The Kingdom of This World

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Summary: a job well done
Review: I received the book within three business days after I placed the initial order. I'm greatly satisfied with the condition the book arrived in. Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: The Kingdom of this World
Review: Not long after Haiti's liberation from French colonial rule, King Henri-Christophe reigned through an era of chaos, violence, superstition and socio-political upheaval.

Carpentier details the story of this era, and the eventual overthrowing of Henri-Christophe's black regime, through the narrative of slave Ti-Noel.

For me, the interesting thing about this book was the way in which Carpentier shows how the black regime failed on the same sort of grounds that caused the French regime to become corrupt, outwardly oppulent and inwardly self-destructive. I find it very reminiscent of the sort of dialogue popularized by Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" where he explains how, in an effort to overthrow an oppressive system of education (but this has to work, to some extent, for politics, culture, etc) the rebels end up instituting essentially the same sort of system---only with themselves at the top instead of bottom.

The novel also deals convincingly with issues of cultural patrimony, the occult, and obviously with historical and political scenario. As with many of his books, Carpentier combines a strong dedication to the factual or realistic history with allegory, metaphor and allusion.

The writing style is fairly dense and I did find it difficult to read the novel straight through. However, I found the read very rewarding and also enlightening.

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Summary: The best Latin-American novel of them all
Review: The Kingdom of the World is truly extraordinary, exquisitely crafted and overwhelming in its human implications. In it historical fiction and magical realism come together to produce a masterful work of art and an unforgettable story about the triumph of human dignity in the midst of destruction and senseless horror. Using as a setting one of the most bizarre episodes in history (the Haitian independence and its aftermath), Carpentier tells a mesmerizing story that reveals human beings in all their complexity, contradictions and pervesity, but also in their extraordinary power of survival and redemption. A literary masterpiece of the highest order.

Rating:
Summary: The Kingdom of This World
Review: The Kingdom of This World loosely traces the life of Ti Noel, a solitary Negro who is a slave first under the yoke of a heartless white man, then under the infinitely more brutal reign of a former Negro slave, and finally, upon attaining old age and discovering the voodoo magic that is inherent in all Haiti men, he becomes a slave to his own flesh, to the ideals of humanity, and to the artificial thoughts and designs of man.

Carpentier's writing evokes an older time, we can practically feel the sun-drenched lakes and the harsh yellow earth of Noel's homeland. The French are the masters here, they herd Negroes about as cattle, using them to build, to tend, to feed, to nurture. Unmarried French men have no problem with using a Negro woman for a 'bed-warmer', and even less with throwing her to the meanest and darkest jobs available once their marriage is secured. Uprisings are common, and carry the hint of the magical about them, but eventually, the French always seem to prevail. Until the one armed insurgent, Macandal. Using ancient magic, he poisons the French, killing hundreds in an unseen storm of death that spares no-one, not the women, not the children. When he is finally apprehended, he uses magic to escape and the Negroes laugh at the hopeless French, while the white men look on, puzzled, at the 'callous black men' laughing as their leader dies.

Noel manages to secure freedom from slavery when he is an old man, and he returns to the place where he was first a slave, where he first met Macandal, to see what has become of this place. There, King Henri Christophe, a self-proclaimed Negro king who does little more than imitate court-life of the Europeans, is building a towering citadel with the blood of other Negroes. Noel is horrified that a black man would enslave another black man, and what is worse is that the King's dealings with the slaves are much more severe and unforgiving than the white men ever were. It is here that a mirror is placed up to the Negroes, Noel does not like what he sees.

The writing is very illustrative; scenes and times are painted in our mind's eyes with ease. The narrator manages to place himself very far away from the narration, unwilling to pass judgment on either the black men or the white, instead reserving this to the reader. Noel himself is never used as a mere mouthpiece for the author's ideas, instead he is the observer, from youth to old age, from sadness to sadness. When he discovers magic and tries to introduce himself into the animal's way of life, he does not succeed, and is instead forced to learn how to be a human living amongst humans, no matter how unfair, how violent, how short-sighted they may be.

But this distance hurts the novel, too. Since the narrator never really enters the minds and hearts of the characters, we are left with largely ambiguous motives. Also, the voodoo of the Negroes is something that was lost on me, and I was unable to ascertain whether this extensive witchcraft was used as a writing tool to display good, evil, or neither. The shortness of the novel is actually a hindrance, as too little time is spent fleshing out scenes that might benefit from it. However, in the end, this novel serves as a wonderful fable of what it is to be a man living in a world that he may not agree with, as well as illuminating some of the darker periods of history that we have experienced.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and haunting
Review: This is Magical Realism at it's best. As in Alende's The House of Spirits, magic and unearthly powers are commonplace in the world of this novel.
Dead men rise from the ashes and the reader believes this is so.

Carpentier paints a vivid portrait of colonial Haiti, depicting the racial strife and class wars that are par for the course in such a world.
The protagonist, Ti Noel, is a product of this colonial system: no longer African, but not exactly French. Where, Carpentier seems to ask, does Ti Noel beling? And to whom?

Carpentier's prose is beautiful, his images are vivid and stiking: one can picture the vast plantation, so far from the city....the row of powdered wigs on their stands...the look on Ti Noel's face when he realizes revolution does not add up to personal freedom.

A near perfect novel, Ti Noel and his story will stay with you long after you've read it.

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Summary: EXCELLENT SURREALIST TAKE ON THE HORRORS OF ENSLAVEMENT
Review: THIS NOVEL IS A FRESH AND UNIQUE APPROACH TO ILLUMINATING THE TERROR OF CULTURAL AND PHYSICAL DESTRUCTION OF A PEOPLE BY COLONIALIST ENSLAVEMENT. THE SURREALSIT EDGE PROVIDES THIS ANGLE IN A VIBRANT AND SUBTLY MOVING MANNER; ONE IS SO ENTRANCED BY THE NOVEL'S NARRATIVE VOICE THAT AN UNCANNY AWARENESS-- AND EMPATHY-- FOR THE PLIGHT OF A PEOPLE, IS INEVITABLE.