> Tout bouge autour de moi by Dany Laferrière
Se reporter au compte rendu de Jason HERBECK
In: The French Review, Vol. 85, No. 3 (February 2012), pp. 594-595

Écrit tout juste après la réception de son prix Médécis, ce livre devait être autre. Il se destinait à être un manuel destiné à un écrivain. Or, le tremblement de terre de 2010 a mêlé les cartes. Presque que par dépis, le récit devient celui ténoignage puis manuel pour les futurs coopérants qui viendront à Haïti par milliers. On parle d'un livre utile, on parle d'un livre nécessaire, pas d'une œuvre littéraire de haut vol. ( )

Haiti's misfortune was not what moved the world: it was the way the Haitian people stood up to misfortune. We gazed with wonder as the disaster revealed a nation whose rotten institutions prevent it from coming into its own. When those institutions disappeared from the landscape, even for a moment, we discovered a proud yet modest people through the clouds of dust.

Writer Dany Laferrière was visiting his home country when the earthquake struck on January 12, 2010. He and a friend were waiting for a meal at the restaurant in a Port-au-Prince hotel. Laferrière's immediate family survived the earthquake, and he was able to return to his home in Montreal a couple of days later with assistance from the Canadian embassy. He was soon back in Haiti for the funeral of an aunt who died not long after the earthquake.

This memoir isn't a fully-fleshed narrative account of the earthquake. It's a series of vignettes that often read like journal entries. Some themes emerge from the collection, including Laferrière's opinions about Haitian culture, religion, and humanitarian assistance and the aid workers who flocked to Haiti almost before the ground stopped shaking. ( )

Ce livre a dû avoir sa force d'impact après le 12 janvier 2010, c'est-à-dire après le tremblement de terre en Haïti. A présent, cette suite de moments et d'émotions que nous dévoile Dany Laferrière semblent, je ne vais pas dire anecdotique, car le sujet concerne la mort de tant de personnes et l'avenir malmené de ce pays, mais l'intérêt n'est plus à ce point vif que l'on peut se contenter de ces brèves, sans véritable valeur littéraire. ( )

L’ultimo dei titoli in italiano dell’ultimo degli immortels a entrare all’Académie française. Un bell’approdo per questo haitiano di origini africane – nella semi-isola è normale! –, da decenni in esilio a Montréal per motivi politici. È lo stesso autore di Verso il Sud (2006; portato sullo schermo da Laurent Cantet) e di Come far l’amore con un negro senza far fatica (2008).
Tutto si muove… non è un romanzo ma una toccante testimonianza del gudugudù, il terremoto del 12 gennaio 2010, data sicuramente spartiacque per Haiti. Attraverso il racconto della propria esperienza, Laferrière ci fa scoprire con garbo e profondità l’altra faccia di un popolo che i media ci avevano mostrato soprattutto sconfitto. ( )