Voodoo Lounge: A Novel [Paperback]

Christian Bauman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2005

Tory Harris and Junior Davis were in love -- a fierce, drunk barracks love that finally exploded in deception and betrayal. When their paths cross again it is the opening days of the U.S. invasion of Haiti -- the strangest of America's "little wars" of the 1990s. Rooted in the inner struggles of its characters and the weight of their secrets, Voodoo Lounge is the story of addiction in a triangle: Harris, a young, driven sergeant, the only female in her detachment; Davis, the disgraced former soldier whose tragedy burns all it touches; and Marc Hall, a Haitian-American intelligence officer sent to occupy his mother's homeland.

In living, detailed portraits, the novel segues through an army boat, an old missionary ship, the depths of a Haitian prison, and a squatters' camp in the shadow of an HIV hospital. Voodoo Lounge emerges as a novel of longing and love, of excess and bareness, of betrayal flowing in the blood, and the cold, blind passion for redemption.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The opening days of the U.S. invasion of Haiti serve as backdrop for this visceral second novel from National Public Radio commentator and former soldier Bauman (The Ice beneath You, 2002). With action shifting from an army boat to a missionary ship to a hospital administering care to patients with HIV, Bauman reveals three lives entangled in a web of desperation and desire: young, determined army sergeant Tory Harris, the sole woman in her detachment; her former lover, Junior Davis, a disgraced soldier haunted by the sins of his past; and Haitian American Marc Hall, an intelligence officer sent to occupy his mother's homeland. Bauman, who served in the U.S. Army Waterborne, including tours in Somalia and Haiti, has a knack for dropping readers right into the action. While it takes a chapter or two to get a grip on the gritty military lingo and staccato rhythm of Bauman's prose, the payoff is in his characters, who develop like a Polaroid portrait with devastating details emerging on each succeeding page. The term voodoo lounge refers to the machine-gun nest on the port bow of a ship. Reading this startling novel is the literary equivalent of standing watch on that perch. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Rich in character and detail...Bauman writes with precision. The prose in Voodoo Lounge reverberates in the white space around it. A strong, compelling work."

-- Robert Stone, Author of Dog Soldiers and Damascus Gate

"An intensely atmospheric novel, devastating and immediate. Christian Bauman is a writer with a voice all his own: passionate, energetic and unfailingly honest."

-- Regina McBride, author of The Nature of Water and Air

"When our generation started writing about war, we looked back to Heinemann, O'Brien, and Wolff -- when the next looks back, they'll be looking to Bauman."

-- Joel Turnipseed, author of Baghdad Express

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 314 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743270983
• ISBN-13: 978-0743270984
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,169,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

From the June 15, 2010 broadcast of public radio's Writer's Almanac as read by Garrison Keillor: It's the birthday of folksinger and writer Christian Bauman, born in Easton, Pennsylvania (1970). He's the author of three widely praised novels, all published within the past decade: The Ice Beneath You (2002), Voodoo Lounge (2005), and In Hoboken (2008).

Though his mom was a doctor and his stepdad a philosophy professor, the boy didn't do well at academics. He barely graduated from high school and never went to college. He became a teenage father and worked as a cook, a clerk, a copy writer, and in all sorts of manual labor jobs. He painted houses, he spent a Philadelphia winter perched on scaffolding working on windows of a tall old school building, and he later watered plants at a corporate office, where he'd time his entry into the executive dining room so that he could help himself to the end of the lunch buffet.

He was 21, impoverished, in debt, without health insurance, and his young daughter needed an operation he couldn't afford. He began to pay attention to Army recruitment commercials. He said he joined the Army "for the same reason most people join the Army." He said, "I was young and poor. I had a child to support and no real job prospects. I wanted to escape. But what clinched it was when I found out the Army would pay for the operation my daughter needed."

He trained at Fort Eustis, in Virginia, where he was the only newly enlisted guy getting The New Yorker magazine. When he was shipped off to Somalia in 1992, he brought his typewriter along.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars couldn't put it down..., November 19, 2005

By 

Erik Balkey (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voodoo Lounge: A Novel (Paperback)

Great book. Christian can write, that's for sure. No-nonsense, honest, direct, brutal, compassionate. He tells the story. From the vivid, sensory depiction of the scenes, to the insightful, sensitive and caring portrayal of the characters, Christian puts you there effectively and efficiently. I read with great interest this book from a writer of my generation giving us our contemporary war novels. It is eye-opening reading for insights into the soldier's experience and for the soldier's perspectives on our military. But, it's certainly more than the war stories that engage. It's also character portrayals of my generation which are both contemporary and, I'd guess, timeless. Let's hope Christian keeps providing a voice for years to come. I look forward to his next contribution.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When You Go, You Go For Real, March 20, 2006

By 

Terin Miller "The Bull Guy" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voodoo Lounge: A Novel (Paperback)

Bauman has done what even Ernest Hemingway didn't: written a novel from a woman's perspective, and a soldier's at that.

Ultimately this novel struck me as being about relationships and the responsibilities that accompany them, whether they be between people, societies or countries, and how many enter relationships without considering the responsibility inherent in them.

For some, living up to the responsibility becomes next to impossible - while for others, life is duty and duty brings responsibility to yourself at the very least if no one else.

It's a hell of a book. Everyone should read it. Then put it down and think about it.

There aren't a lot of books out there I'd say that about - and even fewer writers.