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Carnival is one of the defining events of the Haitian year, and nowhere is it celebrated with more verve than in the seaside town of Jacmel. A beautifully-written homage to the carnival, the book spins out in multiple directions, telling stories, and full of descriptive imagery. Instead, we get snatches and tidbits of histories and memories, and the book is a pleasure to read. Thus, as an adult, she returns to Haiti, to Jacmel, to experience what she missed in childhoood. This is a book one should read to get a taste of Haiti. This book is an account of Danticat's trip back. The Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat never had the opportunity to attend carnival. This is quite a short book, and given all of the things the book tries to do, it doesn't do any of them completely.
This is a travel essay, but at the same time, it's so much more. After the dance is a travel narrative, a memoir, and a history, of Haiti and of the carnival. Danticat uses Carnival and its activities as metaphors to discuss larger events and issues in her own and Haiti's past and present. It's not necessarily comprehensive, but it paints a brillaint picture.
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. How she has dealt with it over the years --- and the decision to face this challenge is worthy reading. In recent years she has fast become a media darling and one of Haiti's rising stars in literature. 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. You are given a challenge that harkens back to your childhood ---return to carnival and write about it. --- Reviewed by Alvin C. 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. She also references Jacmel�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.
Witness the reckless abandon as she describes the freedom she now can express without remorse. Along the way she visits a cemetery and reveals what she thinks of them: �I have always enjoyed cemeteries. 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. In the process she�s able to rediscover herself and shed inhibitions in embracing this festive time. 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. Altars for the living as well as resting places for the dead they are entryways, I think to any town or city�the best places to become acquainted with the tastes of the inhabitants, both present and gone�. I feel that readers will feel as mesmerized as I was --- and feel as if you were there too. Romer
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.
Like similar celebrations in Rio, Venice, and New Orleans, this a festival of the bizarre and the ridiculously sublime. Until this short, entertaining book, part memoir and part travelogue, I'd never read much of anything positive about Haiti. Danticat is a fine writer and portrays her native country and countrymen with clarity and passion. 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. 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.
"After the Dance" champions the day to day experiences, joys, and challenges of people of African ancestry as they celebrate Carnival in Haiti. "After the Dance" by Edwidge Danticat, is a celebration of the beauty, history and power of African culture in the diaspora of Haiti. Edwidge Danticat's writings stand on the shoulders of great writers such as Zora Neal Hurston, Langston Hughes and Walter Mosley. By accurately telling their story in "After the Danice", Edwidge Danticat paints a multi-sided portait of a community in transition, and as with any great writer, the truth she speaks about one community , informs our understanding of all communities. "After the Dance" is an excellent work by an excellent writer.
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