Madame Lavaud is married to Laurent Lavaud, who, as a generous sponsor of Radio Zòrèy, drops money off at the radio studio “on that perfectly starry night” when his wife is in labor with their daughter Rose. On that night, four men with M16s and machine guns kill him with three shots to the heart. He dies instantly. Gaëlle Lavaud turns her rage over to friends in Special Forces, who offer to murder Bernard Dorien. Seven years later, she perceives Rose’s death as a curse for Bernard’s death. Madame Lavaud finds consolation in her romantic affairs with men, and, in particular, with Max Ardin, Senior, the principal of École Ardin, the school where Claire Limyè Lanmè Faustin is a scholarship student and Louise George is one of her teachers.
Bernard Dorien returns to Cité Pendue, a slum-like place eight miles from Ville Rose, after a stint in the national police force in Port-au-Prince. In Cité Pendue, his parents run a restaurant called Bè, where gangs of “beefy young men” connected to older politicians and business owners have taken over the town. Bernard writes news stories for Radio Zòrèy and dreams of having his own radio program that he will call “Chimè”—about the reasons men join gangs. His competition is Di Mwen, or Tell Me, a weekly gossip show hosted by Louise George. Bernard will never air “Chimè,” or any of his other ideas about social problems. The leader of the gang who murdered Laurent Lavaud accuses Bernard of being the mastermind of the plot. He is arrested, interrogated, tortured, and after being released, killed by Special Forces policemen.
Max Ardin, Junior, whose father is well connected in Ville Rose, works at Radio Zòrèy as the host of a rap music program; his best friend is Bernard Dorien. The night before Bernard is arrested for murdering Laurent Lavaud, Bernard invites him to his parents’ restaurant in Cité Pendue. Max Junior declines; he is afraid to visit the gang-ridden town. The day after Bernard’s arrest, Max Ardin Senior banishes his son from Ville Rose and sends him to live with his mother in Miami. There, in Miami, he learns about Bernard’s death. When he returns to Ville Rose ten years later, he listens to Louise George’s interview with Flore Voltaire, the Ardin housemaid, on her radio program Di Mwen. As Flore tells all, Max drives to the sea where he and Bernard had taken off their shirts and plunged into the water together. He arrives as the fishermen finish their wake and hears Nozias cry out for Claire, “the kind of name,” he thinks, “that you said with love, that you whispered in your woman’s ears the night before your child was born.” Then he walks into the sea fully clothed.
Louise George has her own reasons for interviewing Flore Voltaire on Di Mwen: She calculates she can get even with Max Ardin Senior, her longtime lover, for shaming her after she slapped one of his students while she was teaching at École Ardin. She coaxes Flore Voltaire to tell her shocking story for all of Ville Rose to hear: Max Junior had raped her when she was the Ardin housemaid, and she gave birth to his son Pamaxime. It is not known to Louise, and certainly not to Flore or to any of the people in Ville Rose, that Max has his own flawed reason for what he has done. Wanting his father to hear her screams, he uses Flore to convince himself he can make love to a woman. Jessamine, a friend Max Junior brings with him to Ville Rose from Miami, tells Max Senior the truth: “Your son has been in love only once in his life, and the person he was in love with is dead.”
The above plot summary shows how the lives of each character in Claire of the Sea Light intersect in a complex web of competing needs. It does not illuminate their full-bodied humanity or why they lend verisimilitude to the totality of the story being told about them. It is, rather, in Danticat’s luscious storytelling that the reader discovers the emotional arc of the characters in the context of place, and where their souls are laid bare. Like Louise George, Danticat tells all. Claire of the Sea Light is her own Di Mwen.
Dozing at Caleb’s wake, Nozias is awakened by “a strange sound in the water, echoes of a person crying,” or maybe it is laughter. He wonders if it could be his daughter Claire, “the draft of her spirit drifting past,” like something he had felt on the day his wife died. Just as Nozias is hearing this strange sound, Claire decides she will see her father one more time before she runs away for good into Mòn Initil. Standing on a lower butte where she can see the beach, she feels a presence around her, “a warm burst of air” brushing past her. She has had these sensations before—ones she can’t explain—and calls them her “rèv je klè, waking dreams.” But then she sees Madame Gaëlle and her father running to the edge of the water and a group forming around with their lamps and “a man in a red shirt” being pulled out of the water. Someone calls out the name “Ardin,” as she watches her father, Madame Gaëlle, and others turn the man on his back, and Madame Lavaud “lower her face and put her mouth on the man’s mouth, as though to kiss him.” This is when Claire starts running down the hill faster, to “see the man/Who’d crawled half dead/Out of the sea.”
And in these last lines of Claire of the Sea Light the love flows: “Claire had to go back and see her father and Madame Gaëlle, whose own sorrows could have nearly drowned them. She had to go down to the water to see them take turns breathing into this man, breathing him back to life. Before becoming Madame Gaëlle’s daughter, she had to go home, just one last time.”[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_row]
[/et_pb_section]
Claire of the Sea Light
Madame Lavaud is married to Laurent Lavaud, who, as a generous sponsor of Radio Zòrèy, drops money off at the radio studio “on that perfectly starry night” when his wife is in labor with their daughter Rose. On that night, four men with M16s and machine guns kill him with three shots to the heart. He dies instantly. Gaëlle Lavaud turns her rage over to friends in Special Forces, who offer to murder Bernard Dorien. Seven years later, she perceives Rose’s death as a curse for Bernard’s death. Madame Lavaud finds consolation in her romantic affairs with men, and, in particular, with Max Ardin, Senior, the principal of École Ardin, the school where Claire Limyè Lanmè Faustin is a scholarship student and Louise George is one of her teachers.
Bernard Dorien returns to Cité Pendue, a slum-like place eight miles from Ville Rose, after a stint in the national police force in Port-au-Prince. In Cité Pendue, his parents run a restaurant called Bè, where gangs of “beefy young men” connected to older politicians and business owners have taken over the town. Bernard writes news stories for Radio Zòrèy and dreams of having his own radio program that he will call “Chimè”—about the reasons men join gangs. His competition is Di Mwen, or Tell Me, a weekly gossip show hosted by Louise George. Bernard will never air “Chimè,” or any of his other ideas about social problems. The leader of the gang who murdered Laurent Lavaud accuses Bernard of being the mastermind of the plot. He is arrested, interrogated, tortured, and after being released, killed by Special Forces policemen.
Max Ardin, Junior, whose father is well connected in Ville Rose, works at Radio Zòrèy as the host of a rap music program; his best friend is Bernard Dorien. The night before Bernard is arrested for murdering Laurent Lavaud, Bernard invites him to his parents’ restaurant in Cité Pendue. Max Junior declines; he is afraid to visit the gang-ridden town. The day after Bernard’s arrest, Max Ardin Senior banishes his son from Ville Rose and sends him to live with his mother in Miami. There, in Miami, he learns about Bernard’s death. When he returns to Ville Rose ten years later, he listens to Louise George’s interview with Flore Voltaire, the Ardin housemaid, on her radio program Di Mwen. As Flore tells all, Max drives to the sea where he and Bernard had taken off their shirts and plunged into the water together. He arrives as the fishermen finish their wake and hears Nozias cry out for Claire, “the kind of name,” he thinks, “that you said with love, that you whispered in your woman’s ears the night before your child was born.” Then he walks into the sea fully clothed.
Louise George has her own reasons for interviewing Flore Voltaire on Di Mwen: She calculates she can get even with Max Ardin Senior, her longtime lover, for shaming her after she slapped one of his students while she was teaching at École Ardin. She coaxes Flore Voltaire to tell her shocking story for all of Ville Rose to hear: Max Junior had raped her when she was the Ardin housemaid, and she gave birth to his son Pamaxime. It is not known to Louise, and certainly not to Flore or to any of the people in Ville Rose, that Max has his own flawed reason for what he has done. Wanting his father to hear her screams, he uses Flore to convince himself he can make love to a woman. Jessamine, a friend Max Junior brings with him to Ville Rose from Miami, tells Max Senior the truth: “Your son has been in love only once in his life, and the person he was in love with is dead.”
The above plot summary shows how the lives of each character in Claire of the Sea Light intersect in a complex web of competing needs. It does not illuminate their full-bodied humanity or why they lend verisimilitude to the totality of the story being told about them. It is, rather, in Danticat’s luscious storytelling that the reader discovers the emotional arc of the characters in the context of place, and where their souls are laid bare. Like Louise George, Danticat tells all. Claire of the Sea Light is her own Di Mwen.
Dozing at Caleb’s wake, Nozias is awakened by “a strange sound in the water, echoes of a person crying,” or maybe it is laughter. He wonders if it could be his daughter Claire, “the draft of her spirit drifting past,” like something he had felt on the day his wife died. Just as Nozias is hearing this strange sound, Claire decides she will see her father one more time before she runs away for good into Mòn Initil. Standing on a lower butte where she can see the beach, she feels a presence around her, “a warm burst of air” brushing past her. She has had these sensations before—ones she can’t explain—and calls them her “rèv je klè, waking dreams.” But then she sees Madame Gaëlle and her father running to the edge of the water and a group forming around with their lamps and “a man in a red shirt” being pulled out of the water. Someone calls out the name “Ardin,” as she watches her father, Madame Gaëlle, and others turn the man on his back, and Madame Lavaud “lower her face and put her mouth on the man’s mouth, as though to kiss him.” This is when Claire starts running down the hill faster, to “see the man/Who’d crawled half dead/Out of the sea.”
And in these last lines of Claire of the Sea Light the love flows: “Claire had to go back and see her father and Madame Gaëlle, whose own sorrows could have nearly drowned them. She had to go down to the water to see them take turns breathing into this man, breathing him back to life. Before becoming Madame Gaëlle’s daughter, she had to go home, just one last time.”[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_row]
[/et_pb_section]
4 comments
A great review of a fascinating novel.
This novel sounds intricately complex and intriguing.
Cool infographic!
An excellent review of a book I intend to read. Well done!