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Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy
The only English translation of “a masterpiece” ( The Nation )—a stunning trilogy of novellas about the soul-crushing cost of life under a violent Haitian dictatorship, featuring an introduction by Edwidge Danticat
Originally published in 1968 , Love, Anger, Madness virtually disappeared from circulation until its republication in France in 2005. Set in the barely fictionalized Haiti of “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s repressive rule, Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s writing was so powerful and so incendiary that she was forced to flee to the United States. Yet Love, Anger, Madness endures.
Claire, the narrator of Love , is the eldest of three daughters who surrenders her dreams of marriage to run the household after her parents die. Insecure about her dark skin, she fantasizes about her middle sister’s French husband, while he has an affair with the youngest sister, setting in motion a complicated family dynamic that echoes the growing chaos outside their home.
In Anger , the police terrorize a middle-class family by threatening to seize their land. The father insinuates that their only hope of salvation lies with an unspeakable act—his daughter Rose must prostitute herself—which leads to all-consuming guilt, shame, and rage.
And finally, Madness paints a terrifying portrait of a Haitian village that has been ravaged by militants. René, a young poet, is trapped in his family’s house for days with no food and becomes obsessed with the souls of the dead that surround him.
Originally published in 1968 , Love, Anger, Madness virtually disappeared from circulation until its republication in France in 2005. Set in the barely fictionalized Haiti of “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s repressive rule, Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s writing was so powerful and so incendiary that she was forced to flee to the United States. Yet Love, Anger, Madness endures.
Claire, the narrator of Love , is the eldest of three daughters who surrenders her dreams of marriage to run the household after her parents die. Insecure about her dark skin, she fantasizes about her middle sister’s French husband, while he has an affair with the youngest sister, setting in motion a complicated family dynamic that echoes the growing chaos outside their home.
In Anger , the police terrorize a middle-class family by threatening to seize their land. The father insinuates that their only hope of salvation lies with an unspeakable act—his daughter Rose must prostitute herself—which leads to all-consuming guilt, shame, and rage.
And finally, Madness paints a terrifying portrait of a Haitian village that has been ravaged by militants. René, a young poet, is trapped in his family’s house for days with no food and becomes obsessed with the souls of the dead that surround him.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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2955 people want to read
About the author
Marie Vieux-Chauvet
12 books50 followersMarie Vieux-Chauvet (1916–1973) was a Haitian novelist, poet and playwright. Born and educated in Port-au-Prince, her most famous works are the novels Fille d'Haïti (1954), La Danse sur le Volcan (1957), Fonds des Nègres (1961), and Amour, Colère, Folie (1968).
(from Wikipedia)
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
August 11, 2022
Una espléndida novela sobre perdedores que es en realidad tres novelas muy distintas. El nexo común a todas ellas es el miedo impuesto a un país por un grupo paramilitar (como los realmente utilizados por Duvalier), la sed de venganza de una parte del pueblo y la dejadez por parte de la otra, el vudú como impotente arma ante las desgracias, por un lado, y justificación de los castigos divinos, por el otro, y el racismo como coartada del odio que impregna a unos y a otros.
Aunque tardé un poco en saber apreciar la primera parte, terminé enamorado de su personaje principal, Claire; me gustó mucho la segunda novela y no consiguió conmoverme el tercer relato.
La primera de las tres novelas, Amor, es un diario empezado muy tardíamente por una cuarentona mulata, hija mayor de una familia venida a menos, castrada por el peso de la tradición y la situación social de la familia y con un volcán tántrico por alma que solo es capaz de lanzar su apasionada lava hacia el interior... aunque el humo mancha ahora su diario (gran personaje y excelentemente retratado). Un diario en el que tampoco disfruta de una libertad completa, se recata, se retrae. Sus frases son cortas, como disparos, duras, frías, pedazos de hielo que se desprenden de un iceberg que se derrite por dentro. En él nos va relatando su pasado con un padre severo e intolerante, hipócrita, como toda la sociedad a la que pertenece; y su presente, lleno de autodesprecio al observar en lo que se ha convertido, al ver lo irremediable que es ya su situación y como se le escapa la vida sin haber sabido sobreponerse a sus miedos, a sus prejuicios, por no haber sabido luchar por lo que quería. Una situación paralela a la de su clase social, incapaz de soliviantarse ante el poder autoritario que ahora les somete cuando hasta hace bien poco eran ellos los “sometedores”.
La segunda novela, la que más me ha impactado de las tres, Ira, es la narración del poder devastador de una autoridad no sometida a norma alguna y como el miedo se impone a toda una sociedad que mira hacia otro lado siempre que el tsunami autoritario no llegue a sus bonitas playas. Pero sobre todo es la narración de la pérdida de la dignidad, de cómo ese poder omnímodo puede anularte como persona, puede hacerte preferir la muerte, o, lo que todavía puede ser peor, de cómo ese poder puede trastocar hasta tal punto el orden de las cosas que puede llegar a hacerte sentir culpable de tu propia situación de indefensión. Una narración capaz de removerte por dentro y entre la que destaco el monólogo interior de Paul, el hijo mayor de la familia humillada.
La tercera novela, Locura, una mezcla de melopea, locura y realidad, donde unos poetas, locos y borrachos, son los únicos capaces de intuir la realidad que se les viene encima (un personaje parecido aparece también en la primera de las novelas y sus destinos son el mismo). Quizás la puesta en escena, muy teatral, es la causa de que me haya llegado menos que las dos partes que la preceden.
En conjunto, una gran lectura.
September 7, 2015
Here are three powerful, well-written novellas from a female Haitian author. Like most of the Haitian upper class, Marie Vieux-Chauvet (1916-1973) was a light-skinned mixed-race person educated in Haiti in the French tradition and who eventually moved to New York. All of the novellas reflect the incredible chaos, brutality and societal inequity that Haiti has undergone. Haiti is essentially an African nation in the Western Hemisphere. In 1804 the African slaves revolted and killed or drove off all the white population and in imitation of their former white masters, the new black and mulatto leaders basically enslaved an entire nation.
In the first novella, Love, three sisters live together in the same antiquated mansion and they all love the same man – the husband of the plainest one of the three. The story is told by the most beautiful of the three who is a very dark-skinned woman who feels outcast by the lighter-skinned upper-class society including her own family. She develops a self-hated, thinking: “…I look like a fly in a bowl of milk.” To give you an idea of the atmosphere in the wealthiest part of the city: the sisters throw cocktail parties while beggars live under their front porch and they play music loudly so their guests can’t hear the screams of those being tortured in the nearby prison. The story ends with a murder.
In Anger, another wealthy mulatto family suddenly finds their property seized. They end up sacrificing their daughter to right this wrong. Again the story ends with multiple murders and despair, to put it mildly.
In Madness, three young male poets of various racial mix are outcasts of society. They are starving and have had only rum for a week. They start to hallucinate and their antics attract the police; they are arrested with a predictable outcome. As in all three stories, terror and despair prevail. Beggars march through the streets in each story; “we could smell them before we could see them;” the beggars wait for someone to arm them with guns or machetes and make them into an “army.”
There is an introduction by Edwidge Danticat and a preface by the translator that give away a lot of the plot so you may want to read those last.
In the first novella, Love, three sisters live together in the same antiquated mansion and they all love the same man – the husband of the plainest one of the three. The story is told by the most beautiful of the three who is a very dark-skinned woman who feels outcast by the lighter-skinned upper-class society including her own family. She develops a self-hated, thinking: “…I look like a fly in a bowl of milk.” To give you an idea of the atmosphere in the wealthiest part of the city: the sisters throw cocktail parties while beggars live under their front porch and they play music loudly so their guests can’t hear the screams of those being tortured in the nearby prison. The story ends with a murder.
In Anger, another wealthy mulatto family suddenly finds their property seized. They end up sacrificing their daughter to right this wrong. Again the story ends with multiple murders and despair, to put it mildly.
In Madness, three young male poets of various racial mix are outcasts of society. They are starving and have had only rum for a week. They start to hallucinate and their antics attract the police; they are arrested with a predictable outcome. As in all three stories, terror and despair prevail. Beggars march through the streets in each story; “we could smell them before we could see them;” the beggars wait for someone to arm them with guns or machetes and make them into an “army.”
There is an introduction by Edwidge Danticat and a preface by the translator that give away a lot of the plot so you may want to read those last.
September 7, 2020
The reputation of this masterpiece is truly well deserved. Three thematic and geographically linked novellas written with power and control, sentences bubbling over with violence and brutality, pain and hatred.
The arbitrariness of life under a murderous dictatorship, and the deeply ingrained divisions of race and class and gender. Choice when there is no choice. Love when it has turned bitterly in on itself, growing rank and rotten, festering in its madness and eroticism. The contradictions and confusions of an amoral, inhuman and inhumane world.
Highly recommended.
The arbitrariness of life under a murderous dictatorship, and the deeply ingrained divisions of race and class and gender. Choice when there is no choice. Love when it has turned bitterly in on itself, growing rank and rotten, festering in its madness and eroticism. The contradictions and confusions of an amoral, inhuman and inhumane world.
Highly recommended.
July 21, 2019
C’est sans aucun doute, et je pèse mes mots, un des livres les plus puissants et sans concession que j’ai lu depuis longtemps. C’est une force de la nature, cette écrivaine: rien ne peut arrêter son souffle, ni la morale bien-pensante ni les pouvoirs en place. Elle comme un ouragan qui rase tout sur son passage. Sérieux, je suis flabergasté. En plus, l’histoire qui entoure la publication du livre est tout aussi fascinante.
December 16, 2010
Breaking the Silence
“Anger” By Marie Vieux-Chauvet. Modern Library: 2010. $15.
Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s “Anger” is truly a testament of courage and defiance amidst one of the most oppressive and violent regimes of our time. Written in Haiti during the infamous dictatorship of Francois Duvalier (also known as “Papa Doc”), “Anger” is a rare experience for American readers because it brings to life the state-sanctioned terror inflicted on Haitian people. The novella confronts remarkably one of the most disturbing elements of Haitian history—Duvalierist sexual violence and the use of rape as a weapon of terror to control individuals and families.
First published in French in 1968, the novella’s distribution was repressed and made practically unavailable for over thirty years in fear that it would prompt state-initiated attacks on the author and her family. Duvalier’s use of violence to systematically silence any expression of opposition to his regime was not new to Haiti’s intellectual and literary communities. In the years leading up to “Anger,” Marie Vieux-Chauvet lost three family members at the hands of the Duvalier regime and a well-known, female political figure had been kidnapped, beaten, and raped. While Haitian people had endured despotic rulers in previous regimes, the Duvalier dictatorship was different in that women, children, and the elderly were no longer protected from horrific, state-inflicted violence. There’s no doubt that rage over these sickening injustices is infused in “Anger” and that the author’s shocking and explicit portrayal of violence is intended to elicit that response in readers.
The story is told from the perspective of an upper class family that is targeted by “men in black,” a fictional militia group in the novella that closely resembles the police force of then-president Duvalier—the Tonton Macoutes. There is no suggestion in the narrative that the Normil family has broken the law or even opposed the state government, and yet such instances of random and irrational violence against Haiti’s citizens are commonplace both in the story and throughout the Duvalier regime. The ways in which the novella explores the issue of guilt in this context is fascinating. Although the family is outraged at the unjust seizure of their property, characters such as the father experience guilt for remaining silent when other members of their community were targeted.
As the events of the novella unfold, readers develop a sense for how each of the characters internally deals with the fear and suffering brought about by the “men in black.” The grandfather endures this struggle by preserving romanticized memories of his father’s rise in social and economic status. The mother survives through alcoholism and drunkenness that provide her an escape from the family’s predicament while the son copes with the situation through selfish fantasies of revenge against the “men in black.” The internal dialogues contained in “Anger” allow readers to enter the minds of those who face militia groups like the Tonton Macoutes. What’s striking about these accounts are the ways in which gender roles are portrayed from the standpoint of resisting Duvalierist violence and oppression. As “Anger” develops the father makes an unspoken deal with a member of the “blackshirts” to use his daughter’s beauty in return for the protection of his family and property. The men seem to lose their masculinity in that they are no longer capable of protecting their family by facing an armed militia. On the other hand, the only ways in which the female members of the family—the daughter, Rose and her mother, Laure—can resist the “men in black” is through receiving violence and effacing themselves.
The Duvalier era represents a devastating event in Haitian history in which people demonstrated tremendous courage and endured immense suffering. The most recent event that has entered our global consciousness is the horrific earthquake and ensuing cholera outbreak that continues to inflict immeasurable pain and anguish in Haiti. The disparity in how much attention these two occurrences receive outside of Haiti is extraordinary; the exceptionally violent oppression imposed by the Duvalier state remains a relatively untouched issue in the United States compared to the natural disaster of January 2010. From this perspective, “Anger” reveals a neglected chapter of Haitian history that we undoubtedly ought to know more about.
By Alex Rosinski
“Anger” By Marie Vieux-Chauvet. Modern Library: 2010. $15.
Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s “Anger” is truly a testament of courage and defiance amidst one of the most oppressive and violent regimes of our time. Written in Haiti during the infamous dictatorship of Francois Duvalier (also known as “Papa Doc”), “Anger” is a rare experience for American readers because it brings to life the state-sanctioned terror inflicted on Haitian people. The novella confronts remarkably one of the most disturbing elements of Haitian history—Duvalierist sexual violence and the use of rape as a weapon of terror to control individuals and families.
First published in French in 1968, the novella’s distribution was repressed and made practically unavailable for over thirty years in fear that it would prompt state-initiated attacks on the author and her family. Duvalier’s use of violence to systematically silence any expression of opposition to his regime was not new to Haiti’s intellectual and literary communities. In the years leading up to “Anger,” Marie Vieux-Chauvet lost three family members at the hands of the Duvalier regime and a well-known, female political figure had been kidnapped, beaten, and raped. While Haitian people had endured despotic rulers in previous regimes, the Duvalier dictatorship was different in that women, children, and the elderly were no longer protected from horrific, state-inflicted violence. There’s no doubt that rage over these sickening injustices is infused in “Anger” and that the author’s shocking and explicit portrayal of violence is intended to elicit that response in readers.
The story is told from the perspective of an upper class family that is targeted by “men in black,” a fictional militia group in the novella that closely resembles the police force of then-president Duvalier—the Tonton Macoutes. There is no suggestion in the narrative that the Normil family has broken the law or even opposed the state government, and yet such instances of random and irrational violence against Haiti’s citizens are commonplace both in the story and throughout the Duvalier regime. The ways in which the novella explores the issue of guilt in this context is fascinating. Although the family is outraged at the unjust seizure of their property, characters such as the father experience guilt for remaining silent when other members of their community were targeted.
As the events of the novella unfold, readers develop a sense for how each of the characters internally deals with the fear and suffering brought about by the “men in black.” The grandfather endures this struggle by preserving romanticized memories of his father’s rise in social and economic status. The mother survives through alcoholism and drunkenness that provide her an escape from the family’s predicament while the son copes with the situation through selfish fantasies of revenge against the “men in black.” The internal dialogues contained in “Anger” allow readers to enter the minds of those who face militia groups like the Tonton Macoutes. What’s striking about these accounts are the ways in which gender roles are portrayed from the standpoint of resisting Duvalierist violence and oppression. As “Anger” develops the father makes an unspoken deal with a member of the “blackshirts” to use his daughter’s beauty in return for the protection of his family and property. The men seem to lose their masculinity in that they are no longer capable of protecting their family by facing an armed militia. On the other hand, the only ways in which the female members of the family—the daughter, Rose and her mother, Laure—can resist the “men in black” is through receiving violence and effacing themselves.
The Duvalier era represents a devastating event in Haitian history in which people demonstrated tremendous courage and endured immense suffering. The most recent event that has entered our global consciousness is the horrific earthquake and ensuing cholera outbreak that continues to inflict immeasurable pain and anguish in Haiti. The disparity in how much attention these two occurrences receive outside of Haiti is extraordinary; the exceptionally violent oppression imposed by the Duvalier state remains a relatively untouched issue in the United States compared to the natural disaster of January 2010. From this perspective, “Anger” reveals a neglected chapter of Haitian history that we undoubtedly ought to know more about.
By Alex Rosinski
August 26, 2021
Love
The narrator of Love, Claire Clamont, is the eldest of three daughters, of a landowning upper-class family. She is the son her father never had and he wishes her to runs things as he would have them done. However, he hasn’t reckoned on her stubbornness and refusal to affiliate with some of the old ways he indulges, having raised her to think of them as superstitious. As a result she is neither feared nor respected by the workers, whom he had sold parcels of land to fund his political campaigns, a futile effort that has left the family near penniless.
The three sisters of this aristocratic family live together, all coveting the same man, Felicia’s husband. Annette succeeds in seducing him, Claire silently, voyeuristically encouraging her.
Meanwhile, a man sent to reform Haiti is known to use violent, torturous means to get his message across, preying on the innocent.
The love this elder daughter practices is tinged with jealousy, revenge and resentment, laying blame at the feet of an ancestor with dark skin. She resents this ancestor who made her so, resents her father for trying to turn her into the son he never had, resents one sister for marrying a man she loves and the other for having seduced him.
Anger
Anger centres around a family and the day a group of black uniformed paramilitary seize their land, putting stakes in the ground, the grandfather and the young disabled grandson are indignant, the son and his wife wary and afraid, their older daughter Rose is practical, the young adult son Paul going crazy, desires revenge.
Men arrive and plant stakes in the ground of land belonging to a family, they wear black uniforms and invoke fear. Each of the family inside react. Then the concrete arrives. They’re seizing the land and building a wall.
The family is observed, tries to address the injustice, is compromised.
He told himself that his crippled and sickly grandson was the faint beginning of the next era of heroes and that the arrow had begun its slow ascent only eight years ago. Hundreds more must have come into the world the same time he did, he thought, and with feet and legs as well as a brave soul. A day will come when they will grow up and the birds of prey will have to account for their deeds to every last one of them.
Madness
Madness is narrated by René, a lower class mulatto poet hiding inside his shack, paranoid about what’s going on outside his door and inside his mind, finding solace in a bottle, in rituals to do with voodoo beliefs that most of his life he has rejected and the poet friends he fearfully opens his door to, to offer them refuge. Unclear, what is real and what is the projection of a man’s fearful mind, we read on, aware that under oppression anything is possible.
A thought provoking read that invites the reader to understand more about the historical and present situation in Haiti.
The narrator of Love, Claire Clamont, is the eldest of three daughters, of a landowning upper-class family. She is the son her father never had and he wishes her to runs things as he would have them done. However, he hasn’t reckoned on her stubbornness and refusal to affiliate with some of the old ways he indulges, having raised her to think of them as superstitious. As a result she is neither feared nor respected by the workers, whom he had sold parcels of land to fund his political campaigns, a futile effort that has left the family near penniless.
The three sisters of this aristocratic family live together, all coveting the same man, Felicia’s husband. Annette succeeds in seducing him, Claire silently, voyeuristically encouraging her.
Meanwhile, a man sent to reform Haiti is known to use violent, torturous means to get his message across, preying on the innocent.
The love this elder daughter practices is tinged with jealousy, revenge and resentment, laying blame at the feet of an ancestor with dark skin. She resents this ancestor who made her so, resents her father for trying to turn her into the son he never had, resents one sister for marrying a man she loves and the other for having seduced him.
Anger
Anger centres around a family and the day a group of black uniformed paramilitary seize their land, putting stakes in the ground, the grandfather and the young disabled grandson are indignant, the son and his wife wary and afraid, their older daughter Rose is practical, the young adult son Paul going crazy, desires revenge.
Men arrive and plant stakes in the ground of land belonging to a family, they wear black uniforms and invoke fear. Each of the family inside react. Then the concrete arrives. They’re seizing the land and building a wall.
The family is observed, tries to address the injustice, is compromised.
The mother got up slowly, put down her needlework, walked over to the old man and spoke into his ear.
“Look at him, Grandfather,” she whispered, “just look at him.”
The child was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth.
“Who will flog those who have taken our land?” he said without paying any attention to the mother. “Is there no longer a steward who can do it?”
“Alas, no!” the grandfather answered.
“Why not?”
“Because there are ups and downs in the life of a people. As the arrow rises, it gives birth to heroes; when it falls, only cowards come into the world. No steward would agree to stand up to those who have taken our land.”
He told himself that his crippled and sickly grandson was the faint beginning of the next era of heroes and that the arrow had begun its slow ascent only eight years ago. Hundreds more must have come into the world the same time he did, he thought, and with feet and legs as well as a brave soul. A day will come when they will grow up and the birds of prey will have to account for their deeds to every last one of them.
Madness
Madness is narrated by René, a lower class mulatto poet hiding inside his shack, paranoid about what’s going on outside his door and inside his mind, finding solace in a bottle, in rituals to do with voodoo beliefs that most of his life he has rejected and the poet friends he fearfully opens his door to, to offer them refuge. Unclear, what is real and what is the projection of a man’s fearful mind, we read on, aware that under oppression anything is possible.
A thought provoking read that invites the reader to understand more about the historical and present situation in Haiti.
October 4, 2021
En las solpas del libro se da brevemente cuenta de la aventura que este libro tuvo que vivir para ver su publicación. Es uno de esos libros que al parecer, permanecieron como tesoro de libreros y coleccionistas por algún tiempo, esta obra por si misma es una sobreviviente de su tiempo y no podemos más que dar gracias por llegar a conocerla. Marie Vieux-Chauvet escribió esta tercia de novelas cortas en 1968, en Haití, durante la dictadura de François Duvalier. Durante la dictadura, no antes ni después. La familia de la autora según se nos cuenta, compra todos los ejemplares para evitar la distribución y así evitar más consecuencias en su familia a la cual la dictadura ya le habría quitado a tres de sus miembros. Los hijos de la autora, años después, pondrían a la venta algunos ejemplares y los libros andarían por aquí y por allá, en varias librerías y colecciones. Existen entonces aquí dos narrativas importantes contra la censura y la capacidad de la literatura y la gente que la protegerá para sobrevivir incluso a los regímenes más opresivos, la del libro como objeto físico que migra por el mundo y la del libro en su contenido y sus ideas.
Las tres novelas son apabullantes, el hilo conductor será la exploración de las pasiones humanas en un ambiente dictatorial. Seguimos siendo crueles, envidiosos, soberbios y terribles aún en el momento de mayor necesidad, en los momentos en que nuestra fuerza sería la diferencia, fallamos constantemente, sí, somos capaces de poner en primer lugar nuestros anhelos más avariciosos por encima del bien común, las dictaduras se develan como las formas extremas del comportamiento individualista y mezquino, son el reflejo colectivo de nuestras fallas reflejadas en la forma en que la política se degenera. Somos todo lo anterior y aún así podemos ser la esperanza confundida con locura, el amor fraterno y al final la resistencia activa contra la imposición.
El libro es trágico y catártico, se lee como si se leyera historia viva por que es increíblemente cercana, el horror y la ternura son tan palpables que intimidan, se cuelan por todos lados y una como lectora no puede hacer más que recibir el mensaje, comprenderlo, obtener un aprendizaje de el y desde luego dejarse fascinar ante una obra de arte total que tuvo todo en contra y termino floreciendo en la tierra de la muerte. Dicho esto, hay que darle la bienvenida de brazos abiertos a obras como esta, existen con el único propósito de transformar a quién toquen.
Las tres novelas son apabullantes, el hilo conductor será la exploración de las pasiones humanas en un ambiente dictatorial. Seguimos siendo crueles, envidiosos, soberbios y terribles aún en el momento de mayor necesidad, en los momentos en que nuestra fuerza sería la diferencia, fallamos constantemente, sí, somos capaces de poner en primer lugar nuestros anhelos más avariciosos por encima del bien común, las dictaduras se develan como las formas extremas del comportamiento individualista y mezquino, son el reflejo colectivo de nuestras fallas reflejadas en la forma en que la política se degenera. Somos todo lo anterior y aún así podemos ser la esperanza confundida con locura, el amor fraterno y al final la resistencia activa contra la imposición.
El libro es trágico y catártico, se lee como si se leyera historia viva por que es increíblemente cercana, el horror y la ternura son tan palpables que intimidan, se cuelan por todos lados y una como lectora no puede hacer más que recibir el mensaje, comprenderlo, obtener un aprendizaje de el y desde luego dejarse fascinar ante una obra de arte total que tuvo todo en contra y termino floreciendo en la tierra de la muerte. Dicho esto, hay que darle la bienvenida de brazos abiertos a obras como esta, existen con el único propósito de transformar a quién toquen.
January 15, 2012
Unbelievably rich with historic details of Haiti and it's political evolution. I enjoyed all three of the short stories in the compilation -- many readers did not enjoy the third -- "Madness". I suppose working with a population with psychiatric issues has made me more open to "madness".
The stories explained even more the psyche of the past and current residents and what it took and takes for them to survive while remaining resilient.
The sexual degradation of women and the battering of their bodies, the physical, mental, emotional and psychological abuse of the Haitian women was hard to read/reconcile at times, but again, the full description contributes accurately to what life was ... is.
The stories explained even more the psyche of the past and current residents and what it took and takes for them to survive while remaining resilient.
The sexual degradation of women and the battering of their bodies, the physical, mental, emotional and psychological abuse of the Haitian women was hard to read/reconcile at times, but again, the full description contributes accurately to what life was ... is.
November 12, 2018
This trilogy is a set of independent, unconnected novellas penned by Haitian author Marie Vieux-Chauvet. It was banned on its initial publication in the late sixties and the author was forced into exile in the United States.
LOVE tells the story of 39 year old unmarried Claire, who is the oldest of three sisters in an upper class Haitian family. She is black and her sisters are white, and she is in love with/obsessed by her youngest (and most boring) sister's French husband. It is a story of sexual repression on a background of fear/violence and deep divisions based on race, gender and class.
ANGER is about a middle class Haitian family whose land is seized by a paramilitary group and whose daughter is forced to sleep with a repugnant soldier in order to save the land. It is a devastating story, switching between perspectives of different family members.
MADNESS centres on a group of poets who spend over a week holed into a shack, not eating, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and hallucinating about devils. Again, it is a devastating tale of a community torn apart by poverty, fear and violence.
Although the novellas are not connected, there are definite common themes. The author portrays a country riven by civil wars, poverty and seemingly insurmountable divisions between different races, religions and classes. There is an undercurrent of fear and violence throughout all three novellas. It is easy to see why the dictatorship of 1960s Haiti wanted to suppress this work - it is certainly not a flattering portrayal of the country.
I am glad I read this book, because it was riveting, astonishing and extraordinary. Having said that, I am equally glad to finish and move onto something a little more lighthearted! It's certainly not an easy read, but highly recommended nonetheless.
LOVE tells the story of 39 year old unmarried Claire, who is the oldest of three sisters in an upper class Haitian family. She is black and her sisters are white, and she is in love with/obsessed by her youngest (and most boring) sister's French husband. It is a story of sexual repression on a background of fear/violence and deep divisions based on race, gender and class.
ANGER is about a middle class Haitian family whose land is seized by a paramilitary group and whose daughter is forced to sleep with a repugnant soldier in order to save the land. It is a devastating story, switching between perspectives of different family members.
MADNESS centres on a group of poets who spend over a week holed into a shack, not eating, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and hallucinating about devils. Again, it is a devastating tale of a community torn apart by poverty, fear and violence.
Although the novellas are not connected, there are definite common themes. The author portrays a country riven by civil wars, poverty and seemingly insurmountable divisions between different races, religions and classes. There is an undercurrent of fear and violence throughout all three novellas. It is easy to see why the dictatorship of 1960s Haiti wanted to suppress this work - it is certainly not a flattering portrayal of the country.
I am glad I read this book, because it was riveting, astonishing and extraordinary. Having said that, I am equally glad to finish and move onto something a little more lighthearted! It's certainly not an easy read, but highly recommended nonetheless.
July 5, 2014
quite a number of people on goodreads have described this book as a book of short stories. it is not...stories that are over 100 pages long are not short stories, they are novellas. So this is a book consisting of three novellas, all written about Haiti. the author lived in Haiti, but was forced into exile in Paris after writing this book as it is quite disparaging of the Haiti government...no surprise there.
all 3 novellas are written brilliantly and are quite independent of each other. I must say that I enjoyed the first, and longest novella the best of the three. highly recommended.
all 3 novellas are written brilliantly and are quite independent of each other. I must say that I enjoyed the first, and longest novella the best of the three. highly recommended.
November 3, 2017
J'ai découvert ce titre il y a déjà deux ans grâce à l'émission "Livres en poche" sur France Inter. Un long moment donc que ce livre attend son tour sur l'étagère et finalement il m'a fallu près de deux mois pour tourner la dernière page. Difficile de revenir indemne de cette plongée dans les années noires d'Haïti, l'écriture est féroce et Marie Vieux-Chauvet met à nu toutes les faces sombres de cette société. Trois textes marquants qui n'en finissent pas de hanter son lecteur.
July 3, 2016
Banned in Haiti under the Duvalier regime, this book's scathing criticism of the Duvalier reign of terror resulted in Chauvet's exile. I seem to think I acquired the original French text from the Denver Public Library back in grad school. When I saw that it was back in publication and in English, I knew I must read it again.
You can find a smattering of reviews that explicate the books triptych structure. But nothing prepares you for the palpable terror, turmoil, and pending madness that beset the collections' characters. Such a potent rendering of the violence and culture of fear instilled in Haitians by the Tonton Macoutes of the Duvalier regime.
Super translation with endnotes to help the neophyte to Haitian history and Krèyol.
**Read the French version in grad school...
You can find a smattering of reviews that explicate the books triptych structure. But nothing prepares you for the palpable terror, turmoil, and pending madness that beset the collections' characters. Such a potent rendering of the violence and culture of fear instilled in Haitians by the Tonton Macoutes of the Duvalier regime.
Super translation with endnotes to help the neophyte to Haitian history and Krèyol.
**Read the French version in grad school...
May 6, 2013
Page 156 marks the end of Love, the first novella in this trilogy about Haiti after the end of the American occupation. It's part History lesson, part glimpse into the sad life of a very strong woman. For very personal reasons, I identified very much with the character of Claire; much more, I think, that I have with any other literary character I've encountered. Told in diary entries by Claire, Love is heart-breaking in its revelation of Claire's turmoil, and eye-opening in the crude retelling of the conditions in Haiti during the 1930s. It's not hard to imagine that things haven't changed very much.
July 18, 2021
This book was fucking incredible and also heartbreaking. I loved the three novellas for each of their unique characters and storytelling. The characters a full and complex people, there is biting and incisive condemnation of authoritarians, and is a good reminder for non-Haitians that the country is far more complex than the French and American history that we are told. I think the thing I loved most about this book is the character development. There is a pragmatism and acceptance for the way life is and also space to grieve, be happy, be angry, etc. for the reason for these circumstances. Unlike any other book I’ve read and would highly recommend.
September 7, 2019
2019 Pop Sugar Reading challenge-a book with love in the title.
I didn't care for Love at all. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be rooting for the main character, but she was just awful. And as an old maid, I felt offended by our portrayal:)
Anger was pretty good. The anger the entire family felt towards each other and those taking over the county was realistic and well-portayed.
Madness was also good but a little hard to read. I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't.
They were all very well and beautifully written.
I didn't care for Love at all. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be rooting for the main character, but she was just awful. And as an old maid, I felt offended by our portrayal:)
Anger was pretty good. The anger the entire family felt towards each other and those taking over the county was realistic and well-portayed.
Madness was also good but a little hard to read. I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't.
They were all very well and beautifully written.
June 26, 2010
I can't say I enjoyed it, but I do appreciate the fact that this piece of literature exists. The three novellas show Vieux-Chauvet's incredible talent as a writer with each being distinctly different. My favorite is the first. It is wonderful to get into Claire's head. Although supposedly set in the late 1930's, this book paints a terrible portrait of US controlled Haiti under the Papa and Baby Doc regime.
November 9, 2010
I love love love this book. Vieux-Chauvet masterfully paints the complex nature of Haitian women in the oppressive Duvalier/early 20th century Haiti. At times both stark and dreary, both strange and endearing, the novellas are at once honest and true and stands as a confident affirmation of the character of perseverance in a terribly oppressive society.
January 14, 2023
4.5 this made me so sad and made me think a lot about the Haiti my grandparents lived in. ugh i want to discuss this in a college class
Read
March 13, 2022A triptych of novellas obliquely describing the nightmare of living in Haiti under the rule of Papa Doc Duvalier. In Love, an embittered, sex-maddened spinster obsesses over her brother-in-law and the brutalities of the coming regime; in Anger, a girl sells her virtue to save her family. Disturbing, erotic, insightful, excellent. Worth a read.
Read
April 7, 2025I think a lot of this book was lost on me to lack of historical context and reading a translation. Was quite a slow read for me. It was interesting to see this portrait inside of dictatorship; the day to day decisions people make to cope and survive while surrounded by death and coercion.
September 6, 2021
This was great! Marie Vieux-Chauvet was already a leading light in Haitian letters when she wrote this triptych of novellas in 1960. Born to an upper-class family, she was one of few women accepted in Haitian literary circles and gained major acclaim in France, where Simone de Beauvoir ushered “Love, Anger, Madness” into print in 1968.
François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, the ghoulish CIA-backed dictator, was in charge of Haiti by then, and you can see his censors wouldn’t like “Love, Anger, Madness.” The latter two novellas deal directly with people — families from the Haitian upper/middle class, and intellectuals — menaced by totalitarian movements led by openly kleptocratic thugs and manned by “armed beggars.” The first takes place in a similar context but has other issues in mind as well. If the translation of the Haitian Creole Wikipedia entry on Vieux-Chauvet is right, the Duvalier regime bought up all the copies of her books in Haiti to keep them from the public, and killed some of her relatives. She fled to New York, where she died in obscurity a few years later.
“Love” is probably my favorite of the three, the story of one Claire, oldest daughter of a locally-prominent family and an old maid (and virgin) at thirty-nine. Told in queasily intimate first person, we are immersed in her jealousies, mainly of her sisters, one married to a white Frenchman and the other wild and promiscuous, in her neurotic rituals, and her fears. The Frenchman flirts and dallies with all three sisters while helping to strip their part of the country dry of resources for his firm back home, and then wonders why no one rebels against the secret police who help him do it. The sounds of torture waft from the police headquarters at night, and the local secret police chief is one of few men to indicate interest in Claire. She devises dramas and tries, with more or less success, to conscript the people around her into them, and in the end, bursts out in violence against the restraints around her. If you’re used to literature about women going mad due to the constraints on rich white Anglo-American women, well, the pressure cooker is even worse in a place like Haiti.
The other two stories are also great. “Anger” is about a family that wakes up one day to find the blackshirted “armed beggars” taking their land. This is no social revolution, there isn’t even a pretense of redistribution beyond the hands of the criminal elite. Like many Haitian households, this one is multigenerational, and all the family members stew and consider their own vengeance. The grandfather and crippled grandchild dream of revolutionary revenge. The mother drinks, the son plays soccer with supporters of the blackshirts and considers how to save his honor. The father equivocates and winds up selling his daughter to the criminals. He double crosses them, but the damage is done. In “Madness,” Haitian poets and intellectuals find out how much their writing and internal debates are worth as they’re besieged in a broken-down old house as the blackshirts take over.
The prose is beautiful, by turns lyrical and epigrammatic and never overly flowery or sentimental- Vieux-Chauvet knew the Caribbean, knew racial lines shifting like sand but hard as steel, knew vodou, knew poverty, knew what sex looked like in this kind of environment where power and despair loomed so large, knew the beauty and the ugliness of the island, respected the power of all of it, and rhapsodized none of it. Her Haiti and her Haitians are mythological — if one people on this earth deserves to be mythologized, it is they — but entirely human. This accomplishment alone would put this work at the top of my list in terms of fiction I’ve read this year, but there’s more to enjoy. I recommend this highly to anyone who likes quality fiction. *****
François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, the ghoulish CIA-backed dictator, was in charge of Haiti by then, and you can see his censors wouldn’t like “Love, Anger, Madness.” The latter two novellas deal directly with people — families from the Haitian upper/middle class, and intellectuals — menaced by totalitarian movements led by openly kleptocratic thugs and manned by “armed beggars.” The first takes place in a similar context but has other issues in mind as well. If the translation of the Haitian Creole Wikipedia entry on Vieux-Chauvet is right, the Duvalier regime bought up all the copies of her books in Haiti to keep them from the public, and killed some of her relatives. She fled to New York, where she died in obscurity a few years later.
“Love” is probably my favorite of the three, the story of one Claire, oldest daughter of a locally-prominent family and an old maid (and virgin) at thirty-nine. Told in queasily intimate first person, we are immersed in her jealousies, mainly of her sisters, one married to a white Frenchman and the other wild and promiscuous, in her neurotic rituals, and her fears. The Frenchman flirts and dallies with all three sisters while helping to strip their part of the country dry of resources for his firm back home, and then wonders why no one rebels against the secret police who help him do it. The sounds of torture waft from the police headquarters at night, and the local secret police chief is one of few men to indicate interest in Claire. She devises dramas and tries, with more or less success, to conscript the people around her into them, and in the end, bursts out in violence against the restraints around her. If you’re used to literature about women going mad due to the constraints on rich white Anglo-American women, well, the pressure cooker is even worse in a place like Haiti.
The other two stories are also great. “Anger” is about a family that wakes up one day to find the blackshirted “armed beggars” taking their land. This is no social revolution, there isn’t even a pretense of redistribution beyond the hands of the criminal elite. Like many Haitian households, this one is multigenerational, and all the family members stew and consider their own vengeance. The grandfather and crippled grandchild dream of revolutionary revenge. The mother drinks, the son plays soccer with supporters of the blackshirts and considers how to save his honor. The father equivocates and winds up selling his daughter to the criminals. He double crosses them, but the damage is done. In “Madness,” Haitian poets and intellectuals find out how much their writing and internal debates are worth as they’re besieged in a broken-down old house as the blackshirts take over.
The prose is beautiful, by turns lyrical and epigrammatic and never overly flowery or sentimental- Vieux-Chauvet knew the Caribbean, knew racial lines shifting like sand but hard as steel, knew vodou, knew poverty, knew what sex looked like in this kind of environment where power and despair loomed so large, knew the beauty and the ugliness of the island, respected the power of all of it, and rhapsodized none of it. Her Haiti and her Haitians are mythological — if one people on this earth deserves to be mythologized, it is they — but entirely human. This accomplishment alone would put this work at the top of my list in terms of fiction I’ve read this year, but there’s more to enjoy. I recommend this highly to anyone who likes quality fiction. *****
January 31, 2014
Originally published in 1969, during Papa Doc's brutal and vindictive regime, where anyone showing signs of disapproval of his rule might be disappeared or suffer the wrath of his Tontons Macoutes (local militias made up of lower class citizens with axes to grind), Marie Vieux-Chauvet's husband apparently was so afraid of what this book would bring down upon their heads that he bought up all the copies available in Haiti. Her daughter did the same for the remaining copies selling in France. I wonder how this must have affected Vieux-Chauvet - it must have been quite devastating. At any rate, she left Haiti for the United States soon after and never returned (she died in 1973). Having read 'Love Anger Madness', it is easy to see how dangerous the book could have for Vieux-Chauvet and her family, particularly when the Tontons Macoutes were slaughtering people for much less. She was either very courageous or totally mad to have this book published at the time while still living in Haiti.
Arranged as a series of three novellas or stories that are only only connected in their examination of the effects of the regime on a small provincial town, all of these stories are extremely unnerving in different ways. Her characters are all bursting at the seams with nervous tension, trying to determine what is the best course of action in face of an enemy that they have little chance of defeating and that they really don't understand.
Love is a phantasmagoria of dread, lust and violence, intermixed with sylphlike shadows of hope, dignity and love. The heavy atmosphere that pervades the story was almost unbearable for me to read but the sharpness and intelligence of the narrative voice, an almost stream-of consciousness-like series of entries from the main character, provides the clearest glimpse into what it might be like to experience state terror. Our protagonist, Claire Clamont, a member of the provincial elite who lives with her two younger sisters and a brother-in-law on her family's aging estate,is at turns utterly deluded in her hopes of finding love with her sister's husband (she isn't the world's most likeable character as far as moral uprightness goes), and fully aware of the futility of these hopes as well as the ever-increasing dangers she and her community face in Haiti's repressive regime.
The second story, Anger, is also told from the perspective of the elite class, this time from one upper middle class family whose land is suddenly seized by the regimes 'blackshirts', most of which are made up of former peasants and others of the lower classes ostensibly seeking to revenge themselves of generations of injustices. Shifting from the thoughts and perspectives of the teenage children, whose promising futures are now thrown into disarray, the parents and the grandfather, we see how their impotence in the face of this loss affects them in turns with rage, despair, resignation, desperation and, above all, terror. This is a truly chilling and gruesome novella.
The final story in this trilogy reminds me of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground in that the reader is drawn into the mind of a character that you know is likely mad, and so you have to sort out where the blurred line between fantasy and reality lies. The ending is heartbreaking.
Really, I can't rave enough about these stories. Vieux-Chauvet has somehow managed to incorporate all the underlying tensions of race and class and the legacies of colonialism while at the same time keeping a laser focus on the terror of the regime. This is not an easy read, but well worth the effort.
Arranged as a series of three novellas or stories that are only only connected in their examination of the effects of the regime on a small provincial town, all of these stories are extremely unnerving in different ways. Her characters are all bursting at the seams with nervous tension, trying to determine what is the best course of action in face of an enemy that they have little chance of defeating and that they really don't understand.
Love is a phantasmagoria of dread, lust and violence, intermixed with sylphlike shadows of hope, dignity and love. The heavy atmosphere that pervades the story was almost unbearable for me to read but the sharpness and intelligence of the narrative voice, an almost stream-of consciousness-like series of entries from the main character, provides the clearest glimpse into what it might be like to experience state terror. Our protagonist, Claire Clamont, a member of the provincial elite who lives with her two younger sisters and a brother-in-law on her family's aging estate,is at turns utterly deluded in her hopes of finding love with her sister's husband (she isn't the world's most likeable character as far as moral uprightness goes), and fully aware of the futility of these hopes as well as the ever-increasing dangers she and her community face in Haiti's repressive regime.
The second story, Anger, is also told from the perspective of the elite class, this time from one upper middle class family whose land is suddenly seized by the regimes 'blackshirts', most of which are made up of former peasants and others of the lower classes ostensibly seeking to revenge themselves of generations of injustices. Shifting from the thoughts and perspectives of the teenage children, whose promising futures are now thrown into disarray, the parents and the grandfather, we see how their impotence in the face of this loss affects them in turns with rage, despair, resignation, desperation and, above all, terror. This is a truly chilling and gruesome novella.
The final story in this trilogy reminds me of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground in that the reader is drawn into the mind of a character that you know is likely mad, and so you have to sort out where the blurred line between fantasy and reality lies. The ending is heartbreaking.
Really, I can't rave enough about these stories. Vieux-Chauvet has somehow managed to incorporate all the underlying tensions of race and class and the legacies of colonialism while at the same time keeping a laser focus on the terror of the regime. This is not an easy read, but well worth the effort.
July 6, 2021
Love, Anger, Madness is neither an easy nor a happy book to read, but it is an important one (full confession: I read it for a book club). For one, it is densely packed with observations about Haiti's politics, its history of being colonized (by the French) and occupied (by the U.S.), and its race and class dynamics. For another, the picture of oppression it paints is unremittingly bleak and often brutal.
Vieux-Chauvet writes with great passion about the suffering of Haitians, buffeted by hurricanes and the turbulent, violent post-colonial politics. After its publication, she had to exile herself in New York because it was seen as an attack on the dictator Francois Duvalier.
The three novellas have no common link, except the backdrop. But reading them together gives you a sense of the lives of people who lived in different strata of class and race privilege (or lack thereof).
Of the three, the most compelling was Anger, which narrates the tale of one well-to-do family and the moral compromises the members are each forced to make when the powers-that-be come for their land. Love, about a family of three upper-class sisters, is the longest and offers the most local context. Madness lives up to its name. It's claustrophobic and delirious. I'm not sure I cared for it too much.
Individual ratings:
Love 3.5/5
Anger 4/5
Madness: 2/5
Vieux-Chauvet writes with great passion about the suffering of Haitians, buffeted by hurricanes and the turbulent, violent post-colonial politics. After its publication, she had to exile herself in New York because it was seen as an attack on the dictator Francois Duvalier.
The three novellas have no common link, except the backdrop. But reading them together gives you a sense of the lives of people who lived in different strata of class and race privilege (or lack thereof).
Of the three, the most compelling was Anger, which narrates the tale of one well-to-do family and the moral compromises the members are each forced to make when the powers-that-be come for their land. Love, about a family of three upper-class sisters, is the longest and offers the most local context. Madness lives up to its name. It's claustrophobic and delirious. I'm not sure I cared for it too much.
Individual ratings:
Love 3.5/5
Anger 4/5
Madness: 2/5
April 7, 2021
I read the section,Folie for a module on Contemporary Caribbean Culture. I'm not fluent in French, but I found this book really compelling. The atmosphere of madness and fear was so strong and I couldn't quite tell what was real and what wasn't. I liked the way the reader could follow the winding, confused thought process of René (the main character) - the repetitions, the returns to themes, the unreliable truths. And the switch to a play format for a large section of the second part was a really effective way to create atmosphere. I definitely want to go back to read Amour and Colère.
J'ai lit la partie Folie pour mon module « La culture contemporaire des Caraïbes ». Je ne parle pas le français couramment, mais j'ai trouvé ce livre très captivant. L'ambiance de la folie et la peur était fort et je ne faisais pas la différence entre la vérité et la fausseté. J'ai pu comprendre l'esprit désorienté du René (le protagoniste) - il répéte quelques phrases et ideés. Le deuxième partie d'histoire change d'être un pièce de théâtre, et je l'ai trouvé d'être efficace. Je voudrais sûrement lire Amour et Colère.
J'ai lit la partie Folie pour mon module « La culture contemporaire des Caraïbes ». Je ne parle pas le français couramment, mais j'ai trouvé ce livre très captivant. L'ambiance de la folie et la peur était fort et je ne faisais pas la différence entre la vérité et la fausseté. J'ai pu comprendre l'esprit désorienté du René (le protagoniste) - il répéte quelques phrases et ideés. Le deuxième partie d'histoire change d'être un pièce de théâtre, et je l'ai trouvé d'être efficace. Je voudrais sûrement lire Amour et Colère.
January 3, 2015
Izuzetno tužna, tragična, iritantna (po sadržaju) i divno napisana... Triptih o Haitiju, kroz tri sasvim različite priče-novele, strukturno i sadržinski, pobudio je u meni različite osećaje... Prvo zgražanje prema zabranjenoj ljubavi i osećajima jedne četrdesetogodišnje usedelice, ali tako divno sročeno da sam na trenutke i sama tražila opravdanja... Zatim bes, ljutnja i gorčina zbog tragične sudbine jedne porodice čiji su članovi izgubili zamlju, ali i svoje duše, svoj karakter i principe... Poslednja novela me je ostavila sa puno upitnika, i po meni je kraj malo neuobičajen, ali sve u svemu, ovo je predivno napisana knjiga o Haićanskom pejsažu, u kojoj je autorica htela pokazati kako je vojni režim dehumanizovao, demoralisao i uništio društvo, kulturu i narod jedne zemlje s toliko ljubavi i lepote u stilu da je svakako preporučujem od srca.
September 19, 2021
In three novellas’ capacity, Marie Vieux-Chauvet built a historical museum of perverted passions in post-occupation Haiti (1930s-60s). In a society that carries as many oppressions as the legacy of French colonization, the brutal military occupation and corporate exploitation by the US, the eroded natural environment and crumbling economy, the rising native dictatorship of the Duvaliers, the terror of the secret police Tonton Macoute, the Haitian-Syrian antagonism, and racism against black and mixed-raced citizens, perversion offers an insight into the nested subordinations that a neutralized view cannot.
LOVE
Born and raised in a well-to-do family in the early 1900s, Claire Clamont witnessed the downturn of the family’s prospect as Haiti became occupied by the US (1915-34) and her father drained the family assets in politics. In the place of French colonists who turned Haiti into lucrative sugarcane plantations (out of which arose a Haitian elite), the American corporations deforested the land for timber exportation and supported a corrupt local government to impoverish the population. As Claire struggled with her secret affection for her light-skinned sister’s French husband with whom she shared her family’s house, she couldn’t help but realize that all the intimacy he returned went no farther than a brotherly embrace and restrained appreciation of a dark-skinned maid. In the highly volatile time of wars and economic crash, a populist and militarized black nationalism took over the government, bringing dictatorship instead of democracy.
Through Claire’s diary of her maddening love, MVC made an allegorical comparison to the Haitian elite’s disenchanted nostalgia of the old French empire in the wake of the brutal damage made to their land and economy by the Americans and the emerging dictatorship. Her dark skin, outstanding from her mixed-raced family and a visible reminder of the uncomfortable legacy of colonialism, made her a perpetual “maid” despite her being the main heiress of her family’s heritage. More than once was the French gentleman’s innocent liberalism called out by black Haitians. With the “good” colonists, racism may be less confrontational, but it is as deeply entrenched as Claire was the perpetual other to the white European relative.
ANGER
A mixed-raced family of three generations, the Normils, woke up one day to the nightmare of their land, earned by the late black great-grandfather, being seized by the new government, one that insinuated François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s despotic rule. The devastation to save the property didn’t cement the existing conflict within the family, but rather plunged the family deeper into distrust. While each person resorted to a bitter expedition—spirituality, mistress, and revenge—the most effective bargain with power lay in the granddaughter’s sacrifice of her body to the local commandant. With the legal system terribly eroded and the administration filled with beggar- and bandit-turned officials brewing power out of hate. The bargain was a lost case as soon as it began.
On the periphery of both LOVE and ANGER is the Syrian business community in Haiti, a byproduct of Euro-American colonialism and the only foreign traders in early to mid-20th century that were willing to take up long-term work in native conditions. The antagonism against the Syrians rose when the former, using their network with the US government, surpassed the Haitian elite to claim privileged positions in both official and business ranks. Though marginal, the Syrians were used as a proxy trade leverage to keep Haiti subject to, and dependent on, the Global North.
MADNESS
The last but the most frantic novella, MADNESS tells about the terror of mass killing of intellectuals. A young biracial poet, René, hallucinated the invasion of devils dressed in red, black, and gold, and locked up himself and three fellow poets (including a French) starving in a shack he inherited from his poor black mother. His birth a result of the violent and racist collision between classes, René was drawn toward Francophone literature, meanwhile rejected by both white and black communities because of his “mulatto” identity. In the eight days spent in horror and hunger, René was enmeshed in the struggle against religious restraint, the imagination of a romantic relationship with a rich neighbor, but mostly the suffocating anticipation of a total conquest by the murderous devils that no one else saw. Deemed madmen, René and the friends he sheltered were delivered to the hands of the police, execution awaiting them.
Was madness tricking the eye to see what didn’t exist? Or, was despotism blocking the eye from seeing what should be seen? Madness and hallucination are widely used in world literature to argue with authority in regard to what can and cannot be seen and questioned. By a conscious self-distancing from “truth,” writings of insanity are able to problematize not just a truthful fact per se, as is claimed to be commonly sensed, but also the power that authorizes what to be granted the unquestionable throne of “truth.” Madness, in the body and language of the outlawed, subverts the true and the false to create a critical space to rethink, in the impossibility of democratic political action, what is being told.
This triptych cost MVC her right to stay in Haiti. It sent a blast of irony to the thirty-year dictatorship of the Duvalier administrations. In all three stories, she evoked the image of useless (male) doctors and their bias and powers veiled by their professional practice, pointing the criticism directly at François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, whose career started from medical training. In naming Claire’s baby nephew after Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, she infantilized the son dictator. Banished from Port-au-Prince, MVC spent the last five years of her life in exile. She died at age 56 in New York, in 1973.
LOVE
Born and raised in a well-to-do family in the early 1900s, Claire Clamont witnessed the downturn of the family’s prospect as Haiti became occupied by the US (1915-34) and her father drained the family assets in politics. In the place of French colonists who turned Haiti into lucrative sugarcane plantations (out of which arose a Haitian elite), the American corporations deforested the land for timber exportation and supported a corrupt local government to impoverish the population. As Claire struggled with her secret affection for her light-skinned sister’s French husband with whom she shared her family’s house, she couldn’t help but realize that all the intimacy he returned went no farther than a brotherly embrace and restrained appreciation of a dark-skinned maid. In the highly volatile time of wars and economic crash, a populist and militarized black nationalism took over the government, bringing dictatorship instead of democracy.
Through Claire’s diary of her maddening love, MVC made an allegorical comparison to the Haitian elite’s disenchanted nostalgia of the old French empire in the wake of the brutal damage made to their land and economy by the Americans and the emerging dictatorship. Her dark skin, outstanding from her mixed-raced family and a visible reminder of the uncomfortable legacy of colonialism, made her a perpetual “maid” despite her being the main heiress of her family’s heritage. More than once was the French gentleman’s innocent liberalism called out by black Haitians. With the “good” colonists, racism may be less confrontational, but it is as deeply entrenched as Claire was the perpetual other to the white European relative.
ANGER
A mixed-raced family of three generations, the Normils, woke up one day to the nightmare of their land, earned by the late black great-grandfather, being seized by the new government, one that insinuated François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s despotic rule. The devastation to save the property didn’t cement the existing conflict within the family, but rather plunged the family deeper into distrust. While each person resorted to a bitter expedition—spirituality, mistress, and revenge—the most effective bargain with power lay in the granddaughter’s sacrifice of her body to the local commandant. With the legal system terribly eroded and the administration filled with beggar- and bandit-turned officials brewing power out of hate. The bargain was a lost case as soon as it began.
On the periphery of both LOVE and ANGER is the Syrian business community in Haiti, a byproduct of Euro-American colonialism and the only foreign traders in early to mid-20th century that were willing to take up long-term work in native conditions. The antagonism against the Syrians rose when the former, using their network with the US government, surpassed the Haitian elite to claim privileged positions in both official and business ranks. Though marginal, the Syrians were used as a proxy trade leverage to keep Haiti subject to, and dependent on, the Global North.
MADNESS
The last but the most frantic novella, MADNESS tells about the terror of mass killing of intellectuals. A young biracial poet, René, hallucinated the invasion of devils dressed in red, black, and gold, and locked up himself and three fellow poets (including a French) starving in a shack he inherited from his poor black mother. His birth a result of the violent and racist collision between classes, René was drawn toward Francophone literature, meanwhile rejected by both white and black communities because of his “mulatto” identity. In the eight days spent in horror and hunger, René was enmeshed in the struggle against religious restraint, the imagination of a romantic relationship with a rich neighbor, but mostly the suffocating anticipation of a total conquest by the murderous devils that no one else saw. Deemed madmen, René and the friends he sheltered were delivered to the hands of the police, execution awaiting them.
Was madness tricking the eye to see what didn’t exist? Or, was despotism blocking the eye from seeing what should be seen? Madness and hallucination are widely used in world literature to argue with authority in regard to what can and cannot be seen and questioned. By a conscious self-distancing from “truth,” writings of insanity are able to problematize not just a truthful fact per se, as is claimed to be commonly sensed, but also the power that authorizes what to be granted the unquestionable throne of “truth.” Madness, in the body and language of the outlawed, subverts the true and the false to create a critical space to rethink, in the impossibility of democratic political action, what is being told.
This triptych cost MVC her right to stay in Haiti. It sent a blast of irony to the thirty-year dictatorship of the Duvalier administrations. In all three stories, she evoked the image of useless (male) doctors and their bias and powers veiled by their professional practice, pointing the criticism directly at François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, whose career started from medical training. In naming Claire’s baby nephew after Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, she infantilized the son dictator. Banished from Port-au-Prince, MVC spent the last five years of her life in exile. She died at age 56 in New York, in 1973.
March 18, 2012
A trilogy of novellas, all powerfully written, about the devastating personal effects of racial and class politics in Haiti, its historical cycles of violence and retribution, and its brutal corruption. I much preferred the first two ("Love" and "Anger" which I'd rate 4/5) to the fevered surreality of the third ("Madness"), which felt less finished. The dark-skinned female narrator of "Love," with her frustrated desires and awakening sense of self, is particularly striking. The author, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, originally wrote this book in the mid 1960s, then sought exile in the U.S. and tried to remove published copies out of circulation, out of fear of how the Duvalier regime might retaliate against her remaining family and friends.
July 13, 2010
I read this because Edwidge Danticat said that this was the way to learn about Haiti and it is certainly much better than Kidder's book for that purpose. The language is lyrical. I marked three passages that I want to type up. There was not always a lot of plot, but scene and character are very vivid. Another reminder of how much history there is to learn. The personal and political are inseparable here.
August 27, 2012
This trilogy of novellas gives the reader first-hand insight into life in Haiti in post-Duvalier era(Papa Doc') as well as the rigid class and color prejudices and divisions among the society. I read this in the original french text and found some passages painful due to the knowledge that although the particular stories were fiction, they could have been based on actual occurences and are a true reflection on the country and its people at that time.
April 16, 2021
«La lluvia es la bendición del cielo –afirma muy haitianamente el padre Paul en sus sermones. Entonces, ¡es que estamos malditos! Ciclones, terremotos y sequedad, nada nos perdona. Los mendigos pululan.». Una novela intensa, erótica y furiosa en un país de extremos donde se muere de amor y de hambre; por un ciclón y por un dictador. Buscadores de literatura caribeña: Haití, un Vulnerable que encontró ... Más en: https://readnfly.com/2021/04/15/amor-...
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