By Maryse Isma
CSMS Magazine
It’s been some time since the last time I picked up my pen, sitting down to write up a piece for CSMS Magazine. Since the release of Midnight at Noon, I have been busy working on projects relating to my field of study: Sociology. I never felt the urge to hurry and grab the book because most of it, if not every line of it, was written right in this room as the sun goes down and nightfall makes its spectacular entry. He may disagree, I know this man for most of my life. I snore on his back as he writes, oblivious to my snoring, he would tell me the next morning.
Even when we go out on vacation, he doesn’t seem to walk away from his pen, and he would read aloud every exotic thought that springs out of his impeccable imagination. Consequently, I postpone reading the book because I thought I knew it all, until few weeks ago, on a trip to Atlanta, I started to read it formally. My gosh! How much would I have missed if I didn’t start? By the time we reach the heart of Atlanta, I had already read about a third of Midnight. Few times during our stay in Atlanta, we quarreled because I wanted more space to keep on reading. All of a sudden, he became the unwanted intruder, intruding my beautiful mind.
I read Midnight at Noon from cover to cover, and when I thought I was the only one who was hooked, I was astonished to hear wonderful testimonies from folks who have already read the book. In Miami, where we were over the weekend for the FFLA (Florida Foreign Language Association) conference, several individuals testified their love for Midnight and for Haiti after reading the book. A tall man, well-articulated, walked towards us in the middle a banquet hall inside the Miami Hilton to shake my husband’s hand. He displayed a mix feeling of joy and sadness, for the story was over. “I commend you Dr. Isma for this beautifully written book which opens my eyes to a lot of things I didn’t know before, especially with regards to Haiti and other nations in the world going through the same thing Haiti has been going through,” the gentleman said. He went on to urge my husband into writing a sequel.
I’m not sure if that could be done. How does one write a sequel for such a compelling story like Midnight? The truth is that the history of Haiti is in itself an open-ended continuum—an unchanged narrative that Midnight seeks to influence for the good not just of the Haitian people, but also for the good of the disenfranchised of this earth. Marie Vernon, book reviewer for the Saint Augustine Record sums her review of Midnight in these awesome remarks. “This is not a story with a happy ending — the disheartening truth is that the pattern of revolution, sometimes successful, sometimes a failure, repeats itself. While “Midnight at Noon” is set in Haiti, it is a story being repeated throughout other regions of the world, with consequences yet to be determined.” (The Saint Augustine Record, Sunday October 19, 2014) Midnight at Noon is in fact a good read.
Note: Maryse Isma is sociologist. She lives and works in north Saint Johns County, suburban Jacksonville, Florida. She is also a contributor to CSMS Magazine. She may be reached at [email protected] To purchase a copy, here is the link: Midnight at Noon
