Yanick Lahens
Author of Moonbath
About the Author
Image credit: Yanick Lahens © Peter Jülich
Works by Yanick Lahens
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Lahens, Yanick
- Birthdate
- 1953-12-22
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France
- Occupations
- Professeur (Littérature)
Ecrivain - Organizations
- Ecole normale supérieure, Haïti
- Awards and honors
- Officier des Arts et des Lettres, France (2014)
- Short biography
- Yanick Lahens (née le 22 décembre 1953 à Port-au-Prince en Haïti) est une écrivaine haïtienne.
Après des études à l'université Paris-Sorbonne , Elle rentre à Haïti à Port-au-Prince ou elle enseigne la littérature et fait de la radio avant de partager son temps entre l’écriture et le développement social et culturel de son pays.
Elle a mis sur pied en 2008 une fondation pour des actions plus ciblées auprès des jeunes, soutient et accompagne des initiatives culturelles (bibliothèques et associations) en Haïti.
Grande figure de la littérature haïtienne, Yanick Lahens brosse sans complaisance le
tableau de la réalité caribéenne dans chacun de ses livres. Elle est l’auteure de
nouvelles, de romans et de travaux critiques sur la littérature et la société haïtiennes dans des revues haïtiennes et étrangères.
Récipendiaire de plusieurs prix, ses livres sont traduits en anglais, en allemand, en italien, en portugais, en japonais. en norvégien et en espagnol.
Elle a été distinguée par le ministère des Affaires étrangères d’Haïti ainsi que par l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie en 2014 et décorée comme
Officier des Arts et des Lettres par la France en 2014. - Nationality
- Haiti
- Birthplace
- Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- Places of residence
- Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- Map Location
- Haiti
Members
Reviews
I wanted to read this book mainly because I saw that Russell Banks had written an introduction for it. If he thought that much of it, it must be good . I hadn’t heard of Yanick Lahens, and I knew nothing about the book, except that it was set in Haiti during the Duvalier years.
It turned out to be a great book. Here’s my experience of reading it.
Lahens does give you an experience, not just a story. What I mean by that is that she manages to embed her story inside a much bigger picture of show more the history of Haiti, the culture of a small Haitian village, and the feel of living in a world where power is something you can only reckon with, but never wield.
She follows a family in the village of Anse Bleue through several generations. The narrator, Cétoute Florival, tells her story, interspersed with the story of three generations before her — her father, Dieudonné Dorival, Dieudonné’s mother, Olmène Dorival, and father, Tertulien Mésidor, and Olmène’s father, Orvil Clémestal. All is set against the background of Haitian history, in particular, the Duvalier era and its fall in 1986.
Life in Anse Bleue is small village life, distant on a day to day level from the politics and life of the big cities, like Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien. The villagers’ world is populated with spirits and gods, and with offerings and considerations for their favor suffusing everyday life. But the villagers’ lives are subject to huge forces outside of their control — a bigger world of wealth and power always wielded by others, out of their reach.
The people of Anse Bleue have no voice in that bigger world. Orvil, the leader of the village, knows that. He does his best for his village, but he knows that he is powerless on the bigger scale. And that bigger scale will have its due — Anse Bleue may have no voice in the politics of Haiti, but it suffers the consequences.
Duvalier, like all the forces of wealth and power in Haiti, creates a dividing line for people like those of Anse Bleue. Jumping over the divide, to ride with those forces, as Orvil’s son, Fénelon does, has rewards — it’s an escape from day to day survival. But it means parting ways with the morals and the community you grew up with.
It’s a temptation, a bargain with the devil. People usually regret those. But not making the bargain still means suffering the oppressions and the vulnerability of day to day survival.
The generations in Lahens’ story make their choices about how to relate themselves to the powers that loom over them. Fénelon makes that deal with the devil, allying himself with Duvalier’s thugs. His sister Olmène makes her own deal, bearing her children with a relatively wealthy traditional family, the Mésidors. Lahens describes Olmène’s thoughts toward the man who would become the father of her children — “In her there was neither fear nor desire nor hate, but the expectations of a young sixteen-year-old peasant to whom a man was going to offer a roof that wouldn’t leak, children he would take care of, who would eat every day.”
You get the picture of a people, the villagers, living with a gap above them, separating them from a better life, with the gap bridgeable by one of these bargains — moral bargains and big life risks. Cétoute’s father, Dieudonné, has the makings of someone who will not make that bargain, and you want him not to, but getting across the gap is so much harder without it.
Cétoute herself makes her own reckoning, and we only really find out about it and what the consequences are at the end of the story.
As I read the book, I really did feel like I was getting an experience of Anse Bleue. I couldn’t help but feel a kind of wistful attraction to life among the spirits and gods in the village. But its poverty and vulnerability are so apparent and so oppressive. You can fight the good fight for everyday survival. Or you can strike your bargain, pay the price of all you will lose, and just hope it doesn’t turn back hard against you.
You would like to ally yourself with the people who resist the bargain, but it’s much easier to do that when it isn’t real. Lahens makes it real enough that it’s not so simple to see what to do.
At the same time that I saw these big themes of power and oppression, the book is really about Haiti and Haitian life. I’d like to think I learned something about what it’s like to live a life there. show less
It turned out to be a great book. Here’s my experience of reading it.
Lahens does give you an experience, not just a story. What I mean by that is that she manages to embed her story inside a much bigger picture of show more the history of Haiti, the culture of a small Haitian village, and the feel of living in a world where power is something you can only reckon with, but never wield.
She follows a family in the village of Anse Bleue through several generations. The narrator, Cétoute Florival, tells her story, interspersed with the story of three generations before her — her father, Dieudonné Dorival, Dieudonné’s mother, Olmène Dorival, and father, Tertulien Mésidor, and Olmène’s father, Orvil Clémestal. All is set against the background of Haitian history, in particular, the Duvalier era and its fall in 1986.
Life in Anse Bleue is small village life, distant on a day to day level from the politics and life of the big cities, like Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien. The villagers’ world is populated with spirits and gods, and with offerings and considerations for their favor suffusing everyday life. But the villagers’ lives are subject to huge forces outside of their control — a bigger world of wealth and power always wielded by others, out of their reach.
The people of Anse Bleue have no voice in that bigger world. Orvil, the leader of the village, knows that. He does his best for his village, but he knows that he is powerless on the bigger scale. And that bigger scale will have its due — Anse Bleue may have no voice in the politics of Haiti, but it suffers the consequences.
Duvalier, like all the forces of wealth and power in Haiti, creates a dividing line for people like those of Anse Bleue. Jumping over the divide, to ride with those forces, as Orvil’s son, Fénelon does, has rewards — it’s an escape from day to day survival. But it means parting ways with the morals and the community you grew up with.
It’s a temptation, a bargain with the devil. People usually regret those. But not making the bargain still means suffering the oppressions and the vulnerability of day to day survival.
The generations in Lahens’ story make their choices about how to relate themselves to the powers that loom over them. Fénelon makes that deal with the devil, allying himself with Duvalier’s thugs. His sister Olmène makes her own deal, bearing her children with a relatively wealthy traditional family, the Mésidors. Lahens describes Olmène’s thoughts toward the man who would become the father of her children — “In her there was neither fear nor desire nor hate, but the expectations of a young sixteen-year-old peasant to whom a man was going to offer a roof that wouldn’t leak, children he would take care of, who would eat every day.”
You get the picture of a people, the villagers, living with a gap above them, separating them from a better life, with the gap bridgeable by one of these bargains — moral bargains and big life risks. Cétoute’s father, Dieudonné, has the makings of someone who will not make that bargain, and you want him not to, but getting across the gap is so much harder without it.
Cétoute herself makes her own reckoning, and we only really find out about it and what the consequences are at the end of the story.
As I read the book, I really did feel like I was getting an experience of Anse Bleue. I couldn’t help but feel a kind of wistful attraction to life among the spirits and gods in the village. But its poverty and vulnerability are so apparent and so oppressive. You can fight the good fight for everyday survival. Or you can strike your bargain, pay the price of all you will lose, and just hope it doesn’t turn back hard against you.
You would like to ally yourself with the people who resist the bargain, but it’s much easier to do that when it isn’t real. Lahens makes it real enough that it’s not so simple to see what to do.
At the same time that I saw these big themes of power and oppression, the book is really about Haiti and Haitian life. I’d like to think I learned something about what it’s like to live a life there. show less
I didn't love this. I didn't really like the constant shifting between 1st and 3rd person, although I did appreciate the author trying something new. Just didn't work for me.
A multigenerational story of the LaFleur/Clémestal/Dorival family, and the Mésidors they have been feuding with for generations.
I liked this book, it fits into Haitian history and I learned more reading this right after [book:Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy|6035374]. It also had some holes though, and I am not 100% clear on exactly what happened (and why) to the woman who washed up on the beach. Also, the Glossary is sloppy--words have asterisks in the text but are not in the show more glossary, or they are spelled slightly differaently. This has nothing to do with the author, this is on the publisher.
———
Orvil Clémestal is the head of their lakou, and he looks back to the franginen ancestor and to the lwas for advice. He is a good man, a hard worker who fulfills his duties. But Haiti is changing, and his children have chosen different paths. One son has left the country to work. One son joined Duvalier's regime. Their daughter, after having a son by a much-older Mésidor, goes to the Dominican Republic to work. People are hungry, drought is bad, the rich get richer, who will take over Orvil's position?
Meanwhile, a woman has washed up on the beach in a Haitian town. She tells the second half of the story. Don't read the back of the book though! It gives away her identity. show less
I liked this book, it fits into Haitian history and I learned more reading this right after [book:Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy|6035374]. It also had some holes though, and I am not 100% clear on exactly what happened (and why) to the woman who washed up on the beach. Also, the Glossary is sloppy--words have asterisks in the text but are not in the show more glossary, or they are spelled slightly differaently. This has nothing to do with the author, this is on the publisher.
———
Orvil Clémestal is the head of their lakou, and he looks back to the franginen ancestor and to the lwas for advice. He is a good man, a hard worker who fulfills his duties. But Haiti is changing, and his children have chosen different paths. One son has left the country to work. One son joined Duvalier's regime. Their daughter, after having a son by a much-older Mésidor, goes to the Dominican Republic to work. People are hungry, drought is bad, the rich get richer, who will take over Orvil's position?
Meanwhile, a woman has washed up on the beach in a Haitian town. She tells the second half of the story. Don't read the back of the book though! It gives away her identity. show less
I really enjoyed reading this. I find Lahens stronger as an essayist than a fiction writer. Besides being a chronicle of post-earthquake Port-au-Prince, I like the text also follows Lahens' own writing process.
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Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 183
- Popularity
- #118,258
- Rating
- 3.3
- Reviews
- 9
- ISBNs
- 45
- Languages
- 5
