The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of the Wind

"And so, like Christ's, Haiti's glory became her cross to bear, exemplified by Charlemagne being nailed to his cross by the American marines who occupied the island from 1915 to 1934."

Trinidadian-American writer Rosa Guy has written a challenging but worthwhile novel about Haiti. The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of the Wind is centered around a Hotel Oloffson-like establishment, Old Hotel, in Port-au-Prince during the 1970s. Nixon's Watergate Scandal has just started, Jonnie Dash, a middle-aged African-American artist is back in Haiti in search of lost dreams, and themes at the intersection of class, race, gender, and imperialism suffuse the text. 

While the text differs significantly from Graham Greene's illustrious novel, which targets Duvalier with relentless criticism, both novels share a similar setting, a diverse group of foreigners and locals frequenting a fictionalized Hotel Oloffson, and a keen understanding of social systems, or roles. Guy's novel surpasses Greene's for its much stronger anti-imperialist message, of course also including women characters who are compelling. 

The protagonist, Jonnie, eventually ends up subverting the US counselor, standing up against her own fears and US imperialism on the island while also removing the layers of nationality, class, gender, and race in her interactions with the diverse cast of characters at the Old Hotel. Unfortunately, Guy's narrative can be hard to follow at times, perhaps because she often uses Jonnie Dash's memory lapses as critical moments to advance the plot. This confused me a few times, and the novel eventually loses steam, meaning that at 305 pages, one was almost ready to give up halfway through. 

For those determined readers, the pay off is worth it. Guy's protagonist lives and breathes through Port-au-Prince and its environs, offering numerous moments of shame, disgust, horror, and crushing poverty on one hand, with the natural beauty, glorious symbolism of the Haitian Revolution, and search for meaning in life on the other. While the constant use of French in dialogue came off as a little silly (I am not sure if Guy is fluent in French, but it seems like she only knows a few phrases), and Guy's inclusion of a 'voodoo' ceremony struck me as too fake or fabricated, the novel is one of the few written from a Black feminist perspective on Haiti. Next on my reading list will be Guy's retelling of the Little Mermaid story that uses Haitian Vodou and Caribbean flavors.