![]() The novel opens not within but outside its confines during the 2010 earthquake. Global, hemispheric, national, communal, and individual histories converge there. Most of the story is set in Fleur-de-Chêne, the bourgeois Bernier family's courtyard in Port-au-Prince. Haiti is the world in Kettly Mars' novel, translated from the original French into English by Nathan H. But there aremoments of humour and the author provided an ending that gave me hope for my favourite characters. ![]() It seems odd to admit I had so much fun reading a novel that tackles sombre storylines related to colonialism and imperialism, intergenerational trauma, the patriarchy, disability, queerness, and race and class in Haiti. I Am Alive is my first favourite for 2023. Since about 2010 she works on an anthology on literature that was written in the 18th, 19th and 20th century by Haitian women. Her work is characterized by a vivid realistic reflection of the society. In 2003 her first novel appeared, called Kasalé since then more novels followed. She makes combinations between for instance gender, human race, social class, spirituality, power and violence. Her novels are situated in Haiti, although her themes are rather universal. Initially she wrote on the importance of love, the human body and sexuality in everyday life. Since she was young she has been fascinated by poetry and around her age of thirty five years she began to write poems herself. ![]() She studied classical languages and worked the first twenty five years of her career as an office worker. Mars was born on September 3, 1958, in Port-au-Prince. She writes in French, and her books have been translated in English, Italian, Dutch, Danish, and Japanese. Kettly Mars is a Haitian poet and novelist. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |