CSMS Magazine Staff Writers
It is this time again to offer our vibrant readers the reading list for this summer. Needless to say that reading plays a pivotal role in empowering individuals with knowledge. In this magazine, we put great emphasis on literary activities, and promoting promising authors is one of the things we do. We always recognize our masterpieces through critically acclaimed chef-d’oeuvres accomplished by our pioneers, and among those pioneers and at the center of it all, we honor immortal authors like Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Jacques Stephen Alexis, Antenor Firmin etc… So, keep reading.
Here is the new list:
It Took My Breath Away by Andrew Robbins
Alicia Maldonado: A Mother Lost by Ardain Isma
Wondering Star by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
Dance On the Volcano by Marie Vieux-Chauvet
Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy by Marie Vieux-Chauvet (highly recommended)
The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marques
Master of the Crossroad by Madison Smart Bell
Un Jour Tes Pantoufles par Jeanie Bogart (In French)
The Farming of Bones by Edwige Danticat
Below is an excerpt of the synopsis for Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy
Available in English for the first time, Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s stunning trilogy of novellas is a remarkable literary event. In a brilliant translation by Rose … Available in English for the first time, Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s stunning trilogy of novellas is a remarkable literary event. In a brilliant translation by Rose-Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokur, Love, Anger, Madness is a scathing response to the struggles of race, class, and sex that have ruled Haiti. Suppressed upon its initial publication in 1968, this major work became an underground classic and was finally released in an authorized edition in France in 2005.
In Love, Anger, Madness, Marie Vieux-Chauvet offers three slices of life under an oppressive regime. Gradually building in emotional intensity, the novellas paint a shocking portrait of families and artists struggling to survive under Haiti’s terrifying government restrictions that have turned its society upside down, transforming neighbors into victims, spies, and enemies.
In “Love,” Claire is the eldest of three sisters who occupy a single house. Her dark skin and unmarried status make her a virtual servant to the rest of the family. Consumed by an intense passion for her brother-in-law, she finds redemption in a criminal act of rebellion.
In “Anger,” a middle-class family is ripped apart when twenty-year-old Rose is forced to sleep with a repulsive soldier in order to prevent a government takeover of her father’s land.
And in “Madness,” Rene, a young poet, finds himself trapped in a house for days without food, obsessed with the souls of the dead, dreading the invasion of local military thugs, and steeling himself for one final stand against authority.
Sympathetic, savage and truly compelling with an insightful introduction by Edwidge Danticat, ” “Love, Anger, Madness is an extraordinary, brave and graphic evocation of a country in turmoil.
