Una Boda En Haiti: Historia De Una Amistad (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
A memoir by Julia Alverez, this actually covers two trips to Haiti by Julia and her husband Bill, accompanying a young man who works on their coffee farm. What I found interesting was the author’s own shock at the poverty of Haiti, though she has worked and lived in/with the Dominican Republic at least part time for many years. (I live in a rural and poor area of the DR, just across the border with Haiti). I suppose it goes to show the stratification of society that exists here, as well as in the rest of the world.In addition, I loved reading about the parts of Haiti culture that stuck with her – the slogans on shirts and busses, the aggression than come from poverty, and the sickening decadence that can live in the middle of devastation (such as post-earthquake Port au Prince). I loved it. Not a can't-put-it-down kind of "loved it" but a pleasant/familiar kind of "loved it". In fact I almost put it down halfway through, but am glad I stuck it out. Two things I loved: 1) familiarized me with a new place, and 2) the simple, honest storytelling with real pictures reminding you this isn't just a ho-hum story but documentation of real lives and experiences. She's a beautiful writer. I appreciate it when authors simply and clearly daylight truths about how people think. When talking about the death toll from the Haiti earthquake: "Mind-numbing figures, hard to compute unless broken down to one life at a time, one story at a time." Perfect.
What do You think about Una Boda En Haiti: Historia De Una Amistad (2012)?
i found this book poorly written also i began to not care about their adventure.
—vasu
An interesting, compelling narrative well-told
—mimi
