Set in Guadeloupe, this novel traces the rise an fall of man under the mocking eye of the spirits who roam the land, drifting between light and darkness, between happiness and misery, between love and death.

The Drifting of Spirits

Literature & Fiction

Pineau, Gisèle

Dash, Michael

Contemporary

Quartet Books Ltd.

Macadam Dreams

A cyclone inexorably sweeps Eliette into her past in this novel about the wayward violence of love and nature in Guadeloupe. In Macadam Dreams the celebrated Creole writer Gisèle Pineau cunningly unveils the two cataclysms that have devastated Eliette’s life: first, the cyclone of 1928, when she was only eight years old, and now, Hurricane Hugo, whose destruction shatters the elaborate defenses the old woman has built around the sorrows and madness of her life in the small, accursed town of Savane Mulet. As Hugo unleashes its fury, a final blow frees Eliette’s repressed memories of madness, isolation, and loss, and of the grievous failure of a prophecy that promised her a child. A story of self-discovery, Macadam Dreams speaks eloquently of the violence and poverty endured by women of this island nation—violence every bit as devastating, and seemingly inescapable, as the perpetually returning cyclone. Viewed by many as a canonical author in the Creole movement in Francophone literature, Pineau has created an extraordinary work that is recognized as a masterpiece of French-Caribbean literature.

History & Criticism

University Of Nebraska Press

Devil's Dance (European Women Writers Series)

In a sexual frenzy, Mina Montério tries to lose both herself and the phantoms that have haunted her since she left Guadeloupe, but she cannot elude the ghost of her beloved sister Rosalia, who burned to death in a fire Mina escaped. Ultimately, in the company of a tormented man recently released from a mental hospital, Mina returns to Piment, her birthplace, to unravel the mystery of her family’s curse.Sorting through stories of quarrels and betrayals, incest and rivalry, black magic and sorcery, the two find what they seek: the key to what tortures them. Through their quest, Gisèle Pineau explores the questions of migration, exile, and return that have distinguished her work among Francophone writers within the Creole tradition. An intensely felt and strikingly original tale, Devil’s Dance shows Pineau’s genius for mapping the lost soul in search of itself.

Literary

A cyclone inexorably sweeps Eliette into her past in this novel about the wayward violence of love and nature in Guadeloupe. In Macadam Dreams the celebrated Creole writer Gisèle Pineau cunningly unveils the two cataclysms that have devastated Eliette’s life: first, the cyclone of 1928, when she was only eight years old, and now, Hurricane Hugo, whose destruction shatters the elaborate defenses the old woman has built around the sorrows and madness of her life in the small, accursed town of Savane Mulet. As Hugo unleashes its fury, a final blow frees Eliette’s repressed memories of madness, isolation, and loss, and of the grievous failure of a prophecy that promised her a child. A story of self-discovery, Macadam Dreams speaks eloquently of the violence and poverty endured by women of this island nation—violence every bit as devastating, and seemingly inescapable, as the perpetually returning cyclone. Viewed by many as a canonical author in the Creole movement in Francophone literature, Pineau has created an extraordinary work that is recognized as a masterpiece of French-Caribbean literature.

Bison Books

In a sexual frenzy, Mina Montério tries to lose both herself and the phantoms that have haunted her since she left Guadeloupe, but she cannot elude the ghost of her beloved sister Rosalia, who burned to death in a fire Mina escaped. Ultimately, in the company of a tormented man recently released from a mental hospital, Mina returns to Piment, her birthplace, to unravel the mystery of her family’s curse.
Sorting through stories of quarrels and betrayals, incest and rivalry, black magic and sorcery, the two find what they seek: the key to what tortures them. Through their quest, Gisèle Pineau explores the questions of migration, exile, and return that have distinguished her work among Francophone writers within the Creole tradition. An intensely felt and strikingly original tale, Devil’s Dance shows Pineau’s genius for mapping the lost soul in search of itself.

Reference

Gisèle Pineau was born, and spent the first fourteen years of her life, in Paris. Her parents, originally from the island of Guadeloupe, were part of the massive transplantation of Antilleans to the métropole after World War II. Most had left their homeland hoping to improve their lives and their children’s prospects. Born French nationals, all theoretically enjoyed equal footing with the Parisian French. The color of their skin, however, meant a far different reality for Pineau’s family and their fellow émigrés. They lived on the outskirts of the city and on the margins of French society and culture.
 L’exil selon Julia, Gisèle Pineau’s compelling portrait of alienation and exile, was born of that experience. The critically acclaimed 1996 autobiographical novel, now available in its first English translation, explores the alienation of a girl and her grandmother contending with life between two identities. As a young woman of color and Caribbean ancestry―even though Paris-born―the girl is not accepted, not French enough, for her fellow Parisians. Yet she is too cosmopolitan to fit into Guadeloupean society upon returning to the island for a visit. And since her parents have virtually silenced their Creole legacy hoping to become better assimilated, she has no base of traditional knowledge to fall back on for strength or guidance as she contends with her identity crisis. When her grandmother Julia moves in with the family, the stories, the culture, and the strong sense of cultural identity the older woman brings finally provide the girl with a sense of belonging that transforms her life.
Powerful and accessible, Exile according to Julia is above all a moving and beautiful story of childhood, survival, and heritage that will speak to readers of all ages.
CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French

Exile: According to Julia (CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French)

United States

University of Virginia Press

Exile: According to Julia (Caribbean and African Literature) (CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French)

Chair Piment

Фоліо

Écrire la "parole de nuit": La nouvelle littérature antillaise

Depestre, René

COLLECTIFS

CHAMOISEAU, Patrick

Glissant, Édouard

Confiant, Raphaël

Pépin, Ernest

Poullet, Hector

Telchid, Sylviane

Juminer, Bertène

Essays & Correspondence

Cent vies et des poussières

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