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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Kingdom of this World,
This review is from: The Kingdom of This World: A Novel (Paperback)
Not long after Haiti's liberation from French colonial rule, King Henri-Christophe reigned through an era of chaos, violence, superstition and socio-political upheaval. Carpentier details the story of this era, and the eventual overthrowing of Henri-Christophe's black regime, through the narrative of slave Ti-Noel. For me, the interesting thing about this book was the way in which Carpentier shows how the black regime failed on the same sort of grounds that caused the French regime to become corrupt, outwardly oppulent and inwardly self-destructive. I find it very reminiscent of the sort of dialogue popularized by Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" where he explains how, in an effort to overthrow an oppressive system of education (but this has to work, to some extent, for politics, culture, etc) the rebels end up instituting essentially the same sort of system---only with themselves at the top instead of bottom. The novel also deals convincingly with issues of cultural patrimony, the occult, and obviously with historical and political scenario. As with many of his books, Carpentier combines a strong dedication to the factual or realistic history with allegory, metaphor and allusion. The writing style is fairly dense and I did find it difficult to read the novel straight through. However, I found the read very rewarding and also enlightening.
32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful and haunting,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Kingdom of This World: A Novel (Paperback)
This is Magical Realism at it's best. As in Alende's The House of Spirits, magic and unearthly powers are commonplace in the world of this novel.Dead men rise from the ashes and the reader believes this is so. Carpentier paints a vivid portrait of colonial Haiti, depicting the racial strife and class wars that are par for the course in such a world. Carpentier's prose is beautiful, his images are vivid and stiking: one can picture the vast plantation, so far from the city....the row of powdered wigs on their stands...the look on Ti Noel's face when he realizes revolution does not add up to personal freedom. A near perfect novel, Ti Noel and his story will stay with you long after you've read it.
34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best Latin-American novel of them all,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Kingdom of This World: A Novel (Paperback)
The Kingdom of the World is truly extraordinary, exquisitely crafted and overwhelming in its human implications. In it historical fiction and magical realism come together to produce a masterful work of art and an unforgettable story about the triumph of human dignity in the midst of destruction and senseless horror. Using as a setting one of the most bizarre episodes in history (the Haitian independence and its aftermath), Carpentier tells a mesmerizing story that reveals human beings in all their complexity, contradictions and pervesity, but also in their extraordinary power of survival and redemption. A literary masterpiece of the highest order.
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