Product Description

A collection of folktales gathered by the author in Haiti with comments on Haitian folklore.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #257898 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-21
• Released on: 1997-01-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
File this under your folklore section and anticipate wide interest in a collection of Haitian folk stories, both from a literary and from a cultural perspective. Almost thirty stories gathered by Wolkstein provide strong literary pieces packed with diversity and varied themes. -- Midwest Book Review

Language Notes
Text: English, Creole

From the Publisher
"An unusual and arresting book....Her prefatory notes are so eloquent and so filled with flashes of light thrown upon the customs, beliefs, and practices of the Haitian people that nothing else seems to be wanted."--Katherine M. Briggs

Customer Reviews

An unusual, charming and authentic book of Haitian folktales
I lived in a remote village in Haiti for five years and found this book while home in the USA for a visit. I found its stories unusual and charming -- and authentic! When I returned to Haiti I had a wonderful time with my Haitian friends as I related the stories I had read in this book and they would finish telling them with me and share how their mothers and fathers had shared these same stories with them.

Quirky and Fun
If you're looking for stories with pat, solid endings, this is not the book for you. But, if you're looking for something that reflects the eccentricity and style of Haiti, then this is it. The stories are magical and you can almost see the people telling them for themselves! Kric?

Learning Another Land
By the author's own admission, these stories weren't necessarily the best-told she encountered while researching folk tales in Haiti. The flat page lacks the beauty of the oral tale, and some of these stories may have been a little weak in the telling; but on the page they reveal a great deal about Haiti, and are a fascinating read besides.

Folk tales reveal a great deal about a culture-what it values, how members of the society relate, what their beliefs are. These tales do exactly that. While they aren't as clear-cut, with a defined beginning, middle, and end, as American readers have become accustomed to, they do give away a great detail about Haiti. Life is unfinished; hardship is to be embraced and studied; the spirit world is right here at hand, not a million miles away above the clouds.

Even on their own, they stand as a monument to the creative act and the power of the human intellect. These stories will infect your head like a virus, spreading and replicating, until you have to pass them on. Read them casually, and you will be enlightened. Study them seriously, and you may be transformed.