Although I am sure I missed a lot of important points due to my lack of Spanish vocabulary, I think I got the gist of things. I would definitely enjoy the English version of the book seeing that I wouldn’t always be pausing to look up a word. From what I did understand, I found to be extremely discouraging and depressing.
Poor Ti Noel, even though the French are no longer in power, his people still suffer. Ti Noel had such high hopes for the future and for Haiti. I would have thought that the end would have been a happy one but it really wasn’t. Things are still the shits and now it is their own people who are exploiting the poor and defenseless Haitians, sexually assaulting them, and beating them.
Ti Noel is a witness to all this pain and suffering. After his escape he returns to Haiti as a free man. His people are being taken advantage of by a corrupt regime full of false promises and people who have no real intention of bettering the lives of those who suffered so greatly under the power of the French. This Christophe guy really pisses me off…
It’s such a same that there continues to be a great divide in Haiti between the rich and the poor. Few are very well off while so many are starving and unemployed. It is nearly impossible to read this book, especially the end, and not reflect on the things going on in the world today.
I hope the people of Haiti are still able to see “lo maravilloso” as something that exists in their world and not only something that is used to describe or narrate it. I hope that the world is able to see it too, as people from around the globe help to rebuild Haiti. I wonder what the characters of this book would say if they could see Haiti now? If I learned anything from this book, it’s that the people of Haiti are fighters, and I am confident that they will once again rise and battle for there people.
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