Gary Victor

This was the latest book plucked from the shelves of my local library. Gary Victor is Haitian, born in Port au Prince in 1958. He has written novels, scenarios for television and theatre and has worked as a journalist and newspaper editor. He was also Secretary General of the Haitian Senate. Quand le jour cède à la nuit is a collection of sketches and stories that would have been published in newspapers between 1977-87. They range from stories drawn from contemporary life in Haiti to science fiction stories in the far future. All have an element of the fantastic and most feature violence or aggressive behaviour.

The book opens with 'Quand la planète t'appartiendra' which is a story about two Haitian men stuck in a huge traffic jam on the outskirts of the capital. They have been in their old American car for six hours and are stuck on a two lane road, although their is a line separating them from a new road that they cannot use. It is burning hot and many people have got out of their cars, but nobody dares cross over onto the new road. Finally the helicopters arrive to clear away the twisted metal that lies ahead, with loudspeakers blaring out that everybody should keep calm. In the second story a man sits on his terrace, watching a horrendous storm sweep away part of the town and he dreams that his beautiful wife is still with him. There is a story about a ruthless business man/politician who has finally achieved control of all the worlds food resources. His assassination is a foregone conclusion. My favourite story takes place during the Mardi Gras. A group of revellers tightly controlled by a charismatic individual enters the pageant and wins the applaud-its of fellow revellers and the audience with his throbbing music and wild dancing. He is dressed like the devil and heads towards the cemetery

There are eleven stories in all and they all make points about human behaviour in difficult situations. There is no time for character development as the stories move swiftly on. Dystopia is ever present with a feeling of coming doom; only the story based far in the future when space travel has taken humans out into the asteroid belt is their some sort of relief. There is plenty of evidence of Haitian culture in the stories, magic and voodoo feature as well as crumbling city states: Detritus Ballet features a struggle against an insect enemy that has colonised fields full of city waste. Politicians are ruthless and greedy and the differences between the rich minority and the miserable poverty all around them permeates many of these sketches.

A collection of stories based on Haitian life that do not break any new ground, but would give relief perhaps from the hard news in Haitian newspapers. I enjoyed the fantasy elements and so overall 3 stars.… (mehr)

Dans le ton et la manière, on y retrouve l'empreinte d'Edgar Allan Poe ou de Maupassant. La narration classique, sur le ton de la confidence, coule, vive et limpide : Elle offre un divertissement intelligent qui renvoie dos à dos les savoirs/mythes traditionnels et la rationalité scientifique. Mais, on a trop envie d'y croire à ces récits vaudou car ils célèbrent si habilement l'animal littéraire en nous, notre capacité à imaginer, notre curiosité pour les choses étranges, toute la panoplie de dispositifs qui nous amènent à tisser du réel en s'accrochant à nos superstitions: des morts qui se réveillent, des femmes possédées, des filtres de sorciers, des politiciens qui pactisent avec le diable, un doigt et un fémur qui tuent les vilains... Si Victor ne se prive pas d'y aller avec une bonne dose de cynisme pour les figures du pouvoir et la bêtise en général, l'humour demeure l'ingrédient principal de ses contes fantastiques. La magie opère...savoureuse lecture.… (mehr)