The Rainy Season: Haiti—Then and NowConsidered the best book ever written about Haiti, now updated with a New Introduction, “After the Earthquake,” features first hand-reporting from Haiti weeks after the 2010 earthquake. Through a series of personal journeys, each interwoven with scenes from Haiti’s extraordinary past, Amy Wilentz brings to life this turbulent and fascinating country. Opening with her arrival just days before the fall of Haiti’s President-for-Life, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, Wilentz captures a country electric with the expectation of change: markets that bustle by day explode with gunfire at night; outlaws control country roads; farmers struggle to survive in a barren land; and belief in voodoo and the spirits of the ancestors remains as strong as ever. The Rainy Season demystifies Haiti—a country and a people in cruel and capricious times. From the rebel priest Father Aristide and the street boys under his protection to the military strongmen who pass through the revolving door of power into the gleaming white presidential palace—and the buzzing international press corps members who jet in for a coup and leave the minute it’s over—Wilentz’s Haiti haunts the imagination. |
From inside the book
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... head cocked to the side . He finds me peculiar but amusing , a foreigner walking around in the detritus in what he must think are extremely nice sneakers . They are new , though dusty . It's noon . It's hot . Frantz is in his uniform ...
... head cocked to the side . He finds me peculiar but amusing , a foreigner walking around in the detritus in what he must think are extremely nice sneakers . They are new , though dusty . It's noon . It's hot . Frantz is in his uniform ...
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... head slightly , and looking up to the heavens in a combined gesture of impatience and resignation not uncommon among people new to Haiti - let the old man leave with his piece of rope . The officer turned his attention next to another ...
... head slightly , and looking up to the heavens in a combined gesture of impatience and resignation not uncommon among people new to Haiti - let the old man leave with his piece of rope . The officer turned his attention next to another ...
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... head again . That scavenged wood will build someone's house now . The rubble is Home Depot for the homeless Haitians . Frantz watches the distant bulldozer approvingly . He says , " What I am tired of is Haiti . What I am tired of is ...
... head again . That scavenged wood will build someone's house now . The rubble is Home Depot for the homeless Haitians . Frantz watches the distant bulldozer approvingly . He says , " What I am tired of is Haiti . What I am tired of is ...
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... head on his girlfriend's shoulder and begins to weep . A woman from my table goes over to placate the humanitarians and to inform them that what they are seeing is not what it seems : he's a genius , she tells them . But unhinged by the ...
... head on his girlfriend's shoulder and begins to weep . A woman from my table goes over to placate the humanitarians and to inform them that what they are seeing is not what it seems : he's a genius , she tells them . But unhinged by the ...
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... head on his arms , and another leans up against him , and so on , sometimes as many as three or four deep . That is how they sleep . There is an expression for it in Creole , the slave language that grew out of a mix of seventeenth- and ...
... head on his arms , and another leans up against him , and so on , sometimes as many as three or four deep . That is how they sleep . There is an expression for it in Creole , the slave language that grew out of a mix of seventeenth- and ...
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Common terms and phrases
American Aristide Aristide's armed Army asked attack Avril Ayiti barricade began Benito bidonville bishops Boutilliers boys called Cap-Haïtien Carrefour Casernes charcoal Chavannes church Cité Soleil clairin Colonel countryside coup coup d'état courtyard Creole crowd dancing Dechoukaj Dessalines dollars drums Duvalier Duvalier's Duvalierists elections foreign François François Duvalier French friends front girls Gonaïves gunfire guns Haiti Haitian hand head houngan Jean-Claude Jean-Claude Duvalier Jean-Rabel jeep Jolicoeur journalists junta killed knew laughed Legliz live looked machetes Manigat Marc Bazin massacre Mimette mulatto Namphy Namphy's night Ogoun Oloffson palace Paul peasants peristyle Pétionville photographer pigs political Port-au-Prince priest Prosper Avril Radio Soleil rain road Salesian Saline says Senatorial Candidate slaves slums smiled soldiers St.-Jean-Bosco stopped street talk tap-tap tell Titid told Tontons Macoute town trees truck turned voodoo Waldeck watched women young zombi