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Master of the Crossroads

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Note: This review was published November 12, 2000, in the Seattle Times ...

The American Revolution helped inspire the French Revolution, which in turn sparked the Haitian Revolution -- an uprising of Africans against the sugar plantation owners who wrung their fabulous wealth from slave labor. Madison Smartt Bell's projected trilogy of historical novels tells the least well known of these momentous late-18th-century stories.

Volume 1, "All Souls Rising," traced the gruesome first stages of the rebellion in the French colony then called Saint Domingue, from 1791 to 1794. One who hasn't read that harrowing masterpiece can still enjoy Volume 2, "Master of the Crossroads," based on events of the next five years. In this novel the revolution is well under way, but the outcome is still uncertain.

It's a tumultuous, confusing time. The Spanish, who own the eastern half of Saint Domingue, and the British, who are at war with France, separately hope to oust the French, subdue the blacks, and possess the island known worldwide as the Jewel of the Antilles. Among the islanders, the French blancs, or white colonials, have split into factions: the royalists who want to enslave the Africans again, and the revolutionaries who believe that liberty is a universal human right. Old disputes flare between native-born Haitians and immigrants, between mulatto plantation owners and poorer mulattos, between rivals among the island's 500,000 rebellious Africans and, more broadly, between members of the resident races - 64 in all, according to France's official classification of blends ranging from Blanc to Négre.

Toussaint Louverture, whose amazing career Jacob Lawrence memorialized in a series of paintings, is at the center of the storm. Small and tough, formerly a slave, he possesses such extraordinary charisma and talent for leadership that he can force, frighten, mystify, or cajole various factions into agreeing to work for peace. Toussaint unites the armed, roving bands of blacks who seized their liberty and transforms them into a well-disciplined army. A brilliant military tactician, he regularly defeats the English and Spanish forces. His political gifts make him a formidable negotiator with the French and a master at switching alliances at strategic moments. He alone seems committed to protecting, regardless of the race or ideology of their owners, the lives and property that survived the time of bloodbath and burning.

Toussaint's motives are endlessly debated in the book. People close to him believe that he is unselfishly devoted to securing liberty and peace for everyone. But rumors that he secretly plans to crown himself King and reinstate slavery multiply. We view him from the perspectives of many different characters, yet he remains a mystery: a presence with a godlike power in crisis, an inscrutable Master of the Crossroads like the voudou deity of crossings and change, Legba.

Readers who can tolerate a little disorientation from chaotic historical events swirling around an enigmatic hero will have a wonderful time with this novel. Many of the episodes are works of literary art, the Haitian landscape is superbly rendered, and the characters are fully realized and memorable. We come to care deeply about them: Doctor Hébert; his beloved mistress Nanon; his sister Elise and her smuggler husband Tocquet; Hébert's friends the French captain Maillart and the African captain Riau; the African soldier Guiaou who is Riau's rival in love; plucky, wanton Isabelle; the dreamy boy-priest Moustique; the elusive, fascinating Toussaint.

Since Bell can't string their stories on a clear historical plot-line (this history is a tangle) he braids the everyday incidents and subtleties of their private lives into a central strand to which scattered public events can be tied. The characters, absorbed in ordinary pursuits, are regularly pulled into battles and intrigues, then released again into personal concerns. The point of view shifts from chapter to chapter, and we open each new one with the pleasure of greeting an old friend.

Nobody achieves an overall view of events -- which is partly the point. Yet even patient readers will wish for an index of characters keyed to page numbers. It's hard to keep people named Dessources, Dessalines, Desrouleaux, and Desfourneaux straight in a complicated narrative (sometimes set in Descahaux) with a cast of hundreds that also includes Delahaye and Dieudonné. The author's memory itself falters - the girl Paulette is called Pauline for a while -- but the Glossary and Chronology help.

Without them "Master of the Crossroads" would still be a stunning achievement: marvelously crafted, meticulous in its historical detail, magnificent in its sweep.

I'm in the middle of the trilogy here, so I don't want to waste too much time writing about the unfinished work, but after 750 pages, let me note that I'm still spellbound by Bell's work. I love the way the title informs the whole work: at each crossroads (and there are many) I marvel at Toussaint's vision. Sometimes he slips out of his carriage or off the road at just the right time to avoid ambush or attack, more often than not in a kind of trance. The crossroads also seems like the meeting of two worlds, whether the spiritual and carnal, the Christian and Vodoun, or European and African. Riau and even Doctor Hebert have some mastery of those crossroads, as do some of the minor characters like Claudine and Moustique. I love the religious syncretism of this novel -- it's at once modern and ancient. Haiti is such a melting pot of culture, race, history, and belief that it's no wonder the stew is still bubbling. Even in poverty and despair, something so rich, so deeply, darkly true is being created that this reader feels compelled to journey there to taste it for himself.

The violence and politics continue to shock and delight. I particularly loved the story of Choufleur in this novel -- the kind of character you love to hate -- and the complex portrayal of Elise's new husband, Toquet. As for the many developments in the life of the characters -- births, deaths, victories, defeats, etc. -- one reads them passionately, but after 1500 pages they are threads in a tapestry that's still a work in progress. I'd love to discuss them with others, but I'm moving on.

In the meantime, there are the pleasures of Bell's trilogy to savor and enjoy. His writing is so confident, his grasp of the wide sweep of narrative and history so embracing, and his sense of the eternal so inspiring that I eagerly plunge on to The Stone that the Builders Refused.

It is not clear to me who, precisely, is the master in "Master of the Crossroads". Mait' Kalfou, master of the crossroads between life and death, is one of the spirits that take possession of participants during voodoo ceremonies. Early in the novel he speaks through one of the central characters saying, "I want liberty and equality to reign throughtout Saint Domingue(Haiti)." That desire is never realized though thousands of Haitians -- white, black, and many shades in between -- pass through Mait' Kalfou's crossroads in the course of the novel. Madison Smartt Bell may have been thinking also of Touissaint Louverture, the brilliant Haitian general, whose rise to absolute power is the historical thread that stitches this novel together. It might also apply to some of the diverse cast of fictional characters who sucessfully negotiate dangerous moral crossroads in the course of the story. This is an ambitious novel. Bell sets out to show us the confusing welter of racial, economic and nationalist groupings that struggled for power and/or survival in Haiti 1793-1801. He succeeds by peopling the novel with fictional men and women drawn from those groups, whose lives and loves intertwine around the central figure of Touissaint Louveture. Through their eyes we watch Louveture defeat the English and Spanish invaders and gain control over the various warring segments of French society. The reader becomes immersed in the crises and tragedies experienced by the fictional characters at the same time we follow the military chess game Louveture is playing. Interestingly enough, Bell's creations--whose skin colors are as variegated as their backgrounds and social status -- tend to be either good or bad with very few moral half-tones. Louveture, himself, remains a "mystery wrapped in an enigma" even after 700 pages of viewing him from many perspectives -- including his own actual writings. Bell has made him fascinating nevertheless. One ends the book wishing to know more about this military and political genius who spent most of his life as slave and groom to one of the "Grand Blanc" landowners. Other things about the novel remain mysterious for me. The bulk of the narrative is written in thrid person from the perspective of whichever charater we are following at the moment. One character only, the ex-slave Riau, officer in Louveture's army speaks in the first person. Not having read any of Bell's other writing, I don't know whether magical realism is a banner under which he ordinarily marches, but there are events in this novel that stretch credulity.

I cannot hope to even skim the deep issues and dreams this book inspires, so let me try and keep it simple, and relate to some of the other readers comments/criticisms. This book is deep and profound. That is an understatement. It teleports you 200 years ago, into the midst of one of the most violent episodes in human history. That alone is a feat of no small accomplishment. However, Bell then breaths life into a vast array of characters--black, white, colored, men, women. All with failures and torments and passion. Most of them struggling, just to survive.

The story, of course, is tragic. And yet within this inevitable scorching fate, these humans emerge. Their lives are made real, and I began to understand. Issues of race. Issues of religion. Issues of betrayal (the especially poiniant European variety). I understand these issues now as they do, from a strained and extreme view, and yet with a human side, which proves hopeful--as opposed to a sterile academic or "historical" point of view.

What is so different about this book for me, and yes, what makes it sometimes a challenge to read, is that no single viewpoint is taken. Rather, these issues are painted in a rich tapestry of the various characters, and from there, the book took on a life of its own for me. I dreamed about this book while I read it, and I still do. There are many profound truths in here, which you cannot say or write with simple words, but truths that these people lived and loved and died by. Riau, Malliert, Claudine, these are all close friends to me now. Friends I will carry to the grave.

The metaphore of the "crossroads" I find quite appropriate. The literal meaning is shown us several times in the narrative. The spiritual meaning, of the crossing of African/VooDoo and Christianity is also clearly present. The issue of race-cross is the most profound, and, ultimately, tragic. Hence the opportunity for black and white to mend their tragic meeting (the slave trade) and move beyond that road is missed. Yet another level would be the betrayal by France, and the loss of their colonies. Haiti is really just a case in point. I could go on.

Finally, a historical note. As a citizen of the USA, I owe Toussaint and his followers a tremendous debt, despite my white skin. You see, it was no accident that France practically gave us half of the continental US in 1803. They knew they better sell it and quick, since they no longer had a colonial army to defend it.

The depth and breadth of Bell's research indicates a colossal, inhuman effort that would take most people a lifetime, never mind the collation and fictionalisation of it afterwards. Haiti's colonial past is so convoluted it almost defies analysis, especially as much of her written history has been destroyed during centuries of successive sackings and burnings, and climate.

The violence contained within is grim and profoundly depressing - the horror, the horror, the horror - but it did happen and is still happening. Don't blame Bell for your revulsion. Use it to help the people who still live in Haiti.

I see there's some criticism about `magic realism' in this trilogy, but Bell clearly understands the part Vodou played in the Revolution, that Vodou - a valid religion born of slavery - ultimately helped slaves to overthrow slavery, although more so in the initial uprisings (i.e. Boukman). Today, without Vodou, the French would probably be using Haiti for nuclear testing, not that the average Haitian would be much worse off.

To bring the history and Vodou of Haiti together in such a linear historical masterpiece as this trilogy is nothing short of miraculous. Bell is surely served by the lwa, and if he isn't he should be.

I'd second what the other reviewers noted but would like to add that this is a follow-up to Bell's highly-praised All Souls Rising, also a masterful book about Haiti and one which first introduced many of these characters. The legacy of Toussaint is important for Haiti today, and this book gives valuable insights into today's world. The book can be a tough read--many of the descriptions of the atrocities are brutal--but is well worth the effort. Take time to read the timeline in the appendix and find out what happened after Toussaint's arrest.

Madison Smartt Bell's second volume of his projected trilogy about the Haitian uprising of 1793-1804 is alternately gripping and ponderous. After having been enthralled by "All Souls' Rising" I have to say I was disappointed with this follow-up.

The same characters are all there as are Bell's masterful historical descriptions but something was missing. I too often grew bored and had to put the book down. I can't quite put my finger on what it is that dissuades me from giving this book a stellar review. I suppose at the end of the day I didn't feel as though I really learned much about any of these characters, and subsequently, I didn't care about them. Toussaint L'Ouverture remains somewhat of an enigma despite Bell's painstakingly detailed account. Perhaps this is intentional. Perhaps the point here is that Toussaint is - was - unknowable. This may well be true, but it doesn't make for satisfying reading.

Again, there are impressive set pieces galore. Bell's mastery of historical detail is staggering and genuine moments of suspense sporadically leap off the page. But in the end, none of this was enough to keep me compelled.

The first book was fantastic and this novel did not disappoint. Professor Bell did not skip a beat between novels. The flow is seamless and his storytelling ability was greatly appreciated! He develops his characters in an intriguing and complex manner. The attention to detail put sweat on my neck and mosquitoes on my arm...! Thank you again Professor Bell!!!

Most writers write about Our Crowd. Bell writes about the furthest possible crowd from our crowd. Then he gets inside their heads and gives you real-time thought. This time he did so in a far richer manner than before, with a wealth of detail, not only of their observations, reactions and decisions, but also of their distractions and discomforts. I look forward to the third of this trilogy, covering 1801-2. The Haitian revolution and its genius Toussaint Louverture make an epic unique in history, and Bell gives the epic the real-time richness it merits.

I found the subject matter of Madison Smartt Bell's book very interesting. I would really like to be able to better understand Toussaint and the history of Haiti, that is why I read this second book on the subject. My problem is that I really don't care for the writing style of Mr. Bell. I found the many different views that one gets annoying and irritating. I also think that the story could of been told in a shorter and more straight to the point way. I am sure that many readers will get great enjoyment out of Madison Smartt Bell's book because the subject matter is fascinating, I did not.