INDEX
Adam (Biblical figure), 5-6
Afterwords: Novelists on Their Novels, 33
airline flights, 115-21
Alexis, Jacques Stephen, 11-14
Allende, Isabel, 112-13
Allende, Salvador, 112
Almodóvar, Pedro, 47
Alphonse-Férère, Gérard, 49
Alvin Ailey Dance Company, 129
Amado, Jorge, 15
andaki (code), 65
Les Araignées du soir (Spiders of the Night), 68
Aristide, Jean-Bertrand, 43, 47, 48, 77, 83, 99-101, 104, 142, 164
art: dangerousness of, 8-11, 19-20, 148
and persuasion, 7-8.
See also writers
Artibonite Valley, 51-52
assassinations, 41, 46, 48, 53-58, 63, 65, 71
attachés, 77-80
bagay la (the thing) [Haitian earthquake], 168
Barthes, Roland, 15, 139, 141, 147-48
Basquiat, Jean-Michel, 127-35
To Repel Ghosts, 133-34
Toussaint L’Ouverture Versus Savonarola, 132-33
Untitled 1982, 132
Baudelaire, Charles, 60
Beauséjour, Haiti, 21-40
Belafonte, Harry, 83
Bel Air, Haiti, 7-8, 13, 170-72
Bell, Beverly, Walking on Fire, 85
Beloved (film), 84
Benoit, Patricia, 76-77, 81-84
Bible, 12
Bouckman (Boukman), 102
Breath, Eyes, Memory (Danticat), 31-35
Breton, André, 129
Brigit, Gran, 149
Bush, George W., 108
“Create Dangerously,” 13
“Jonas ou l’artiste au travail” (Jonah, or the Artist at Work), 148
Capote, Truman, 129
Carpentier, Alejo, The Kingdom of This World, 101-5
Carter, Jimmy, 141
Center for Constitutional Rights, 84
Central African Republic, 100
Le Centre d’Art, Port-au-Prince, 128, 129
Cervantes, Miguel de, 15
Cézanne, Paul, 71
Charles, Jacqueline, 146-47
Charles, Jhon, 163, 165-66, 168-70
The Charlie Rose Show (television show), 46
Ciné Club, 43-44
cinema, 43-46
Clinton, Bill, 83
Le Club de Bonne Humeur, 7-8
Colette, 11
USNS Comfort, 173
common humanity, 109-13
Cook, Mercer, 45
Corneille, Pierre, Le Cid, 6
Cortés, Hernán, 132
courage, of artists, 10, 148-49
Courage and Pain (documentary), 73-85
creation myths, 5-7
Cuba, 101-3
Dalembert, Louis Phillipe, 13
Daniels, Josephus, 64
Dannat, Adrian, 125
Danticat, Kelly, 75
Davvetas, Demosthenes, 132
Day, Edner, 13
death: and deportation, 88-93
in Egypt, 19-20
as family matter, 22-27, 31, 38-40, 88-96
last image before, 137
photography and, 139-40, 142-47
Vodou and, 134-35
writers and, 17-20
declarations of independence: American, 98
Haitian, 104
Delens (cousin’s roommate), 89-91, 94
Délira Délivrance (fictional character), 45-46
Demme, Jonathan, 42-43, 46, 50, 55, 84
The Agronomist, 52-53
Depestre, René, 9
Dessalines, Jean-Jacques, 103-4, 164
The Dew Breaker (Danticat), 11, 62
Díaz, Junot, 149
Diderot, Denis, 15
Dominican Republic, 70
Dominique, Jan J., 59, 61-66, 70-71, 159
Mémoire d’une amnésique (Memoirs of an Amnesiac), 61-65
Mémoire errante (Wandering Memory), 52, 66, 70
Dominique, Jean, 41-58, 65, 70-71, 83, 159
Mais je suis belle (But I Am Beautiful), 44
Dominique, Philippe, 42
Donna (airline passenger), 117-18
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 71
Drouin, Louis, 1-8, 12-14, 20, 44, 63, 137-41, 148-50
Du Bois, W.E.B., 64
Dumas, Alexandre, fils, Camille, 60
Dumas, Alexandre, père, The Three Musketeers, 60
Dumas, Marie-Cesette, 60
Duvalier, François “Papa Doc,” 1-2, 5-9, 12, 16, 42, 63, 67-69, 137, 140, 143
dyaspora, 49-51. See also exile
Egypt, 19-20
Ellison, Ralph Waldo, 10
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 10, 16, 124-26
Étonnants Voyageurs, 160
Euripides, 11
Eve (Biblical figure), 5-6, 10
executions, 1-8, 12, 63, 137-39, 149-50
exile, 6, 69. See also dyaspora
Fanon, Frantz, 9
Farivar, Masood, 112
Farrell, Patrick, 146
Fellini, Federico, La Strada, 43
fiction, and truth, 32-33
Flaubert, Gustave, 15
Madame Bovary, 66
flying. See airline flights
Fort Dimanche, 43
Fouché, Franck, 9-10
France, 99
FRAPH, 84
Freeman Funeral Home, 89-94
Garcia Márquez, Gabriel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, 17
Gédéon, Marie Maude, 119
General Hospital, Port-au-Prince, 163, 165-66
Genet, Jean, Les Nègres, 153-54, 173
Gibbs, Nancy, 109
Ginen, 134-35
Glover, Danny, 83
God and gods, 5, 19, 55, 71, 103-104, 129, 134, 160, 173
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Gonaïves, Haiti, 158
Gopnik, Adam, 135
Goudougoudou (Haitian earthquake), 168
Greek literature, 9
Greene, Graham, The Comedians, 9
guapa (beautiful and courageous), 47, 53, 66
assassinations in, 41, 46, 48, 53-58, 63, 65, 71
cinema in, 43-46
death in, 16-17
declaration of independence of, 104
Duvalier fils’s rule in, 69-70
Duvalier’s rule in, 1-14, 42-44, 50, 60, 63, 67-69, 140
and dyaspora, 49-51
earthquake in, 18-19, 150-51, 153-54 156-73
literacy in, 44, 50. (see also reading in)
literary portrayals of, 32-35
memory in, 63-65
photographs of, 139-45, 150-51
popular perception of, 32, 109-10
post-revolution, 99-101
reading in, 59-61, 65 (see also literacy in)
Tropical Storm Jeanne in, 108, 158
United States and, 43, 64, 69, 97-100
writers in, 9, 13-14, 28, 60, 68-69
Hamilton, Alexander, 99
Heartfield, Kate, 109
Holder, Geoffrey, 129
hougan (Vodou priest), 131
Hughes, Langston, 45
hurricanes, 107-9
Hurston, Zora Neale, 107
Hyppolite, Hector, 128-35, 164
Ilyana, Tante, 21-31, 35-40, 94, 119
immigrant artists, 15-19, 49, 65, 94-95, 159
Japan, 120
Jefferson, Thomas, 97-100, 102-3
Notes on the State of Virginia, 100
Jeune Haiti (Young Haiti), 2, 6
John F. Kennedy Airport, New York City, 39
Joseph, Uncle, 21, 23-27, 29-30, 35, 37, 154-55
Katrina, Hurricane, 108-10, 113
Kedar, Daniel, 146-47
Kennedy, John F., 141
Kipling, Rudyard, 15
Kocache, Moukhtar, 125
Koinange, Jeff, 109
Krik? Krak! (Danticat), 120
Labuchin, Rassoul, Anita, 44-45
Laferrière, Dany, 160-62
L’Enigme du Retour (The Enigma of Return), 161-62
Je suis un écrivain japonais (I Am a Japanese Writer), 15
La Fontaine, Jean de, 60
LaGuardia Airport, New York City, 119-20
Lalanne, Jean Wilner, 54
Lambi (journal), 6
Lawrence, D. H., Lady Chatterley’s Lover, 66
Léogâne, Haiti, 21-40, 154, 169-70
Leroy, Felix Morisseau, 10
“Tourist,” 145
Liberia, 99
Lincoln, Abraham, 99
Lope de Vega, Félix, 15
lòt bò dlo (the other side of the water), 94, 95, 148-49, 171
Louisiana Purchase, 99
Louissaint, Jean Claude, 51, 53, 54
L’Ouverture, Toussaint, 97, 101-4, 132-33, 164
lwas (Vodou spirits), 129-31, 133
magic realism, 103
Makandal, 101
Mallarmé, Stéphane, 95
Manuel (fictional character), 45-46
Marius (cousin), 87-95
Le Matin (newspaper), 5
Maxo Dantica, 11, 21, 153-56, 170-73
memory, 63-65
mercenary artists, 144
Midnight Oil, 87
mizisyen pale (mercenary artists), 144
Montas, Michèle, 41, 47, 51-58
Morel, Daniel, 137-51
Song of Solomon, 123
Morse, Richard, 168
Nan (film character), 84
The Nation (magazine), 53
national palace, Port-au-Prince, 42, 164-165
NC (“Naomi Campbell”) [cousin], 157, 167-69
Neptune, Dolores Dominique, 159
New Orleans, 108-110
Nick Dantica, 21-26, 28-29, 35, 37, 163
Nöel, Ti, 101-2
Numa, Marcel, 1-8, 12-14, 20, 44, 63, 137-41, 148-50
Numa, Nono, 6
O’Brien, Soledad, 109
Orchestre Septentrional d’Haiti, 143-44
Oswald, Lee Harvey, 141
Paris Match (magazine), 141
Pascal, Blaise, 60
Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima, 120
Pedro, Sophia, 108
Peters, Dewitt, 128-29
Phil Donahue Show (television show), 46, 81, 83
photography, 138-51
Picasso, Pablo, Guernica, 130, 170
Pickering, Timothy, 98-99
poverty, in the United States, 110-11, 113
Prometheus, 55
Proust, Marcel, 71
Rabelais, François, 60
Racine, Jean, 60
Radio Haiti Inter, 41-43, 45, 50, 54-55, 58
readers and reading: dangers of, 8-11
experience of, 16
real marvelous, 103
Regan, Jane, 144
Réjouis, Rose-Myriam, 68
Resnais, Alain, Night and Fog, 43-44
revolution, 97-105
Richards, Michael, 123-26
Are You Down, 124
Tar Baby vs. Saint Sebastian, 125
Winged, 124
Robinson, Randall, 83
Roumain, Jacques, 15
Gouverneurs de la rosée (Master of the Dew), 45-46, 61-62
Roy, Miss (teacher), 60-61
Ruby, Jack, 141
Sacré-Cœur Church, Port-au-Prince, 171-72
Saint, Assotto, 116-17
Samedi, Baron, 16, 63, 129, 133, 149
Samson (Haitian earthquake), 168
Sand, George, 11
Santeria, 75
Sarandon, Susan, 83
Schnabel, Julian, 130
Seide, Maxime, 57
self-doubt, 19
Senghor, Léopold, 15
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 112-13, 121-25
Septentrional band, 143-44
Seth (film character), 84
sèvitè (devotee of Vodou), 131
Shakespeare, William, 15
slave uprising in Haiti, 67, 97-99
Sontag, Susan, 139-40
Sophocles, 10
Soyinka, Wole, 121
terrorism, 111. See also September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
Thoby-Marcelin, Philippe, 128
Time (magazine), 5
Ti Rasta (Haitian earthquake), 168
Ti Roro (Haitian earthquake), 168
Tonnerre, Boisrond, 104
Tonton Macoutes, 3, 63, 70, 144
torture, 73-85
Toussaint L’Ouverture Airport, Port-au-Prince, 162-63, 172-73
Tropical Storm Jeanne, 108, 158
Trouillot, Évelyne, 159-60
Trouillot, Lyonel, 160
tsunamis, 108
Turgeau neighborhood, Port-au-Prince, 171
Twenty-third Psalm, 120
United States: Chilean intervention by, 112
and Haitian earthquake, 162-63, 172-73
Haitian interventions by, 43, 64, 69, 99-100
and Haitian revolution, 97-99
Hurricane Katrina in, 108-10, 113
revolution in, 97
U.S. Coast Guard, 173
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 155
vèvès (cornmeal drawings), 103, 129-30, 133
Vieux-Chauvet, Marie, 9, 69-71
Les Enfants d’Ogoun (The Children of Ogoun), 71
Love, Anger, Madness, 66-69, 71
Les Rapaces (The Vultures), 69-70
Vincent, Jean-Marie, 48
virginity testing, 32-33
Vodou, 75, 103, 104, 129-31, 134-35, 160
Walking on Fire (oral history), 85
Whitman, Walt, 15
Winfrey, Oprah, 31
writers: “citizenship” of, 15-16
and creation myths, 5-6
and death, 17-20
in Haiti, 9, 13-14, 28, 60, 68-69
immigrant, 15-19, 49, 65, 94-95, 159
incapacity of, 66, 71, 123, 159
and memory, 65
relationship of, to readers, 15-16. See also art
YouTube, 127
Zola, Émile, 60
zombies, 132-33