Primitive People

by Francine Prose

What are these barbaric rituals that pass for social and family life? Who are these fearsome creatures who linger in decaying mansions and at glittery malls, trendy weddings and dinner parties? These are the questions that trouble Simone, a beautiful, smart young Haitian woman. She has fled the chaotic violence of Port-au-Prince only to find herself in a world no less brutal or bizarre -- a seemingly civilized landscape where dead sheep swing from trees, lightbulbs are ceremonially buried, fur-clad mothers carve terrifying goddesses out of pumice...and where learning to lie is the principal rite of passage into adulthood. The primitive people of this darkly satiric novel are not, as one might expect, the backward denizens of some savage isle, but the wealthy inhabitants of the Hudson Valley in upstate New York.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels

228 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

Francine Prose is the author of twenty works of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, a Director's Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, Prose is a former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her most recent book is Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

A conflict of cultures is the backdrop for this early Francine Prose novel. Simone decides to flee Haiti (it's the very unsettled early 1990s). Her lover has cheated; there's no reason to stay, every reason to flee to the U.S. So she finds a way.

Simone finds her way to Hudson's Landing, New York, a place of contemporary American values and problems, consumer culture, money, old families, fast living, a whole new type of living that her past experience never prepared her for. Now she has moved from the poorest land in the hemisphere to one of the wealthiest areas, where all the inhabitants have problems that are soon to invade her life. There may not be shooting on the streets every night, but there's lots of back stabbing, occasional animals left hanging dead in the woods.

A sample description:

The driveway seemed several times longer than
the road from home. Finally they reached the house:
a white segmented Palladian dinosaur creeping down
toward the Hudson. Small groups chatted on the
rolling lawn, while braver guests advanced warily
to admire the view of the river, as if the river
were a sleeping child or dog they were afraid of
waking. (p 102)

This is a very interesting and thought provoking darkly written satire. My only issue is that it does not always seem to flow smoothly. It seemed to stutter through the action at times...but this may well be because it is Simone's reaction to all that happens (and we see everything through her eyes). Overall, however, I'm glad I read it and I'm looking forward to sampling more of Prose.

3.5* if I could

[Korny Caswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of Francine Prose's later work, I can see the potential in this early novel…and the basis of what would later be honed into greater sublety and depth. The book is not great by any means, and it's a bit icky these days for a white intellectual to portray the reactions of a black Haitian aupair, but the book is still readable and somewhat amusing. It is a slight work, for sure, but a hint of what's to come in the satirical point of view and feminist interests.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is possible to over-analyze in literary fiction, to so thoroughly dissect the thoughts/speech/small actions of characters that the whole novel suffers. This happened for me with this book. The writing was just fine, but the characters didn't seem to get out enough and breathe the air.

[Kristal Stidham]

The premise here is that a Haitian immigrant gets a job as a nanny in upstate New York and finds everyone there to be “primitive people”. The concept has a lot of potential, but it wasn’t really realized. I think the author’s mistake was making the characters too neurotic. I mean, even wild parody has to be based in some fact to be good and these people don’t resemble anybody I know in any way.



I’m so underwhelmed by this book, I can’t help shaking the feeling that I just missed the boat entirely – that I somehow just didn’t get it and someone with more literary savvy would eat it up. Maybe it’s because I’m from the southwest and we’re more relaxed than New Yorkers. Maybe it’s because the book was written 20 years ago and I wasn’t paying attention to how real adults acted back when I was in college. I don’t know…



What I DO know is that NObody would carry on rude, philosophical, pretentious conversations with and around six- and ten-year old kids like they do in this book. I mean, puh-leeze!

[Billie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am generally a big fan of Prose's work (fighting the urge to pun right now), but this is not among her best. It's one of her early works, and I think that probably has a lot to do with it. It's very well written, but the observations about her characters just aren't as sharp as they have grown to be in some of her more recent novels. This attempts to be a satirical novel but lacks the subtlety to succeed entirely. Her skill in this regard has grown significantly since this novel's publication in 1992, as evidenced by *Blue Angel* and *A Changed Man*.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVE Francine Prose...even an "average" book of hers is better than most writers'.

[Terry Steinborn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather a strange book, and for me, quite different from what I usually read. This book combines great characterizations and vivid imagery with a lot of very dark, and often quite sly, humor. I am sure it is usually classified as the dreaded 'literary fiction'. It concerns a young, educated Haitian woman who has come to the US illegally and is employed as a sort of nanny/companion by a very strange woman and her kids in upstate NY. The often painful development of her situation and of those with whom she interacts just get progressively more depressing. I will probably not be reading more by Francine Prose, although I am sure the author is fearfully competent.

[Apolonia L]

I'm following The Shipping News with Primitive People by Francine Prose and so far, CH1, what a delightful change and palate cleanser from the stuttering tulips and stubbled buns to rich and lucid complex sentences.

More to come.

[Erik Tanouye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this on the dollar cart at Weller Book Works in Trolley Square in Salt Lake City after the wedding.

[Tab · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Genai Bednar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The people are too awful and shallow to be very interesting

[D. F. Salvador · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews regarding this novel. I thought this story about the fallout from divorce was engaging, funny, and tragic with an undercurrent of tension running throughout. Keeping the narrative in the point of view of Simone, the Haitian nanny, gives an outside perspective on the insanity of fragile relationships and the innate ability of people to lie and manipulate. There were a couple of continuity issues which were distracting but overall I found the novel very satisfying.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This follows on my reading The Pickup, continuing the topic of immigrants from Third-World countries encountering the privileged natives of their new land, both the ordinary and the wealthy elite. Having just got a bit past Chapter 1, the reading is like what I call a "Pequod experience" - the writing is as messy and unfocused as the household, and the protagonist Simone - about whom I'd like to know more - is rather lost in the chaos.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this is a slight novel, I enjoyed it. Set in the Hudson Valley, it features an "innocent abroad," a woman from Haiti. The novel is told from her point of view. Ordinarily, a red flag goes up for me when a white author puts words in the mouth of a black character, but my scruples were somewhat overridden as Simone, the Haitian woman, reflects upon and gains insight into her own feelings and past relationships by observing the dysfunctions of the families around her in her new home.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

i loved blue angel, and this book is about a haitian woman, so i am interested to read a book by an author i like, about my haitian roots that i am trying to learn more about.

I wrote that in 2007. It is now 2013 and I do not really remember this book. I dont know whether that says something about my memory or the book itself. Probably both.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read a few books by this author. She is a bit off-beat. I liked Hunters and Gathers, but didn't really like the Bigfoot book. She has a bit of humor and the stories are just about people ---not a romance, not a mystery, not a "her children were killed in a car accident" or "her husband just left her"
This book is about a woman from Haiti who is a nanny for an artist.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was just okay for the first two thirds - good characters, good description, but you're kind of wondering what the point is... then something happens and it becomes a page-turner. Overall I thought it was worth it.

[Samantha C · Rating 3 out of 5]

.. to adapt to another country you had to be all eyes and ears, and the mistake most diplomats made was to be all mouth and larynx. - p 29

How wasteful that the difficult should seem so much more precious, so that the practically unattainable was valued most of all. - p 85

[Donald · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the rare books I gave up on. Sold my copy on Amazon for a buck.

[anique · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked it up off a sidewalk in Brooklyn and started it, but couldn't get into it. It felt like a shaky, transitional book in an otherwise solid writer's repertoire.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe this is 2 1/2 stars - I didn't dislike it, but I never got into the story or the characters.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Francine Prose is spot-on describing how shallow and affected this particular group of people are, and how they treat and mistreat each other.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently in love with Francine Prose's style. Dear Ms. Prose, would you please be my mentor?

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of weird.

[Christy England · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a horrid book. And nothing resolved at the end. Don't waste your time or money. No wonder it was only 25 cents at the used book store. Grrr

[Jmolentin]

Interesting characters, okay on plot. Enjoyed the writing.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quiet book, but I think about it all of the time.

[Rock E · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the umpteenth i have recently read by Francine Prose. In general, i have enjoyed everything i have read by her of the perfect writer's name, including her juvenile fiction. (Oddly the only disappointment i have had with her was quite random - three books of hers i read in a row used the expression of "waiting for the other shoe to drop" rather clunkily. Since i am reading her work in not necessarily chronological order that this was my experience was quite happenstance.) This book was amazing! The central character Simone's viewpoint was quite refreshing. Simone is a Haitian illegal immigrant who ends up as the nanny to a brittle WASPy dysfunctional family. The details of Simone's life defy cliche. Simone is not a "boat person", conversely rather than the chaos of baby Doc Duvalier's Haiti, Simone is running away from a bad love affair. This "secret" of hers reveals how many people respond to her in typical ignorant American ways. Almost no one realizes that far from being destitute she once was a valued assistant at the Haitian consulate. The WASPy family she works for is somewhat of a broad caricature, but satisfyingly humorous. A word of warning - almost none of Francine Prose's work ends up tied in neat little bows. i know this is frustrating for some readers although i don't know why as nothing in real life ends neatly. The main takeaway lesson here is that lying in a very human characteristic and that learning to lie convincingly is nearly a "rite of passage" in growing up in America. I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!