Master of the Crossroads

Haiti Series #2

by Madison Smartt Bell

Continuing his epic trilogy of the Haitian slave uprising, Madison Smartt Bell’s Master of the Crossroads delivers a stunning portrayal of Toussaint Louverture,  former slave, military genius and liberator of Haiti, and his struggle against the great European powers to free his people in the only successful slave revolution in history. At the outset, Toussaint is a second-tier general in the Spanish army, which is supporting the rebel slaves’ fight against the French.   But w hen Toussaint is betrayed by his former allies and the commanders of the Spanish army, he reunites his army with the French, wresting vital territories and manpower from Spanish control. With his army one among several factions, Toussaint eventually rises as the ultimate victor as he wards off his enemies to take control of the French colony and establish a new constitution.

Bell’s grand, multifaceted novel shows a nation, splintered by actions and in the throes of chaos, carried to liberation and justice through the undaunted tenacity of one incredible visionary.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Ebooks, Literary Fiction, Novels

752 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2000

About the author

Madison Smartt Bell is a critically acclaimed writer of more than a dozen novels and story collections, as well as numerous essays and reviews for publications such as Harper’s and the New York Times Book Review. His books have been finalists for both the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, among other honors. Bell has also taught at distinguished creative writing programs including the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Johns Hopkins, and Goucher College. His work is notable for its sweeping historical and philosophical scope matched with a remarkable sensitivity to the individual voices of characters on the margins of society.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

When writers become obsessed with their subject matter, the final result can come out as relentless raving, or, as in this case, develop into total and uncompromising immersion.

This second volume of Bell's Toussaint Louverture trilogy is as thoroughly mesmerizing as the first. Covering an eight-year period beginning two years after the 1791 uprising, it offers an informed and fascinating portrait of the genesis of the nation of Haiti, and its charismatic and visionary leader, Toussaint Louverture, the Black Spartacus himself. Peopled with many of the same fictional and historical characters inhabiting the first volume, this second novel continues their stories and destinies in a climate of transition - unstable yet pregnant with possibilities. Blood still flows, to be sure, but the thundering chaos of the first novel has been channelled into a more focused force through Toussaint's strategic political and military maneuverings.

A little disclosure here: I'm not usually the most avid fan of epic historical fiction, nor am I particularly keen on reading about warring factions, battling troops and rising levels of testosterone. But although the novel never skirts the military aspect (there's plenty of that) Bell has upped the level to much more than blow-by-blow heroics. He digs deep into the workings of his characters' minds, and their conflicted reactions to an evolving situation; there is questioning but no easy answers. The individual characters and their stories meander and branch out, split, divide, slide by, collide, touch and unite, almost organically, in a collective mutation.

The writing is as elegant as ever, alternately dream-like and chiseled. No skimming to be done here, (and why would you want to, it's all good!) since there are so many subtle changes in tone from one passage to the next, and so many gems of insight embedded in even the most violent (or the most seemingly anodyne) descriptions that might be missed by hasty reading.

One small problem: the myriad of events and characters, fictional or not, can be a source of confusion. I finally broke down (after 200 pages or so of resisting - "I can keep it all in my head!" or so I thought)) and charted out an index card of who's who for the invented characters. Thankfully, Bell has included a detailed chronology of historical events (which I thumbed to death) as well as a glossary, a map, and the original versions of Toussaint's letters (sweet bonus) and other documents

A magisterial and resonant work; it has given me no choice but to continue with the third volume:The Stone That the Builder Refused

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent sequel to All Souls Rising, and with less of the horrifically graphic descriptions of torture and murder. Which isn't to say that it doesn't have any such passages. It's just that Master of the Crossroads deals more with Toussaint's consolidation of his authority throughout the island, particularly in his battles with the Spanish, then the English, and finally in the civil war with Rigaud and his supporters. There is one small uprising afterward, but it is quashed pretty quickly.

Actually, the primary focus of the book is on the further development of various characters we were introduced to in the first book, such as Dr. Hebert; his lover, Nanon; the doctor's sister, Elise, and her "husband" Tocquet; the "villain" Choufleur; Riau; Captain Maillart and his paramour, Isabelle Cigny; and the Arnauds; as well as a number of other secondary characters. As such, I would recommend against reading this one without first reading All Soul's Rising, which starts off slowly but then builds to an excruciating level of violence and tension. In contrast, and probably because I was already familiar with the cast of characters, Master of the Crossroads hits the ground running, so to speak. Both books share the same level of immersion in the lives of the inhabitants of Haiti at that time, and the writing is truly masterful.

Reading about the level of discipline that characterized the men who fought under Toussaint, coupled with their stamina and military skills despite a subsistence diet and minimal equipment, should inspire pride in the Haitians of today. That such a people should be living in their current state of poverty and dysfunction is an embarrassment not to themselves but to the the First World, which has perpetuated a seemingly vindictive foreign policy toward that nation. I can't help but wonder if they are somehow still paying a price for having the temerity to rise from slavery and repeatedly defeat white armies. While that may be too simplistic a notion, at the very least it seems that they have been the victims of malignant neglect.

I highly recommend this book and am certain that anyone who has read just the first book will find their time reading the second well spent. For those who've read neither, be sure to start with All Souls Rising. As for myself, I've very much looking forward to reading the third and final entry in this amazing trilogy. I suspect that I may also need to check out Bell's biography of Toussaint.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part 2 of Smartt Bell's sprawling factional book about the Haitian Revolution as seen through the eyes of physician Antoine Herbert contiunes. The doctor has been on the island eight years, arriving in 1791 in search of his sister. In this sequel, Louverture has militarily, for the most part, secured the island. The military victories are done through brute force and political cunning with the Jacobins of France, the British and Spanish governments, all of whom are intent in squashing the slave rebellion by any means necessary. Sadly, the quest to end slavery also forces Louverture into civil war with the mulattos, who have their own view separate and unequal with their slave brothers.

"Master of the Crossroads" is all about decision making --- the risks to take militarily, politically and personally, not only for Louverture, but also for the doctor, his sister, her husband and significant minor characters such as Riau, a former slave on the Breda plantation.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sequel to All Souls’ Rising - which I read long before I started blogging - and is the second in the author’s Haiti trilogy which has as its setting the history of the slave revolt in what was then the French colony of Saint Domingue. The only successful slave revolt in history. CLR James wrote a history of the revolt called The Black Jacobins .

Like the first in the sequence, Master of the Crossroads shows us scenes from the point of view of Toussaint Louverture, the most successful of the native generals, at the time of his later incarceration by the French, here in Fort de Jeux, on the French mainland, where he is endeavouring to persuade the First Consul, Napoleon, through letters and answers to interrogation, to believe his loyalty has always been to the French state as embodied in the ideals of the Revolution. When charged by his interrogator with having hidden fifteen million francs and shot the Negroes* who buried it for him Toussaint replies, “You blancs always believe there is a gold mine hidden from you somewhere.” The circumstances which led to his captivity were not covered in All Souls’ Rising : neither are they here.

While events in the wider context are illustrated or described, the main narrative features on the affairs of a few characters, mostly from Habitation Thibodet, next door to plantation Ennery and near Louverture’s original home. Some first person chapters are related from the point of view of Riau, a former slave born in Guinée (for most of the characters French would have been their first language but we also have dialogue in Haitian Creole.) Riau had formed an attachment to a woman called Merbillay but in his absence on military duty she took up with Guiaou and has a child by him. After a contretemps of sorts the three come to an unconventional arrangement. The titular owners of the Habitation (if any such right existed in the state of flux of the times) are Xavier and Elise Tocquet. Elise’s brother, Doctor Antoine Hébert, has a more or less acknowledged relationship with the former slave girl Nanon – so acknowledged she sits at table with them all. He is also Louverture’s doctor and accompanies him on various campaigns and expeditions though the country. Other notable characters are Isabelle Cigny and a mulatto man going by the name Choufleur (son of le Sieur Maltrot, who gave him that nickname due to his freckled appearance) and whose younger infatuation with Nanon leads to a fateful situation.

The scenario allows Bell to explore the complicated history of the Haiti revolution - tangled as it became in the French Revolutionary wars with the activities of Great Britain seeking to destabilise any French territory and the internecine manœuvrings of its various principal participants - and the effects of slavery both on slavers and on slaves plus that of the French Revolution on French personnel and colonists and those born in Haiti.

The book is not for the squeamish – times of revolt are usually bloody and Bell does not shy from describing atrocities and we witness Choufleur’s mother tell Hébert, “Cruelty is the first quality of any and all blancs. Cruelty and greed, no matter how you may hide it.” In the same speech she enlarges on her theme by mentioning the fact that on Haiti though you could find “their tools and relics everywhere” there were now no Indians where once there had been half a million. Moreover, she tells him the high incidence of lockjaw in new born slave children (an incidence much reduced since the revolt) was in fact due to midwives making sure - in a horrific way – that the child would not live to face the torments of slavery.

An indication perhaps of Bell’s nationality comes when French Civil Commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax supplies rifles to that part of the colonial army made up of freed slaves, and says to them, “Whoever takes this weapon from you would take away your freedom,” but I suppose in those times and in that place the possession of a gun was some sort of guarantee. Bell also has a sympathetic eye for the customs of Vodou (voodoo,) seen as an expression of the desire of slaves to return to Africa – by whatever means.

Louverture is portrayed as having almost a second sight in the matter of ambushes, twice leaping from a travelling coach which is attacked a short way down the road. His stature at the time is exemplified by being dubbed the Black Spartacus by General Laveaux,

*This is the word which would have been used at that time.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic. In the tradition of the great, sweeping historical novels, Madison Smartt Bell takes on the Haitian Revolution--the only successful slave revolution in the Western Hemisphere--and produces a masterful trilogy. Like most great fiction, he makes you work. The plot is almost as complex as the characters themselves, which is why they are so amazingly lifelike.

Dramatic, funny, horrifying, and compelling.

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a historical fiction book -something that is very popular right now - but it is not done in the traditional manner. Toussaint Louverture lead the only successful slave revolt in history and though this book is set during that time it choses not to make that fact it's main focus. Instead this literary novel uses secondary characters and subplots to tell a larger story about the decline of French colonialism in Haiti and the change that wrought on the island nation.

The problem is that it didn't really work for me.

Louverture is relegated to a minor role despite the fact that his actions are the driving force of the book. When Louverture does something everyone is affected but these game shifting events are almost referred to as an aside instead of given the weight of there importance. The few, brief appearances that he makes left not really understanding his motives or realizing him as the major historical figure that he is.

The book is formed more by the rise of voodoo as practiced by the freed slaves and the threat that poses to the entrenched religion of Catholicism practiced by the former slave-owning white class. From here Smartt Bell explores the differences between the many different ethnicities that form the now free island. But I never felt the tensions inherent in these conflicts of old world vs new society and much like Louvertures' military efforts it seemed to something that happened in the distance. More an inconvenience than a social upheaval. I felt I was being feed information rather than being drawn in by these events. This is mostly due to the ghostly presence of Louverture who only seems to appear when necessary to keep the history correct despite that he is the decision maker in everything that happens.

This book does have it's strengths. Written in a literary style that doesn't insult the reader with a scholarly understanding of Haitian life during colonial times is admirable. And the different points of view and the use of local dialect add a depth to the book but the long gaps between narratives left me confused and lost in the characters subplots. And the conflicts, in part, never really delivered because of this leaving the larger story of a new society finding it's place among it's former oppressors underwritten. The secondary stories overwhelmed me and though they draw a detailed sketch of life during these times they failed to produce the big picture this book deserved.

[Ben Thurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really loving this series. Master of the Crossroads is an immersive and richly realised historical novel – the second in Bell's powerful trilogy telling the story of Haiti's birth under former slave and visionary leader, Toussaint Louverture.

It's less viscerally brutal than All Souls' Rising yet still compelling as it traces the political and military machinations of the Black Spartacus in the face of a kaleidoscopic and shifting roster of foes, the English, the Spanish, former slave-holders, factions within his own forces, and even – increasingly – France, whose loyal subject Toussaint continues to claim to be.

The second focus of the novel makes clear just how serious the suspicions being stoked aginst Toussaint were being taken in the halls of power in Republican France. Told in a handful of chapters, through a time jump forward a little less than a decade, it places us in a cramped and bitterly cold cell in the Fort de Joux, where Toussaint is being questioned on charges of sedition and treason.

Bell writes with both muscularity and grace. Toussaint is utterly compelling as the central character, and Bell does fine work helping us get some sense of his keen intelligence and charisma. Yet it's the intricate and moving web of other stories and characters that really bring home for me just what a great piece of work this is.

[Mary Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd book of a lengthy fictional trilogy about the war for Haitian independence. The author once again weaves together the perspectives and story-lines of varying characters to humanize this massive historical narrative. This volume alone is 700 pages! It is a rewarding journey, but indeed requires a huge commitment of time. I interspersed this book with other, shorter books along the way--but I was continually drawn back to immerse myself in this rich novel, and plan to read the third one, "The Stone that the Builder Refused." But after an interlude of lighter reading! Maybe "War and Peace," lol.

[Kyle Riebesell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masters of the Crossroads is the second book in Madison Smartt Bell’s Haitian trilogy, and it picks up right where All Souls Rising left off. Bell drops us straight back into Haiti in 1793, where the island is literally and figuratively at a crossroads: the French, Spanish, and British are all fighting for control, the revolution is gaining momentum, and Toussaint Louverture is rapidly rising in prominence. Whether he's driven by loyalty to France or his own ambition is one of the lingering questions that makes this book so compelling.

Bell uses the concept of the crossroads to explore the multidimensional crisis of Haiti. The nation is at a difficult political and geographical turning point—the island's dense, central jungle demands mastery of its physical paths to navigate. More profoundly, Bell also plays with the deeper, spiritual meaning—particularly within Vodou—where the crossroads signify the meeting point between the human world and the divine. Similarly, many of the characters are stuck at their own metaphorical intersections, exhausted and reshaped by violence, trauma, and uncertainty.

At the center is Toussaint Louverture, whose character is magnificently drawn. His strategy is brilliant but ambiguous: he leads the fight to unify Haiti under the banner of France, yet his actions constantly blur the line between serving the Republic and securing his own absolute power. Bell expertly captures the Napoleonic ambition that drives Toussaint's rise.

While Toussaint is at the center of the story, the actual story is told mainly from the characters all around Toussaint and the conflict. While much of the story is told through Dr. Hébert’s perspective, Bell brings back familiar characters from the first book and deepens them here, giving the narrative a richer emotional impact.

While the backdrop is a brutal 18th-century slave revolution, the novel truly shines in its exploration of deeply relatable, contemporary dilemmas. Despite fighting for their lives, the characters grapple with universal human issues: fidelity, loyalty, family, power, and spirituality. It connects the tragedy of the past to the moral complexities of the present.

Bell isn’t just telling the story of a revolution. He’s telling the story of people caught inside one, trying to figure out who they are when the world is collapsing and rebuilding around them. And that’s where the book really shines.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second volume in Madison Smartt Bell's trilogy about Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Haitian slave rebellion in the late 18th century delivers the same excellent world-building, complex characterizations and beautiful writing as the first, with a little less of the torture porn.

[Moloch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beh, la notizia è che anche Madison Smartt Bell è umano, come tutti noi: infatti, questo secondo volume della Trilogia di Haiti, Il Signore dei crocevia, è leggermente inferiore al precedente, meraviglioso Quando le anime si sollevano . "Colpa" di una trama in cui è più difficile seguire i numerosi rivolgimenti politici e strategici e le tante campagne militari e gli spostamenti da una parte all'altra dell'isola, di una plotline (il dottor Hébert e Nanon) un po' tirata per le lunghe e di un meno efficace bilanciamento nell'alternarsi dei personaggi in scena (mentre nel primo volume c'era più equilibrio, qua il dottore emerge più nettamente come protagonista, ed è quasi sempre presente, a scapito degli altri)... nonché dell'impressione un po' inverosimile che si ricava che, per le strade e i sentieri che portano da un angolo all'altro di Haiti, si finiscano per incontrare "casualmente" sempre le stesse dieci persone. Ciò non ha impedito, comunque, che queste 928 pagine le abbia "divorate" in circa cinque giorni.

Toussaint L'Ouverture è sempre più la vera guida dell'esercito degli ex schiavi di Haiti, che, a differenza dei vari capi banda che uno dopo l'altro sconfigge, è riuscito a rendere un modello di efficienza e disciplina, anche grazie alla collaborazione degli ufficiali bianchi che si sono votati alla sua causa. Abilissimo anche sul piano politico, diviene il vero capo assoluto dell'isola senza mai smettere di proclamare in ogni momento la sua assoluta fedeltà alla Repubblica francese: e davvero comunque quest'ultima deve ringraziarlo, perché è grazie alle sue armate se la presenza francese nell'isola non viene stritolata dalle continue minacce che la circondano da tutte le parti, gli spagnoli nella parte orientale dell'isola, gli inglesi che si sono conquistati una piccola ma agguerrita testa di ponte a ovest e sono in combutta con i vecchi proprietari schiavisti, fuggiti precipitosamente alla fine del primo volume e che ora cercano di rovesciare la situazione, la soldatesca meticcia che, furiosa per l'aperto appoggio delle autorità alla causa dei neri a scapito dei suoi interessi, si ribella in massa.

Eppure, sappiamo già che la sua fortuna è destinata a non durare, perché, parallelamente a queste battaglie da cui Toussaint esce sempre vittorioso, lo seguiamo anche mentre, a distanza di pochi anni, nel 1802, è rinchiuso in un'inespugnabile fortezza nel cuore delle Alpi francesi ed è impegnato a difendersi dall'accusa di tradimento. Come ha fatto a precipitare così rapidamente dall'altare alla polvere? Probabilmente lo scopriremo nel terzo volume, Il Napoleone nero (strana traduzione italiana dell'originale The Stone That the Builder Refused, la biblica "pietra scartata dai costruttori").

Accanto a queste intricate vicende politico-militari, proseguono quelle private della folla di personaggi che abbiamo incontrato nel primo volume, sballottati da un posto all'altro dal susseguirsi dei capovolgimenti e dei ribaltamenti di fronte. Pur indulgendo un po' più nel sentimentalismo rispetto al primo volume, lo sviluppo della trama continua a svolgersi in modo sobrio e asciutto, senza cadere nel melodrammone, cui pure certe sottotrame si presterebbero, nemmeno nel trattamento del fatidico "triangolo" Hébert/Nanon/Choufleur, la cui improvvisa risoluzione anzi spiazza parecchio le aspettative di come l'avevamo figurata.

Che dire? Domani comincio l'ultima puntata. Spero in un finale in crescendo. Certo, però, come faremo senza il crudele Choufleur? E io voglio meno Hébert e Nanon (ora che, si spera, si sono sistemati, possiamo dedicarci agli altri personaggi?), più Michel e Claudine Arnaud!

Madison Smartt Bell, Il Signore dei crocevia (trad. Stefano Bortolussi), voto = 4/5

http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2012/0...

[Jackson Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

“So many of them had been unwilling to share the world with one another—they had rather die—but after all, they had not left the world; they were still here, unseen among the living, the Invisible Ones, les Morts et les Mystères, and now, if for this moment only, they seemed disposed to harmony”.

In much the same way the preceding volume of this trilogy was about the horror and catharsis of violence in a specifically American context, this novel (to me) was exploring how things could be different. How, if we’re talking about creation in a specifically revolutionary sense, the act of fighting for a difference in caste, class, and color is an act of sheer will, trying to fashion something new and better out of something so monstrous as slavery. I hope this doesn’t read as belabored, perhaps it is. But I was very moved by this novel; its characters, its story, its themes. It’s about human beings caught up in *very* extraordinary circumstances in history. Bell’s writing, especially with the battle sequences, reminded me a great deal of William T. Vollmann’s visceral renderings of the Nez Perce War’s many engagements in his masterpiece “The Dying Grass”. On a final note, Riau is one of the great characters in recent American literature. He’s Haiti, it’s past, present, and future.

[Rachelfm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is dense and intense, demanding a lot from the reader (keeping French and Creole slang straight and managing a pretty complex cast of characters against a rapidly changing historical backdrop.) The investment of energy and intellectual effort to understand Haiti c. 1791-1802 is worth it, and I think the author does an incredible job of deftly relating details of social, military, and economic life at that time. I didn't find it to be transcendent, but I feel certainly more well educated having read it.

[Heather G]

Just o.k

I read the first book in this series and was completely amazed at how good it was. Maybe my high expectations for the second part got the best of me but this was genuinely a huge letdown. I will read the last book in the trilogy because the good parts this book were really good and I got attached to the characters. The bad parts though were really bad. He said in 5 pages what could have been said in one, drew out a lot of scenes and it was very distracting constantly referencing the glossary.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a while for me to get hooked on the second of Bell's trilogy about the slave uprising that created the country of Haiti, formerly France's colony Saint Dominique. But once I did I again could not put his novel down. The military maneuverings were fascinating and at times horrifying. What I really enjoyed about the novel was the personalities and exploits of the characters involved with the military.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second of the series and better written than the first. I loved getting to know the main characters in these books - especially the slave Rouau who leads a double existence - and watching them change and deepen over time. I felt like they were my close friends by the end of the trilogy, as did my cousin, who also loved the series.

[Katigie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating characters and narrative

Bell continued to navigate the complex history of the Haitian route to independence, masterfully telling the story through his choice of characters. Riau is one of my favorites, and I look forward to seeing his life develop. An epic meant to savor.

[K.P.B. Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as All Souls Rising, but still compelling. The novel tries to do too much, cover to much ground, and never succeeds in giving us a very clear picture of Toussaint L'Ouverture. Still, it was worth it to get to spend some more time with Doctor Herbert.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd in Haitian Revolution trilogy. still vivid and as dense as the first

[Etoilenoire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart-wrenching and well-written; the story is told from the POV of a French doctor who was part of Toussaint L'Ouverture's close entourage.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The further history of the Haitian revolution. Probably not particularly engaging for anyone not already thoroughly versed in the complex events of that time. Good writing though...

[Dan Piette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second in trilogy about Haiti.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great historical fiction on the Haitian slave uprisings.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

KOBOBOOKS

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

maybe not quite a compelling as the first book, but still pretty good. I am on the edge of my seat worrying about how or if these characters will weather the next wave of bloodshed coming their way.

[Karin Mckercher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first in the series. But still a solid read.

[Carlo Mayer]

Non iniziato