Heading South

by Dany LaFerriere, Wayne Grady (Translator)

Overview

On the sun-drenched island of Haiti in the 1970s, under the shadow of “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s notorious regime, locals eke out an existence as servants, bartenders and panderers to the white elite. Fanfan, Charlie, and Legba, aware of the draw of their adolescent, black bodies, seduce rich, middle-aged white tourists looking for respite from their colourless jobs and marriages.

These “relationships” mirror the power struggle inherent in all transactions in Port-au-Prince’s seedy back streets. Heading South takes us into the world of artists, rappers, Voodoo priests, hotel owners, uptight Parisian journalists and partner-swapping Haitian lovers, all desperately trying to balance happiness with survival.

Made into an award-winning film starring Charlotte Rampling, this provocative novel, translated for the first time into English, explores the lines between sexual liberation and exploitation, artistic freedom and appropriation, independence and colonialism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781553654834
Publisher:	Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
Publication date:	08/24/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	8.76(w) x 11.06(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Dany Laferrière worked as a journalist in his native Haiti during the notorious Duvalier regime, immigrating to Canada in 1978 after a colleague with whom he was collaborating on a story was murdered. He has also worked as a TV and radio host, screenwriter, and director. The author of 13 novels, he has won several awards, including the prestigious Prix Médicis and the Governor Generals award for a Children's novel. Dany Laferrière lives in Montreal, Canada.

Wayne Grady is the author of eleven books, the editor of fourteen literary anthologies, and the former editor of Harrowsmith magazine. One of the finest literary translators in the country, he has won the Governor General's Award for Translation and the John Glassco Prize for Literary Translation. He lives in Kingston, Ontario, and teaches creative writing and translation at the University of British Columbia.

Editorial Reviews

Dany Laferriere is that very rare writer who can make you laugh out loud and also make your soul ache. His work is smart, edgy, and extremely sexy. Heading South is all of these things and more."—Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory

"Deftly presented, this evocation of a sultry, seamy island paradise serves as the literary counterpart of the joyous, funky music of Haiti and the paintings of its "naive" school of artists, who present exaggerated figures in a rough and brightly colored world"—Library Journal

"...a slim novel of poetic beauty and political hardball about his native Haiti from the Montreal-dwelling author whose How to Make Love to a Negro (1985) was a cult sensation"—Elle Magazine

"Laferrière's scintillating American debut recounts the sexual adventures of an eclectic cast of characters... In each storylike chapter, Laferrière reveals the workings of race, class, and colonialism in Haitian society and the manipulative sexual power that underlies it all." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Set in Haiti, this collection of interrelated stories largely features young men making sexual conquests of various women, some older, some white tourists, some above the men's social rank but all helpless victims of a magical macho spell. A recurring character is Fanfan, who toys with and then conquers the headmistress of his sister's school. Another young man, Charlie, seduces the snobby niece of the ambassador who employs his parents as domestics. In one section, a French journalist is wed in a voodoo ceremony to the god Legba, who appears elsewhere as the lover of a religious woman from Georgia. He winds up dead on the beach, as other characters present various versions of having met him. This story is left unresolved, and other, similar tales are begun, each emphasizing physical sensuality and emotional complications; the deeper cultural and political currents are evident but understated. VERDICT Deftly presented, this evocation of a sultry, seamy island paradise serves as the literary counterpart of the joyous, funky music of Haiti and the paintings of its "naive" school of artists, who present exaggerated figures in a rough and brightly colored world. Recommended for anyone who would like to heed that magic.—Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta Lib.

Library Journal