Customer Reviews

Babouk: Voices of resistance

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In BABOUK, Guy Endore continues along the same artistic heights he hit the previous year with THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS, this time turning his attention to the Haitian slave trade and the brutality of Western civilization. In reading this, it's no surprise that it was a commercial catastrophe for Vanguard Press in 1934, especially since the original jacket contained the paratextual blurb "From The Author Of THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS", obviously desperate at marketing the controversial content by associating it with the former success. The story is told from the perspective of a young slave, Babouk, and, as always, Endore does an extensive amount of research on his subject matter. This new Voices of Resistance edition (the first since '34) is excellent, with an outstanding preface and postface that place both the text and the revolution into a historical context for the reader unfamiliar with Haiti's struggle for freedom. The typeface has improved (Endore consented to having the original plates melted down to aid the war effort) and the overall design is far superior. The material is disturbing and for good reason. I highly recommend this work, not only because Endore is a brilliant storyteller, but because he relentlessly attacks Western patterns of domination and oppression at a time in history when it was incredibly unpopular to do so. The author, in a 1963 inscription, once wrote accurately: "BABOUK is my unknown masterpiece. At any rate, unknown."