some of the precious substances that make up Myriam J. A. Chancy's polyvocal, resonant debut. Spirit of Haiti is novel as art installation, shifting the reader's awareness from geographical and temporal fixity to a sensitive consciousness of the living, dynamic kinship ties. From the shores of West Africa to the rivers in the southern United States, north to rebellious fires in Canada, all circling Haiti at the center. Through the characters who must contend with the imminent military coup of Aristide's first presidency as memories of the Duvalier regime and the Haitian Revolution echo, Chancy reminds us of the ways we forget the humanity in each other that imperil us and the ways we remember that keep us whole.

My blurb. :)