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Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou and Civil Strife in Haiti | 
 enlarge | Author: Kathie Klarreich
Publisher: Nation Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $2.95
You Save: $13.00 (82%)
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Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 599035
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1560257806
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9781560257806
ASIN: 1560257806
Publication Date: August 22, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Civil violence mass slaughter, coups, and U.S. intervention: Kathie Klarriech saw all this up close and on a daily basis as a reporter in Haiti. Often risking life and limb, mistaken for a CIA agent, losing a man she loved to an assassin s bullet she tenaciously soldiered on, establishing credentials and contacts, and developed an unsparing eye that led major news organizations such as the New York Times, NBC, CNN, PBS, Time and NPR to count on her expertise throughout Haiti s turbulent years. This compelling memoir interweaves shattering political events with an intensely personal narrative about the Haitian musician she eventually marries (and has a child with) who turns out to be as riveting and complicated as the political events she covered.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 So beautiful, so engrossing, and I learned so much about my people ... October 28, 2005
C. Jeanfrancois (New York, NY)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I work at the publishing company that published Madame Dread. I myself am Haitian (although very Americanized) and was naturally interested in reading it. I have to say that I absolutely fell in love with it! First of all, the cover of the book, I feel, accurately represents everything that is both beautiful and unique about Haiti. Secondly, I loved every word of it and it was so very hard for me to put down. Seeing my people and my culture through the eyes of someone new to it was both refreshing and educational. Not only did I (finally) learn some of its history, I also learned a lot of other things.
Things that I associated with only my family seem to be prominent among the people of Haiti, like calling a woman Madame with the name of her husband. And I've always noticed that Haitians like to assume things about other people rather than ask them directly (Klarreich mentioned this somewhere in the first half of the book). But of course, there was so much more to learn from it.
I thanked Klarreich for writing such beautiful words about a country and a people I never took the time to really know BECAUSE it was all I knew (does that make sense?).
I enjoyed the book so much that I had to express what it means to me. I've been to Haiti a few times. The last time I was there was about ten years ago and I so enjoyed myself while there. Madame Dread has made me long for that experience again.
Trust me: you will be so engrossed in the author's life in Haiti as I was.
I did not know what I did not know August 22, 2005
Barbara Jean Raskin (Gainesville, Florida)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I could not put this book down! From the very first page Kathie Klarreich grabbed me and made me want to see what Haiti was all about.
This intimate account of the author's personal and professional growth during the horrible political times in Haiti during the 1990's made me realize how much I did not know about Haiti. Having lived in Miami and experienced the influx of Haitians who were fleeing the oppression of that country's political struggles, I knew from them that it was a horrible place to live. Klarreich, someone with a similar background and upbringing as myself, telling of her life experiences taught me more about the wonderful cultural parts of the Haitian people. Much to her Jewish mother's dismay, Klarreich allowed herself to be open to experience the culture and spiritual beliefs that were vastly different from her upbringing. This was incredibly enlightening to me, one with a similar family background. I realized that even though I grew up in the ever increasing multi-ethnic Miami and have Haitian friends and own Haitian art and eat Haitian food, I did not know what I did not know. Through Klarreich's book, I was introduced to the people who are still struggling to live in Haiti on a daily basis, which is very different from the people who live in Miami or the politicians we see on the nightly news.
While learning about Haiti, it was also wonderful to watch Klarreich develop in her new profession as a journalist. Her feet were to the fire in "OJT" like few ever experience...and while learning her new profession she also fell in love and became a mother. Amazing how much this woman handles at once, in this thrilling, gripping story.
This book is a must read. The writing style is wonderfully engaging and so vivid I feel as though I have been to Haiti, lived among the people, fallen in love, had a baby, learned a new culture and become a journalist!
I look forward to Klarreich's future books.
Stirring adventure story September 4, 2005
Michael Tarr (Malaga, Spain)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a book that fulfils several roles. While not a textbook or primer, it serves as a great introduction to the western hemisphere’s most perplexing and most African country, and manages to avoid all the cliches. It is packed with fascinating detail, color and insights for those like me who have been closely following the tortuous and tragic path Haiti has taken since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986. Most of all, it is an exciting tale about a young and averagely naive American woman who extraordinarily chooses to set herself down in this raw, half-formed nation at the one of the most turbulent moments in its 200-year history, and then sticks it out, has some amazing adventures, starts to connect in all sorts of ways, is gradually transformed and finds a constructive role to play. Her Vodou experiences in particular are not to be missed. [Full disclosure: I know Klarreich quite well and make a few walk-on appearances in the book.]
 Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou and Civil Strife in Haiti September 29, 2005
Anemone
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I enjoyed the book very much because I was an eye-witness to some of the situations described in the book, having lived in Haiti on and off during the years that are being recalled by the Author. Through her eyes, I relive some of the same events I have lived through, making it a testimony to a volatile time in Haiti, rich in history and political intrigue that makes for good reading. On the down side, the author talks too much about her private life to my liking, I do give her credit for pouring out her heart, her emotions, but revealing personal aspects of her life that I think she should have kept to herself.
Adventurous, Genuine, Moving... September 29, 2005
Tiffany Zientz (Miami Beach, FL USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Kathie Klarreich's memoir of her life in Haiti is a vivid and authentic story that left me with, for the first time, a true understanding of why modern Haiti is the way it is. Her book provides a framework in which to absorb the culture, the people, the vodou, the violence... all of it... just like she did. So much of her writing resonated viscerally with me too. When she was scared, I was scared. When she was in awe, I was too. The writing is THAT GOOD! Madame Dread also provided me with a new awareness about Haiti that makes me want to read everything I see about it (because now I feel like I actually know the players and their motivations). I was so happy to see that Kathie also has a website - www.madamedread.com - where she posts links to some of her recent articles about Haiti. I have always wanted to have a real adventure in a foreign land... to take a risk... do something that no one I know would imagine I would ever do... But I never had the courage. Reading Kathie's book made me feel like I was able to experience that kind of incredible adventure. Read it!
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