- Hardcover: 281 pages
- Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre / Not Applicable (1000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 080903719X
- ISBN-13: 978-0809037193
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#767,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15 in Books > History > Americas > Caribbean & West Indies > Dominican Republic
- #76 in Books > History > Americas > Caribbean & West Indies > Haiti
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
The Caribbean island of Hispaniola is home to historic, ongoing strife between two countries deeply divided by race, language, and history yet forced constantly into confrontation by their shared geography. In her first book, American journalist Michele Wucker reports from both Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the complex relations between these two cultures and sheds light on the sources of their struggles both in their island home and in the United States.
This book is charged from the start with the violence and posturing of blood sport, as Wucker observes her first Haitian cockfight: "The air cracks with the impact of stiffened feathers as each bird tries to push the other to the ground. Around the ring, the Haitian men shout to one another and wave dirty wads of gourdes in the air, seeking bets.... Soon, the feathers of both cocks are slick with blood." Popular in both countries, these fights become a totemic image for the author, who finds in them, as in the many clashes between Hispaniola's two cultures, "both division and community, opposite sides of the same coin." This is a fine historical primer, buoyed along by Wucker's graceful, observant prose style. --Maria Dolan
From Publishers Weekly
The U.S. has sent troops to Haiti and the Dominican Republic four times in this century, twice to each country. In the last 20 years, reports Wucker, one-eighth of the population of the island of Hispaniola has emigrated to the U.S. Wucker, a freelance journalist, delves much deeper than mere numbers and chronology, supplementing her knowledge of the island's history with a great sense of the fabric of everyday life in the two countries. While each chapter is discrete enough to stand alone, cumulatively they create a passionate mural of the often bloody relationship between wary neighbors. Among the critical issues and events Wucker addresses are the role of geography as a barrier, European settlement, slave revolts, the role of the sugar industry and the experience of Dominican and Haitian immigrants in the U.S. Wucker's treatment of Dominican racism toward Haitians is particularly good, capturing the nuance and ambivalence at work when two peoples who are not nearly as different as they would sometimes like to believe are stuck together on a small piece of land with limited resources. Throughout the book, Wucker uses the metaphor of cockfighting, presenting the countries as two roosters forced (sometimes by the U.S.) to battle in a small, enclosed ring. If she relies a bit too heavily on this trope, Wucker more than makes up for the minor indulgence with her insightful treatment of many cultural issues, particularly the politicized nature of language, to which she brings an understanding of Creole, Spanish and French. Clear prose and vivid scenes of life at street level make Wucker's first book a marvelous immersion experience in the clash and conciliation of cultures on a small, embattled island next door. (Jan.) FYI: Why the Cocks Fight makes good companion reading to Edwidge Danticat's novel, The Farming of Bones (Forecasts, June 8.)
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Dangling his dead rooster by its feet, a grizzled cockfighter shuffles out the gate of the Manoguayabo cockfighting club through the parking lot, past a row of obsolete but still working hulks of cars, decrepit versions of old Russian models and American gas-guzzlers. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Dangling his dead rooster by its feet, a grizzled cockfighter shuffles out the gate of the Manoguayabo cockfighting club through the parking lot, past a row of obsolete but still working hulks of cars, decrepit versions of old Russian models and American gas-guzzlers. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Almost,
By
This review is from: Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola (Hardcover)
We've needed a book that addresses Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the context of one another. Both keep cropping up in the news, and both keep trying to tear chunks out of each other. A meaningful study of the two nations together would make all the difference in the world in sorting out the important issues. But this isn't that book.Oh, it's informative. It's also very close to being up to date, having been published in 1999. Wucker, who has written for Dominican newspapers in the U.S., knows whereof she speaks. But this book doesn't really treat both nations. There's a great deal on the Dominican Republic. The convoluted history of the nation in the Twentieth Century has never been so eloquently explicated. It's a history of shifting alliances, powerful people, anger, justice, injustice, and more. And every bit of it helps in understanding the ins and outs of why so many Dominicans are coming to America and why we should care. But Haiti glides by under the radar screen. Most of the material about Haiti in this book is actually about Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. The political information on Haiti seems to come almost entirely out of history books. Wucker travelled extensively in the Dominican Republic, but to judge by the contents of this book, she may have made one or two day trips across the border into Haiti, that's it. Striking the balance between Dominican and Haitian issues is difficult, both on Hispaniola and in studies thereof. Ms. Wucker has tried to do so, and she's to be commended for that. Indeed, she's come closer to succeeding than anyone else in recent memory. However, this book is almost entirely one-sided, and just can't quite make the leap into usefulness.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written and informative,
By
This review is from: Why The Cocks Fight (Paperback)
This book is more about the Dominican Republic and the Dominican relationship to Haiti than it is about Haiti. Being quite familiar with Haiti and having considerably less knowledge of its neighbor, I found it quite informative. Best of all, it's not academic writing. It's an easy read, quite accessible. I recommend it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and informative prose on race in Hispaniola,
By Deni Taveras (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Why The Cocks Fight (Paperback)
As a Dominican-American with first hand experience in both worlds, I have to congratulate Michele on this great book! (My respect for Rice graduates continues to grow! :)) Her voice comes through with sincerity, beauty, respect, and truth. This book is a great read for anyone Dominican or otherwise who has the courage to face the subtle reality that is racial and political dynamics in the Hispanola and its relation with the US. It saddens and embarrasses me deeply, to read (whether it is on this board, the NY Times or the Washington Post) how certain Dominicans continue to deny and even supress their own perceptions of race and its potential impact on political dynamics in the US, Europe and the island. It would be great if we as Dominicans could truly learn to love all of our racial roots. The world would be a better, more egalitarian, place to live. PEACE
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