- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Orchard Books (Sep 1 1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0531054594
- ISBN-13: 978-0531054598
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.7 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,183,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This arresting first novel presents a powerful fictional portrait of the poverty and oppression in contemporary Haiti. Seventeen-year-old Djo, one of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's bodyguards, has been badly beaten by the macoutes , violent members of Duvalier's private army. While Djo is recovering in the hospital, Fr. Aristide convinces him to dictate his life story to a girl scribe named Jeremie. Djo reveals the key events of his childhood in brutally vivid detail: he left home early because his mother had too many mouths to feed; he taught reading to younger boys at Aristide's shelter; he was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a sugar cane worker. In the person of Djo, Temple has successfully created a martyr for the people. His narrative contains a smattering of social and political insights as well as excerpts from Aristide's motivational writings and speeches. Djo's and Jeremie's dialect is never cumbersome for the reader--a glossary appears at the end of the book--and lends authenticity to their accounts. Djo's extraordinary experiences and circumstances shed harsh light on a people in crisis. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-- Haiti is the setting for this novel of two young people whose growth toward matu rity mirrors the same process taking place in their volatile country. Based on real incidents and people, it is the fascinating story of fiction al Djo, one of Aristide's boys, street urchins whom the priest gathered together to give an opportunity for a different life and a chance at an education. Jeremie is a young woman edu cated at a convent school, the only way out of the slums into which she was born. They meet at Djo's hospital bedside where he is near death from a beating at the hands of the Tonton Ma coute, the deposed Duvalier's private army of thugs; she is responsible for getting Djo's story on tape. While he is in a coma, she writes her own story. Both of their accounts are full of the grim realities of life in modern Haiti, complete with the sense of hopefulness and helplessness that must fill a country in which politics are a deadly game. Dialect is used throughout, but it is readable, lyrical, and adds authenticity to the narrative. Factual material is integrated ex tremely well; no background knowledge is needed to become caught up in the drama of the many in this embattled land as related through the eyes of two compelling characters. An excellent first effort. --Kathryn Havris, Mesa Pub . Lib . , AZ
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
It is not quiet, here in this make-do hospital, but it is peaceful. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
It is not quiet, here in this make-do hospital, but it is peaceful. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
If You've Been to Haiti, You Know The Truth,
By A Customer
This review is from: Taste Of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti (Mass Market Paperback)
And, Temple tells it wonderfully! She writes english with the Creole (Kreyol) feel of putting words together, and the research was dead on. I have stood outside of the burned out St. John Bosco, I have walked and worked in Cité Soleil. This book made me cry, and oh so "homesick" for a country that I only met 4 years ago!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The sad story of Haiti continues,
By
This review is from: Taste Of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti (Mass Market Paperback)
I'm reading this book because it is on The Battle of the Books list in Scottsdale AZ. Students read books and answer questions in a "Jeopardy" type contest, and I always read along with my grandchildren. I am very happy that this book is on the list for 7-8 graders. A Taste of Salt refers to the key to releasing zombies, and in this book reading is the taste of salt for the lost boys of Port-au-Prince, as they are rescued by Father Aristede. Djo, a leader of the boys, lays dying in the hospital as his story is recorded by Jeremie, a convent-raised young woman sent by Aristede. Djo was kidnapped by government troops to work in the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic (I'll always think of Djo and the cane cutters when I buy sugar) and his years there are terrible. I looked on Human Rights Watch website and found that there are 500,000 Haitians still working in the cane fields in deplorable conditions. "Father" Titid is now married, president of Haiti, and perpetuating the same dreadful oppression upon the people which he formerly preached against. A revolution gone wrong, as they often do, but an important and touching story of the strength of young people.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Must Read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Taste Of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti (Mass Market Paperback)
Taste of Salt, by Frances Temple is the best book I have read yet. This book teaches you how life is special. The book has emotion, love, happiness, loneliness, and a lot more real feelings people have. The best part is the writer is very graphic in her writing, you almost feel like you were there. The whole book is interesting, you never get tired of reading it. I think Taste of Salt can touch many people in different ways.
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