Tout bouge autour de moi

by Dany Laferrière

Tout bouge autour de moi est un vibrant témoignage de Dany Laferrière autour du séisme du 12 janvier 2010 qui a détruit Haïti. L’auteur retrace les principaux moments du désastre : textes brefs, portraits, informations, impressions, projections. Cette tragédie est restituée avec force et générosité. Laferrière livre en des touches discrètes ses émotions, ses sentiments et ses pensées, dans cette poignante chronique. Tout bouge autour de moi, c’est le regard de Dany Laferrière sur son pays d’origine, sur la fragilité des choses et des êtres. Cet ouvrage est une leçon d’élégance, de dignité et de courage, un hommage au peuple haïtien qui a trouvé l’énergie pour recommencer la vie après le séisme. Partout où je vais, les gens m’adressent la parole en baissant la voix. Conversation entrecoupée de silences. Les yeux baissés, on m’effleure la main. Bien sûr qu’à travers moi, on s’adresse à cette île blessée mais de moins en moins isolée. On me demande de ses nouvelles. Ils comprennent vite qu’ils sont plus au courant de ce qui se passe que moi. Je me suis éloigné de cette rumeur intoxicante afin de préserver ces images qui brûlent encore en moi. Cette petite fille qui, la nuit du séisme, s’inquiétait à savoir s’il y avait classe demain. Ou cette marchande de mangues que j’ai vue, le 13 janvier au matin, assise par terre, le dos contre un mur, avec un lot de mangues à vendre. Quand les gens me parlent, je vois dans leurs yeux qu’ils s’adressent aux morts, alors que je m’accroche à la moindre mouche vivante. Tout bouge autour de moi, le tout premier témoignage autour du séisme en Haïti, permet de vivre les principaux moments du drame et aide à mieux comprendre Haïti afin de canaliser les énergies vers la nécessaire reconstruction. Les profits tirés de la vente de l’ouvrage contribueront à financer la publication des textes de jeunes auteurs haïtiens chez Mémoire d’encrier.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Biography Memoir, France, Roman, Canada

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Né à Port-au-Prince en avril 1953, Dany Laferrière a grandi à Petit-Goâve. Il écrit pour le journal Le Petit Samedi soir et fait partie de l’équipe de Radio Haïti. Il quitte son pays natal à la suite de l’assassinat de son collègue et ami, le journaliste Gasner Raymond. Il s’installe au Québec où il occupe plusieurs emplois avant de commencer à écrire.

Son premier roman, Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer, paraît en 1985 (VLB). Le succès est immédiat et les réactions nombreuses. Laferrière devient alors l’un des principaux représentants d’une nouvelle génération d’écrivains dans le paysage littéraire québécois.

Dany Laferrière écrit ensuite Éroshima (1987), puis L’Odeur du café (VLB, 1991), qui est récompensé par le prix Carbet des Caraïbes. En 2000, près de vingt-cinq ans après son arrivée au Québec, il signe Le Cri des oiseaux fous (Lanctôt), roman dans lequel il témoigne des raisons qui l’ont poussé à quitter Haïti et qui remporte le prix Carbet des Lycéens. En 2006, le prix du Gouverneur général du Canada est décerné à son album jeunesse Je suis fou de Vava.

Habitant en alternance Montréal, New-York et Miami, l’auteur se considère avant tout comme un citoyen de l’Amérique. C’est dans cet esprit qu’il rédige ce qu’il appellera son Autobiographie américaine, un grand projet regroupant une dizaine de ses titres et qui dresse un portrait de l’Amérique, d’Haïti à Montréal, en passant par les États-Unis.

Dany Laferrière mène, parallèlement à ses activités littéraires, une carrière de journaliste et de chroniqueur, tout en faisant quelques apparitions à la télévision et au cinéma. Il a également scénarisé quelques longs-métrages, le plus souvent des adaptations cinématographiques de ses romans.

Édités en France chez Grasset, les livres de Dany Laferrière ont été traduits dans une douzaine de langues, dont le coréen et le polonais.

Laferrière a publié cinq romans aux Éditions du Boréal. Son plus récent livre, L'Énigme du retour, est en lice pour le prix France Télévision, le prix Wepler et le prix Décembre. En plus, il se trouve déjà en deuxième sélection pour le prix Médicis 2009 ainsi que pour le prix Fémina 2009.

Biographie tirée du site Internet des éditions Boréal.

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

When in Montreal ... I picked this one up in Quebec City actually. I read one other book by this author in English some time ago and thought it might be interesting to challenge myself a little and read one of his novels in French. It is a collection of short vignettes about his the author's experiences in Haiti after the earthquake in January of 2010. Much of it reads like poetry. Excellent and poignant so far.

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laferrière was in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit in 2010. Haitian by birth, he by then lived in Canada, but work and family kept bringing him back. Chance kept him alive; chance kept most of his loved ones safe; eventually his training as a writer led him to put down on paper his observations and memories of the quake and its aftermath.

It ends up being a thoughtful and poetic book, but also quite brief. Laferrière seems determined to focus on the good—the people who push through, as they must, to get on with their lives; everyday dignities; people who survived rather than people who died. It is hard to tell how many people he knew died in the earthquake, and I rather think that was the intention—he wants to focus on those who did make it.

He makes a couple of particularly interesting points about tragedy—one that, while in it, it is impossible to see the bigger picture; later, watching the news about Haiti in Canada, he is sort of shellshocked by the stream of photographs and how little of individual stories they can tell. And two, this: In this broken place, a lot of people who have come to help brought their cameras with them. At first they try to capture the suffering on film. The pictures are sent to their friends via the Internet. Then, after a while, they begin to enjoy it. Every photo creates a certain amount of interest back home. And every amateur photographer dreams of being in the right place at the right time to get a great picture (116). I think it is more complicated than that, or at least it can be (and also that this book is a different kind of picture), but he also has a point.

One point of contention: The back of the book says that Laferrière's nephew didn't want him to write about the earthquake because it was 'too horrific to give up so easily to those who were not there'. I'm not sure if it's a matter of translation or what, but in the conversation in the book, the nephew asks him not to novelise the earthquake...because it's the tragedy of the younger generation (Laferrière's generation had the dictatorship) and the nephew wants to write his own novel (50). I'm calling that out not to shame the nephew (sounds like that was just the insecurity of a less experienced writer) but because the cover copy (unless, of course, I'm missing something) seems like such a big misinterpretation.

[Alex Rubin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay I feel like I didn’t give this book the degree of attention it deserved? Never felt locked in while reading and I think that’s more my b than the book. The excerpts/chapters almost acting as little mini essays was an interesting layout style!

[Fanny Royné · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une écriture sublime et subtile ...

[Laeti✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tout bouge autour de moi est un livre mouvant , c’est le cas de le dire . J’apprécie toujours la finesse de la plume de Laferrière . Il réussit toujours à capter l’attention de son lecteur . Seulement , j’ai trouvé que le livre était beaucoup plus descriptif et moins émotif . Voilà pourquoi je lui ai accordé la note de 2. N’empêche que j’adore Dany Laferrière 🫶🏾

[Nia Ita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally written in French and translated by David Homel, this lyric memoir was a poignant, heart-rending collection of vignettes that spoke to Haiti before, during and in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.

January 12, 2010. Haitian-Canadian author, Dany Laferrière’s was sitting in a restaurant at the Hôtel Karibe in preparation for a literary festival that was being hosted to bring writers from around the world to Port-au-Prince.

At 4:53pm the earth shifted and the ground cracked open.

“You can hide from the wind or even from fire, but not from the earth that moves beneath your feet.”

Laferrière weaves this memoir together through episodes, none that were longer than two pages, most were a short paragraph. What a meaningful and artistic way to construct this story, in conversations, images, scenes and moments. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the pieces that were left behind by the ground-shattering earthquake.

The forward includes a quote that speaks to a central theme in this literary work. “When everything else collapses, culture remains.” No doubt – this was a tragic recollection of a catastrophic natural disaster. But more than that – it was a story of resilience. It shares how people continue to live and “walk upon the ground that has already betrayed [them.]”

Laferrière writes “these people are so used to finding life in difficult conditions that they could bring hope down to hell.”

I don’t know about you, but my canon of Haitian authors starts and ends with Roxane Gay and Edwidge Danticat. I was happy to change that with Dany Laferrière and am looking forward to reading more of his work because, truly, the craft in this novel was breath-taking.

Easy five stars and a very quick read in terms of length and complexity. It may just take a little longer if you, like me, have to underline, highlight and sit with passages for a while.

www.niaita.net
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[Samantha Shock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrator and author Dany Laferriere was in the capital city of Hatit wen the devastating earthquake took place, h was on of the few who got out unharmed and for that he felt guilty. For him writing this book was a way to celebrate the lives of those who he had lost by showing his reader the scene and helping us to understand the events that followed 4:53pm. Through this novel Dany takes us through the loss and celebration of life with the Haitian people allowing us to see into their world and respect their culture even more. For example we are able to contrast the Haitian culture to one we know well, our won. One thing that stuck out to me was the way we deal with loss. Here the American response is to be sad and morn the loss, there it is to gather and sing and pray, rejoice in the life they had and the life you will have with them watching over you. The evident theme of this text is letting go, starting over and triumph. The book is about the people trying to start over with nothing and little help. It is about one communities working together t get through one tough path. One part that stuck out to me the most was the line "for once in this city ruled by social barriers everyone moved at the same speed." This stuck with me because Haiti has always been divided radically by class but here everyone no matter their economic standing is in the same spot everyone is struggling and not one person is better off than another. I would recommend this text to anyone who is interested in learning about a place opposite of what you used too.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read this in book club back in April. It was interesting to read a first-hand account of such a huge earthquake. I found there weren't as many stories of Haitian peoples' experiences with the earthquake and the aftermath as I would have liked though, just mainly from the author himself and his family.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dany Laferriere a Haitian who lives in Montreal, traveled back to Haiti for a literary conference was with a friend in the hotel restaurant of the hotel he was staying at when the earthquake hit. This is the book of his memories, during the earthquake and the aftermath. Laferriere is a beautiful writer, that brings you alongside while he is writing, so that you are there.

[Miriam Maeve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tout bouge autour de moi is a series of vignettes in which Laferrière looks back at Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake in 2010. Laferrière himself was present when the earthquake struck and in Tout bouge autour de moi, he shares the experiences made and the emotions that were felt during the unfolding of the disaster as well as in the aftermath of it. The vignettes are primarily concerned with the country’s people and its culture. Other issues touched upon are Haiti’s history, politics and place in the world. While clearly dealing with tragedy, Laferrière’s account nonetheless conveys hope and resilience – attitudes, which seem to be an integral part of the Haitian mindset.

Concerning style, it is known (and I can only agree) that Laferrière is truly gifted at playing with words, therefore manages to communicate his ideas in a really beautiful way. His writing is thoughtful, he shows concern and his insightful perspectives incite reflection on the part of the reader.

Finally, if you are not a French, native speaker but have some knowledge in French (I’d say B2 level), you should not have too many troubles reading this work.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trois étoiles, parce que c'est un sujet tragique et que je suis de nature généreuse. J'aime bien Dany Laferrière, mais je trouve qu'avec l'âge il a tendance à parler pour parler, ou plutôt à parler en ayant l'air de dire quelque chose, qui finalement ne veut pas dire grand-chose. C'est peut-être ça la poésie? Je suis plutôt d'esprit factuel. J'ai quand même trouvé intéressant les passages où il dénonce la récupération du drame par les médias, ou l'idée ridicule voulant que Haïti est un "pays maudit".

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thankful for this book. I was ignorant of Haiti and the 2010 earthquake and this book helped me in both arenas. It is intimate, touching, skillful and without a drop of sentimentality. Very glad I came across it. Not quite sure I was blown away by the writing to rush out and read the author again but some of that I think might be due to the translation which I thought was sub par.

[René · Rating 3 out of 5]

La première moitié est très humaine, avec des capsules où Laferrière partage son vécu dans les deux premiers jours suivant le fameux tremblement de terre qui a détruit Port-au-Prince en janvier 2010. Toutefois, la seconde partie erre vers un optimisme qui ne s’est malheureusement pas concrétisé car Haiti est retombé dans le marasme social où elle glisse de plus en plus rapidement.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very touching. I especially liked the way the struggle was initially perceived as a struggle of all, and becomes a struggle of a family to go back to a bigger tragedy. This shift of perspective showed in depth how hard it is to face death and loss, incredible and sad.

[Moumita Laha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving look at the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Dany Laferrière presents his anecdotes through vignettes about the Haitians and how they coped with the natural calamity. A deeply nuanced story.

[Sara Cánepa · Rating 4 out of 5]

style d’écriture très léger. très beau. je trouve que Dany Laferrière écrit comme j’aime écrire. c’est écrit en sorte de fragments donc ça donne moins cette envie de lire sans cesse. bon livre d’entre deux. sujet très touchant mais pas abordé de manière crue.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve read this year!

[Lauren Herzfeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Quelques fulgurances

[kamila gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

an intimate perspective on an event of such a large magnitude, written in short essays — good style!

[Cedrik Blais · Rating 2 out of 5]

Très lent et déconstruit. Difficile à finir... Dommage

[Victoria Kozikowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

His musings are insightful an leave more with you than you originally think. Liked the book the longer I read it.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Alison Peloquin · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful account of a devastating event.

[Jaq {Gwen} · Rating 3 out of 5]

Letto per le sfide
1. Alphabet 2022
2. Babele 2022: modalità difficile
3. Esimio sconosciuto 2022
4. Sfida libera 2022

[Pontchita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me put in words what I could not describe when I went through the traumatic experience of the earthquake with my family. It helped me understand my innermost thoughts about the situation. As I was a child when the event happened (~7 years old), I could not and still cannot explain how much it affected me. I went from being an extroverted and bubbly child to being introverted until today. More and more, I am trying to find that inner child who was not afraid of anything, but only believed that God, family and her dreams could help her reach further than the stars. Reflecting on the book, I want to tell my younger self from this day to not loose yourself nor your light ❤️! The earthquake does not have to define who you are or become; it's just a part of your story.

[Marnette · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was written so effortlessly. I left like I was in a journey with the writer. The translation was great. I think on my next book of Mr. Laferrière, I will read it in French.

[Alessandro D'Onofrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4,5)
Dieci secondi per fare la scelta giusta, un minuto che cambia ogni cosa. Che demolisce le case appena costruite e lascia intatti gli edifici più vecchi, che distrugge simboli, che lascia la gente a dormire sotto le stelle, come ipnotizzata, come in uno stato di precoscienza da cui non ci si vuole assolutamente svegliare. Ma si deve.
Dai racconti dei primi giorni, le difficoltà, il ritorno a casa che di ritorno ha ben poco, la morte, gli aiuti umanitari, le ipocrisie, la chiusura di un cerchio e la nascita, imprevista, di questo libro.
Dany non si smentisce. La sua musica è la stessa, anche se in questa prosa frammentata frutto della rielaborazione dei suoi appunti. Agli inizi non mi aveva granché colpito ma, come ogni volta, mi si è stretto il cuore, sempre di più, man mano che arrivavo all'ultima parola.

(È uscito l'anno scorso in italiano, traduzione di tali iuseppe Girimonti Greco e Francesca Scala per 66thand2nd. Non c'è di che.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Living on the Cascade fault where we expect "a big one" anytime, I was fascinated by the prospect of learning about dealing with the immediate post-earthquake. This is not that book. It is a more revealing book.

Yes, it starts with stories of where people were, of the first night outdoors during aftershocks, of attempts at communication, of death and survival. It moves on to the stoic dignity of the mango saleswoman still selling mangoes.

Interspersed are cultural comments about the locals and about the NGOs who come without adequate knowledge of local tradition. There are glimpses of background history.

The author, born in Haiti, has moved to Canada; he was back in Haiti for a conference when the earth quake hit. Halfway through the book he returned to Canada, but returned for an Aunt's funeral. More of the cultural comment occurs in the telling of the second visit.

The 4 instead of 5 stars may be more my taste than a comment about the work itself. I prefer a less fragmented approach. Still it is a book worth reading and rereading.

[Madeleine LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'adore Dany Laferrière. J'aime particulièrement son regard, sa tendresse et la sensualité de son écriture (il parle lui de musique et de rythme de son écriture). Il était à Port-au-Prince au moment du tremblement de terre de 2010 et écrit dans ce livre ses impressions et observations de l'événement. Loin de mettre en relief les détails morbides, le livre s'attarde plutôt à décrire les relations humaines dans ce contexte particulier. J'aurais donné 5 étoiles mais j'ai trouvé la 2e moitié du livre un peu répétitive. L'essentiel se trouve selon moi entièrement dans la première moitié, alors qu'il observe sans filtres ce qui se passe autour de lui, juste après le cataclysme. La suite est une réaction 'après-coup' et est un peu plus analytique.

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw and moving narrative with an insiders perspective in the aftermath of disaster. Poetic, poignant and evocative I'm mesmerized by his writing." Sleep came and caressed the back of my neck, warning me it was time to let go." And his editorials:
"Nowadays, you can't tell the Catholics apart from the Protestants, since the two wolves have the same attitude toward the flock. Then you have to factor in the humanitarian organizations that act like left-wing clergy. They claim to be more practical and direct, but they're just as emotionally manipulative. In the end there's no difference."