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After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti
 
 
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After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti [Hardcover]

Edwidge Danticat (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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From Publishers Weekly

Twenty years after emigrating to America, Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory) returns to her native Haiti and the coastal village of Jacmel to take part in her first Carnival. But she's not without reservations. As a child she was forbidden to partake in the festivities by her uncle, a Baptist minister with whom she lived before joining her parents in New York at age 12. "People always hurt themselves during carnival, he said, and it was their fault, for gyrating with so much abandon that they would dislocate their hips and shoulders and lose their voices while singing too loudly." Organized in sections that parallel Danticat's perambulations in the week leading up to the event, the author illuminates the political, economic and cultural history of the island nation, introducing Columbus, French colonists and Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, the dictator of Danticat's youth. Throughout, readers meet local artists, farmers and activists who call Jacmel home, including Ovid, a farmer whom Danticat meets having lost her way in an abandoned sugar plantation. Madame Ovid, his wife, crafts paper cones to hold the grilled corn flour she will sell during carnival. It's said that the act of writing leads to a deeper understanding of one's subject, and oneself. As the work reveals in its final pages, for no one is this more true than Danticat, who offers an enlightening look at the country and Carnival through the eyes of one of its finest writers.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Danticat (Farming of Bones; The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Diaspora in the United States) journeyed back to her native Haiti to explore what had been forbidden in her childhood: the colorful, raucous, dangerous carnival. Arriving a week before the annual event, she sought out some of the island's more unusual residents while exploring the history, folklore, and meaning of the many images of carnival. Her lively narrative describes a rich and complicated cultural history, influenced by Christianity, vodou, Europeans, pirates, dictators, past slavery, and an uncertain economy. From zombies, Arawak Indians, and SIDA (syndrome immuno-deficitaire acquis), representing the ravages of AIDS, to the devilish Mathurins, who battle the dragon-slaying archangel Saint Michel, the many masked and costumed carnival participants parade by Danticat. By the end of the story, she has overcome her childhood fears, dropped her inhibitions, and joined in the enthusiastic revelry that is carnival, embracing strangers and singing. A short but entertaining narrative; for academic and public libraries. [This is the first in a series called "Journeys" that will feature noted authors on favorite destinations; forthcoming works include Michael Cunningham on Provincetown, Laura Esquivel on Mexico, Ishmael Reed on Oakland, and Myla Goldberg on Prague. Ed.] Linda M. Kaufmann, Massachusetts Coll. of Liberal Arts Lib., North Adam.
- Linda M. Kaufmann, Massachusetts Coll. of Liberal Arts Lib., North Adams
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
DURING CARNIVAL JACMEL is not a town or a city. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars This poignant narrative will mesmerize readers, Oct 29 2002
By 
Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti (Hardcover)
You are given a challenge that harkens back to your childhood ---return to carnival and write about it. You think about the consequences, and perhaps second guess yourself for allowing someone to even suggest going back to deal with the demons that sent you packing in the first place. Such is the case that the author contemplates in this installment of The Crown Journeys, a new series that has authors writing about different places around the world after traveling them on foot.

While acquiescing and taking the walk that spawned this book, Edwidge Danticat doesn't disappoint. In recent years she has fast become a media darling and one of Haiti's rising stars in literature. Here she shares with her readers a poignant and compelling view of the Jacmel Carnival, one of the Caribbean's major carnivals --- rivaled with and compared only to Rio and Trinidad. She gives insight and deep-rooted analogies of historic content, exploration of the land in and around her hometown of Jacmel, and the traditions of the people themselves as a true native would tell it.

The old adage of "there's no place like home" will always have a sense of purpose when coming back, and relative to the aforementioned, Ms Danticat gives the readers something to digest. Along the way she visits a cemetery and reveals what she thinks of them: ï¿I have always enjoyed cemeteries. Altars for the living as well as resting places for the dead they are entryways, I think to any town or cityï¿the best places to become acquainted with the tastes of the inhabitants, both present and goneï¿.

She also references Jacmelï¿s uneven history via the landmarks she remembered as a child; gives a detailed explanation of how the masks and costumes play a major role based on age-old fables; and revisits the hills and rainforests with stories supporting political drama(s) relative thereof. The customs, social life, and other ménage of experiences associated with carnival represents an expressive attitude that inspires the people of this proud nation a reason to shun struggle, forget present troubles and escape to the wild hedonistic, but sexual suggestive party that bring out carnal knowledge at its best.

The one thing that got my interest early on in this narrative is the fact that she was scared off from celebrating the rituals associated with this celebration by a family member. How she has dealt with it over the years --- and the decision to face this challenge is worthy reading. In the process sheï¿s able to rediscover herself and shed inhibitions in embracing this festive time. Witness the reckless abandon as she describes the freedom she now can express without remorse. I feel that readers will feel as mesmerized as I was --- and feel as if you were there too.

--- Reviewed by Alvin C. Romer

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4.0 out of 5 stars A good read., Oct 25 2002
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This review is from: After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti (Hardcover)
It's always refreshing to read about the Caribbean, especially when it involves carnival and when the recount is being done by such a great writer. I must say that at times I felt like screaming that this woman really does not know how to let loose and really enjoy carnival. Just imagine if she were in Trinidad instead playing j'ouvert, and doing carnival for 2 days straight!! Nevertheless, I liked the fact that she paid careful attention to detail and incorporated much historical content into the novel.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Things are better now in Haiti., Sep 17 2002
By 
Stephen Richmond "Librarian/Teacher/Reader an... (Newton, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti (Hardcover)
Until this short, entertaining book, part memoir and part travelogue, I'd never read much of anything positive about Haiti. Years of political strife and the Duvalier dictatorships have certainly taken its toll on this densely populated third of Hispaniola (the rest is the Dominican Republic), but apparently Haiti is ready for tourists again and there's much to attact us there. Carnival, those jubilant and reckless days before Lent, would be a grand time to go. Like similar celebrations in Rio, Venice, and New Orleans, this a festival of the bizarre and the ridiculously sublime. Danticat is a fine writer and portrays her native country and countrymen with clarity and passion. This is part of Crown Journeys, a very promising new series of travel essays, written by some of our finest contemporary authors. Educating and entertaining; makes you want to book passage on the next flight or ship.
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