The author of “Claire of the Sea Light” and “Breath, Eyes, Memory” would like to invite Colette, Zora Neale Hurston and Jean Rhys to lunch “and just listen to them talk.”
Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).
I can pretty much read anywhere. I used to be one of those people who would walk down the street reading. When I was a teenager, I read a lot in church. Haitian Pentecostal services are very long, and I was a quick reader. Now my dream reading experience is having an entire row to myself in the back of an airplane on a very long flight with a book that is impossible to put down.
Did you grow up with a lot of books? What are your memories of being read to as a child?
I didn’t grow up with a lot of books, but some. Actually I owned only one non- school-related book before I was 12. It was Ludwig Bemelmans’s “Madeline” (French version), which my uncle had given me for my birthday. I had an aunt who sold schoolbooks and she would occasionally have some children’s fiction that she’d let me borrow, if I promised not to crease or stain the pages. I also read French comics, Tintin and Asterix, with my brother. I was not read to as a child. Instead, I was told fabulous stories by my aunts and grandmothers and many family friends.
What kinds of stories are you drawn to? Any you steer clear of?
I am drawn to all kinds of stories. I love to be surprised. I don’t steer clear of anything, as long as it’s interesting.
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelf?
I have a large collection of parenting books, which I hide on the high shelves. You know how people say, I wish my kid came with a manual. I am always looking for that manual. Raising children in a culture that is different than the one you were raised in can be rather confusing at times. I feel like I need to know how others are managing it.
What kinds of books have you encountered through your young daughters? Anything you especially appreciated?
Many of the classic American children’s books that my daughters are reading are also new to me. A lot of parents are revisiting their childhood when they read these books, but having spent most of my childhood in Haiti, these books are as much a revelation to me as they are to my daughters. Both my girls like Dr. Seuss, which is full of lessons for adults as well as children. They also love everything by Jacqueline Woodson, who has written some fantastic picture books, middle-grade and young adult novels about contemporary American life.
Disappointing, overrated, just not good. What book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?
I’ve put quite a few books down. (Sounds like euthanasia, doesn’t it?) I’m sure people have put some of my books down too. There are so many ways for readers to tell writers how much they hate their books now, I wouldn’t want to add to that here. Some books you can pick up later and rediscover in a new way. At times, it’s just a matter of timing and a really busy life and other things that may have little to do with the book itself.
Who is your favorite overlooked or underappreciated writer?
I would choose two, Paule Marshall and Percival Everett. It is possible that they are neither overlooked nor underappreciated, but they are both so incredibly brilliant that they should be household names.
If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know?
Thanks to writers’ conferences and other such gatherings, I have met many of my living favorites — and am grateful to even call some of them my friends — so I’ll go with the dead. I would invite Colette, Zora Neale Hurston and Jean Rhys to lunch, then sit back and just listen to them talk about all kinds of things. I am pretty sure that during their conversation I’d learn absolutely everything there is to know about everything.
If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?
It would be Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire trilogy, an epic and poetic history of the Western Hemisphere, which offers, among other things, a unique and almost intimate view of what happens when U.S. administrations cause or participate in the devastation, if not the total destruction, of other countries.
You just got back from Haiti. What’s the literary scene there like right now? Did you discover any new writers?
Haiti has just had the 19th edition of its largest book festival, Livres en Folie, which featured 129 authors and over a thousand titles. There is already a powerful literary legacy and a vibrant contemporary literature there. I was doing a workshop with some cinema students at a film school in Jacmel — Ciné Institute — and when I asked what new writers they were into, many of them mentioned this young man named Makenzy Orcel who’s published two poetry collections and two very powerful novels called “Les Latrines” and “Les Immortelles.” Someone who writes extremely well both in French and English is Jessica Fièvre, who published her first novel in Haiti when she was 16 and has since written six more. She now lives in South Florida and has just completed a memoir in English.
What books, recent or otherwise, would you recommend about Haiti?
“The Idea of Haiti: Rethinking Crisis and Development,” edited by Millery Polyné. This book offers a wide range of perspectives on how certain narratives about Haiti’s politics, history, religion and culture have affected its past and can affect its future. Jonathan Katz explores some similar issues in a much more personal way in his very poignant book “The Big Truck That Went By.” For some brilliant analysis from the past — and on the past — one also cannot fail with Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s “Silencing the Past” and Joan Dayan’s magnificent “Haiti, History, and the Gods.” I’d also recommend “The Roving Tree,” by Elsie Augustave, a gorgeous new novel about a Haitian adoptee finding her way in many different corners of the world.
What’s next on your reading list?
I loved “Salvage the Bones,” so I am looking forward to reading Jesmyn Ward’s memoir, “Men We Reaped.” Also on my list is Alexander Maksik’s novel “A Marker to Measure Drift,” which is about a young Liberian woman with a mysterious past. In manuscript, the talented Cynthia Bond’s first novel, “Ruby,” is there too, next to Bob Shacochis’ new novel, “The Woman Who Lost Her Soul,” which is partly set in Haiti.
