After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti (Crown Journeys)

While acquiescing and taking the walk that spawned this book, Edwidge Danticat doesn't disappoint. In recent years she has fast become a media darling and one of Haiti's rising stars in literature. 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. 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. Along the way she visits a cemetery and reveals what she thinks of them: yI have always enjoyed cemeteries. Altars for the living as well as resting places for the dead they are entryways, I think to any town or cityythe best places to become acquainted with the tastes of the inhabitants, both present and goney.

She also references Jacmelys 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. The customs, social life, and other menage 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. How she has dealt with it over the years --- and the decision to face this challenge is worthy reading. In the process sheys able to rediscover herself and shed inhibitions in embracing this festive time. Witness the reckless abandon as she describes the freedom she now can express without remorse. I feel that readers will feel as mesmerized as I was --- and feel as if you were there too.

--- Reviewed by Alvin C. Romer


Things are better now in Haiti.   September 17, 2002
Stephen Richmond (Belfast, Maine)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Until this short, entertaining book, part memoir and part travelogue, I'd never read much of anything positive about Haiti. 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. Like similar celebrations in Rio, Venice, and New Orleans, this a festival of the bizarre and the ridiculously sublime. Danticat is a fine writer and portrays her native country and countrymen with clarity and passion. 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.


A good read.   October 26, 2002
maya@JOUVAY.COM (California, USA)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful

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.


A Sensory Experience   October 5, 2008
LH422 (Washington, USA)
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. The Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat never had the opportunity to attend carnival. Thus, as an adult, she returns to Haiti, to Jacmel, to experience what she missed in childhoood. This book is an account of Danticat's trip back. 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. A beautifully-written homage to the carnival, the book spins out in multiple directions, telling stories, and full of descriptive imagery. 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. Instead, we get snatches and tidbits of histories and memories, and the book is a pleasure to read. Danticat uses Carnival and its activities as metaphors to discuss larger events and issues in her own and Haiti's past and present. This is a book one should read to get a taste of Haiti. It's not necessarily comprehensive, but it paints a brillaint picture.