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Reflections of Loko Miwa
Reflections of Loko Miwa is the first novel by Lilas Desquiron, one of few Haitian women writers to gain international recognition.
The country's complex social and political situation is the setting for the story of two women ordained by the spirits of Vodou to be marasa (twins) in spite of their birth into unrelated families of different classes. Desquiron's intricate narrative shifts among characters, bringing diverse perspectives to bear on the dramas of class prejudice.
The main narrator is Cocotte, born to a black peasant woman in the mountains. After being baptized with her "sister", Violaine, Cocotte is brought as a child to be a restavek, a servant in Violaine's upper-class home. Tragedy results from Violaine's love affair with Alexandre, a young, black revolutionary who has returned from abroad to assist in an attempt to overthrow President-for-Life Francois Duvalier. A family council decrees that Violaine will be zombified in order to prevent her from further disgracing her family and class.
The Duvalier regime suppresses the attempted revolution with decisive force, killing or imprisoning the participants. The fate of these young people symbolizes the immobilization of the Haitian people by a minority of politicians who continue to hold the society prisoner, subject to their own fears and prejudices, two hundred years after the slaves defeated Napoleon's army and declared the independence of the Republic of Haiti.
Desquiron was born into a prominent mulatto family in Jeremie. For reasons of safety as well as education, her family sent her as an adolescent to study in Belgium and France. The novel is a very personal account of a young woman's adherence to folk beliefs andresistance to the prejudices of her class.
The country's complex social and political situation is the setting for the story of two women ordained by the spirits of Vodou to be marasa (twins) in spite of their birth into unrelated families of different classes. Desquiron's intricate narrative shifts among characters, bringing diverse perspectives to bear on the dramas of class prejudice.
The main narrator is Cocotte, born to a black peasant woman in the mountains. After being baptized with her "sister", Violaine, Cocotte is brought as a child to be a restavek, a servant in Violaine's upper-class home. Tragedy results from Violaine's love affair with Alexandre, a young, black revolutionary who has returned from abroad to assist in an attempt to overthrow President-for-Life Francois Duvalier. A family council decrees that Violaine will be zombified in order to prevent her from further disgracing her family and class.
The Duvalier regime suppresses the attempted revolution with decisive force, killing or imprisoning the participants. The fate of these young people symbolizes the immobilization of the Haitian people by a minority of politicians who continue to hold the society prisoner, subject to their own fears and prejudices, two hundred years after the slaves defeated Napoleon's army and declared the independence of the Republic of Haiti.
Desquiron was born into a prominent mulatto family in Jeremie. For reasons of safety as well as education, her family sent her as an adolescent to study in Belgium and France. The novel is a very personal account of a young woman's adherence to folk beliefs andresistance to the prejudices of her class.
198 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2021
okay if i had understood this book maybe it would have gotten more stars but it was like trying to read french shakespeare i was so confused. gave me like romeo and juliet & frozen crossover vibes
November 21, 2007
A wonderful read in the realm of Haiti's "magical realism"...highly recommended for a mystical, socio-political grasp of class struggles in Haiti...
February 26, 2019
Two girls are born on the opposite sides of the Jérémie, Haiti. It is decreed by the loas that these girls are marassas, two divine twin souls. Cocotte and Violaine are destined to live out their lives together, their entwined spirits bonding them as sisters despite their different parentage and social classes.
But that's not really what this book is about. Functioning through split chapters that divide the perspectives of Cocotte, Violaine, and the occasional secondary character, LES CHEMINS DE LOCO-MIROIR is a zombie story that does its darndest to make a commentary about social class...
(READ MORE AT http://www.readinghannah.com/2019/02/...)
But that's not really what this book is about. Functioning through split chapters that divide the perspectives of Cocotte, Violaine, and the occasional secondary character, LES CHEMINS DE LOCO-MIROIR is a zombie story that does its darndest to make a commentary about social class...
(READ MORE AT http://www.readinghannah.com/2019/02/...)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews