Bell, Madison Smartt

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TOUSSAINT-BLACK LIBERATION FIGHTER
strong Book
A complex narrative of a complex topic
Amazing!
Welcome Biography by Outstanding Novelist of Haiti

Toussaint Louverture: A Biography
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375423370
Release Date: 2007-01-16

Book Description

In 1791, Saint Domingue was both the richest and cruelest colony in the Western Hemisphere; more than a third of African slaves died within a few years of their arrival there. Thirteen years later, Haitian rebels declared independence from France after the first--and only--successful slave revolution in history. Much of the success of this uprising can be credited to one man, Toussaint Louverture--a figure about whom surprisingly little is known.

In this fascinating biography, the first about Toussaint to appear in English in more than fifty years, Madison Smartt Bell combines a novelist's passion for his subject with a deep knowledge of the historical milieu that produced the man. Toussaint has been known either as a martyr of the revolution or as the instigator of one of history’s most savagely violent events. Bell shatters this binary perception, producing a clear-eyed picture of a complicated figure.

Toussaint, born a slave, became a slaveholder himself, with associates among the white planter class. Bell demonstrates how his privileged position served as both an asset and a liability, enabling him to gain the love of blacks and mulattoes as "Papa Toussaint" but also sowing mistrust in their minds.

Another of Bell's brilliant achievements is demonstrating how Toussaint’s often surprising actions, such as his support for the king of France even as the French Revolution promised an end to slavery and his betrayal of a planned slave revolt in Jamaica, can be explained by his desire to achieve liberation for the blacks of Saint Domingue.

This masterly biography is a revelation of one of the most fascinating and important figures in New World history.

Customer Reviews:

TOUSSAINT-BLACK LIBERATION FIGHTER.......2007-06-19

The French Revolution, as all great revolutions, had effects on world politics and the struggle of other peoples whom awoken to political life in the afterglow of that event. The fight for freedom in French Santo Domingo (now Haiti, the name that I will use to avoid confusion hereafter) led by Toussaint to a point just short of independence is a prime example of that effect. Without the revolution in the metropolis it is very unlikely that at that time the struggle in Haiti could have been successful. The history of the times was replete with unsuccessful slave rebellions. Why it was successful in Haiti and how that success was accomplished, mainly under the leadership of Toussaint in its decisive phases, is the subject of Mr. Bell's book. Mr. Bell's scholarship and necessary updating of Toussaint's story compares very favorably with that of the eccentric Marxist, later Pan-Africanist, historian C.L.R. James.

The freedom struggle in Haiti, a tropical island well suited to intensive agricultural development for the new international market in those goods necessary for the embryonic industrial system, was above all the struggle for the abolition of slavery. The fight against that servile condition that even many revolutionaries, white and black, and former revolutionaries of the time broke their teeth on. Today that freedom struggle, successful in its way in the Haiti of the early 19th century, remains a shining example of the only really successful fight against slavery by the slaves. So it pays to pay particular attention to the fight.

The forces which pushed the French Revolution forward in the metropolis had their its own set of priorities, among them the fight to move the population from a condition of subjugation to a monarch to citizens of a democracy. I have noted elsewhere how important that changed social status was to the historical and psychological development of modern humankind. Nevertheless that same psychology applies to the struggle in Haiti although even more so under conditions of chattel slavery. Thus, the events in French had their reflection in the colonies particularly in Haiti. One can observe in France the changes in attitude and policy from the early revolutionary days when all classes were good fellows and true through the rise of the leftist Robespierre regime based on the plebian masses, its eventually overthrow and establishment of the Directory and then the various manifestations of the regimes of Napoleon. That regime and its treacherous colonial policy attempting was a very far drop down hill from the early heady days when even moderate revolutionaries were in both places prepared to go quite far to eliminate slavery in Haiti.

There is something of a truism in the statement that great revolutions throw up personalities fit for the times. Certainly revolutions shake up the traditional order of things and let some who might have stayed dormant rise to the occasion. That is the case with Toussaint. For most of his life he was a middle level functionary on his master's estate respected by not slated for greatness. Early on, as the struggle against slavery heated up among the black slaves he exhibited the military, social, political diplomatic and other skills that would eventual thrust him into the leadership of the liberation struggle, This is really saying something special about the man because in the context of that Haitian revolution with the initial disputes between British Spanish and French interests and then the conflicting interests on the island itself between white, black and mulatto would have driven a lesser man around the bend. That it did not do so and that in his errors that which at times were grievous, especially around his seemingly obsessive commitment to maintain the French connection, does not take away from the grandeur of the experience. A cursory look at the latter developments on the island and the seemingly never ending series of tin pot despots who in their turn devastated the island only brings out Toussaint's fascinating role, warts and all, in the earlier liberation struggle in broader relief.

strong Book.......2007-06-04

Madison Smarrt Bell writes a incredible Book on a True Leader who was bold and Revolutionary in how he commanded. this Book on this Man is long voerdue. Toussaint Louverture lead the Greatest slave Revolt. Toussaint is a Towering Figure in the History of Defending yourself and this Book is a Must read for all generations now and in the future.

A complex narrative of a complex topic.......2007-05-30

Haiti seems destined to endless instability and poverty. Bell's new biography of Toussaint L'Ouverture, a key figure in Haitian independence, sheds some light on the underlying issues: There were four groups in Haiti: The whites, the black slaves, mixed race "gens de couleur" and maroons--escaped slaves who lived in the hills. Toussaint himself was an unusual character: A free black who owned property. Against a background of tremendous cruelty and racism, the country devolves into civil war at the same time as the colonial power, France, is experiencing the end of monarchy.

In addition to the different interests within Haitian society, the revolution was complicated by Royalist French, French revolutionaries, the British (who wanted to preserve the idea of monarchy) and the Spanish (who had neighboring territory on Hispaniola and were being opportunistic). The result is four factions times four interfering external powers and you can soon see that Haitian politics becomes impossible to understand.

This biography clearly demonstrates Toussaints impressive personal gifts of courage and oratory, and helps the reader to understand that the foundation of Haiti as a country was never simply a matter of black slaves over-throwing their white masters. However, the level of detail is so great that the book is a very difficult read. One soon becomes lost in subsidiary characters and minor skermishes; the direction of the narrative is hard to grasp.

But perhaps that's the point.

While this book may have a place in college libraries, it can't be recommended to the casual reader.

Amazing!.......2007-02-27

Nashville's own Madison Smart Bell writes an amazing biography (after three fictional accounts) of the man who led the most successful slave revolt in history.

Welcome Biography by Outstanding Novelist of Haiti.......2007-02-25

Bell brings a writer's touch and deep empathy to the life of this towering but long-neglected 18th-Century black revolutionary. The biography is straight-foward, detailed, judicious and as well-researched as could be, considering the paucity of available primary sources on its subject's life. Particularly helpful are the careful placement of the Haitian revolution against the background of the French revolution, without loss of focus on the strategic brilliance (and weaknesses) of the book's central character.

Bell's is a much-needed corrective to the standard but outdated treatment of Toussaint L'Overture by the Caribbean Marxist writer C.L.R. James, whose work on L'Overture in now more than 60 years old. Bell treats the island's complicated race relations and the interaction of the Roman Catholic and Voudo religions with a remarkable depth and sensitivity, which he had already demonstrated in much greater depth in his acclaimed trilogy of novels on the Haitian revolution. He has done us a favor by taking up the biographer's pen, in place of the novelist's.

The book would have benefitted from a list of characters and a few better maps. And one aches to have more on the effect of the Haitian revolt on the early American republic, diplomacy, slave relations, abolitionism, the Louisiana Purchase, subsequent Haitian history, and so on, those these have been treated at least to some extent in other English-language sources.

Average customer rating:

Haitian revolution comes alive. Vivid, vast, haunting.
You can't change the history
Haiti's history of revolution
gruesomely good
A DIFFICULT READ, BUT WORTH IT...I SUPPOSE

All Souls' Rising
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Master of the Crossroads
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ASIN: 1400076536
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Amazon.com

In his breathtaking and powerful novel that garnered nominations for both the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, Madison Smartt Bell leaves the dark contemporary world he has so brilliantly made his own in nine previously acclaimed novels and short story collections, such as Save Me, Joe Louis. Now he turns to the past and brings viscerally to life the slave rebellion that would bring an end to the white rule of Haiti in the late eighteenth century. The result is an explosive, epic historical novel of astonishing depth and range, catapulting Bell into the ranks of the finest living authors.

Book Description

In this first installment of his epic Haitian trilogy, Madison Smartt Bell brings to life a decisive moment in the history of race, class, and colonialism. The slave uprising in Haiti was a momentous contribution to the tide of revolution that swept over the Western world at the end of the 1700s. A brutal rebellion that strove to overturn a vicious system of slavery, the uprising successfully transformed Haiti from a European colony to the world’s first Black republic. From the center of this horrific maelstrom, the heroic figure of Toussaint Louverture–a loyal, literate slave and both a devout Catholic and Vodouisant–emerges as the man who will take the merciless fires of violence and vengeance and forge a revolutionary war fueled by liberty and equality.

Bell assembles a kaleidoscopic portrait of this seminal movement through a tableau of characters that encompass black, white, male, female, rich, poor, free and enslaved. Pulsing with brilliant detail, All Soul’s Rising provides a visceral sense of the pain, terror, confusion, and triumph of revolution.

Customer Reviews:

Haitian revolution comes alive. Vivid, vast, haunting........2007-06-23

I had never heard of Madison Smartt Bell when I picked up this novel from the public library. After reading a few chapters, I began to wonder how this author could possibly not be famous? This is a moving, haunting book, panoramic in scope and often extrememly violent, bringing a unique event of human history to vivid life.

First, background about Haiti and its revolution ---->

The Haitian revolution is special in that the Haitian slaves were the first people of the world to throw off the white man's yoke and become free. At a time when India and Indonesia were just getting used to European rule and the slaughter of the North American natives was continuing apace, these blacks of Haiti (the majority of them directly brought in from Africa in slave-ships) overthrew their masters in a grand revolt and provided the Europeans with a taste of their own medicine of violence. It helped that France was going through it's great egalitarian revolution -- the slaves just happened to take the message of "equality liberty fraternity" seriously.

The post-revolution history of Haiti has not been happy -- including in the 19th century a succession of corrupt rulers and huge sums paid to France, and in the 20th century direct rule by the U.S. and then by brutal U.S.-allied dictators. But this does not make the unique revolution any less important! For a rapid history of Haitian revolution and the ensuing 200 years, have a look through the Library of Congress "Country Study" on Haiti, available online. For a modern (mid-20th-century) literary description of Haiti and of a voodoo ceremony, read Graham Greene's "The Comedians".

Now, about the book "All Souls Rising" ---->

Not knowing the author, as I read the first chapter, I decided unconsciously that he was white; the first chapter follows a white character (doctor Herbert) spending a night at a local plantation, describing breezily a disobedient slave woman crucified alive on the lawn for disciplinary purposes, and other minor tidbits. Moving onto the next chapter, I couldn't imagine that it was the same author writing, as we're following the viewpoint of Ri'au, an escaped slave who roves with a band of maroons, becomes (is possessed by) Ogun in a voodoo ceremony, and describes "whitemen" in the third person as totally alien beings.

(Later, a websearch on Madison Scott Bell told me he's white. But one of those that rises above his color and his imperialistic heritage; to hear all voices! What a writer!!)

The book is told from multiple viewpoints, alternating from chapter to chapter. Some of the characters are real historical characters. And some of the characters are very memorable.

-- A central character is the doctor Herbert, a peaceful Frenchman freshly arrived and unable to adjust to Haitian society based on slavery, throughout this book searching for his sister who appears to have disappeared. Through his experiences we witness much of the devastation and extreme violence of the times, perpetrated first by the white masters and then by the rebelling slaves.

-- A second central character is Ri'au, brought from Africa and escaped from Haitian slavery as a youth, who like doctor Herbert is mostly pushed around by fate, from one rebelling group to another, dancing to the voodoo spirits, burning and killing, and also under Toussaint's direction learning the white man's writing and discipline to use against his former masters.

-- Perhaps the most important character is Toussaint, the real historical figure we see mostly through the eyes of the fictional caharacters. A true tragic hero of the revolution -- one who went on from being a house-slave to learn the white man's writing and create a formidable, structured army from mostly Africa-born rebelling slaves, one who realized the importance of prosperity after freedom, and attempted to keep the white man's expertise in peaceful coexistence. The white man, however, wanted to reinstate slavery, and so imprisoned Toussaint after he had made peace and took him to France to die.

-- A side character I liked was a white priest with his mulatto wife and children - the character introduced and drawn lovably, and finally his execution described in horrific detail.

The book is so full of extraordinary events and situations that it's hard to give a taste in this review. There is the plantation-owner's wife cutting open a female slave made pregnant by her husband, and then being haunted by the murdered embryo for months. This haunted woman's confrontation with marauding rebel-slaves is one of the most unique literary descriptions I have read -- it's told first from the viewpoint of the white woman and later from Ri'au's. There is the (hilarious if tragic) situation of whites captured in the black rebel camps, the ex-slave women getting pleasure out of making the white women wash clothes as they always had done for white women. There are the voodoo ceremonies, often described by Ri'au, the practitioner's version of reality becoming the viewpoint of the chapter, as the residents of the spirit world are called forth and take control over the voodoo dancers.

Read "All Souls Rising". You won't forget it easily.

You can't change the history.......2007-06-15

I read all three of the books in this trilogy. None is better than the others. They form a wondrous composite whole. This work is brilliant, stunning in it's complexity and it's presentation. The research must have been phenomenal. The characters are well drawn inside of the history that the events represent.

I was amused by other writer's comments about too many words and too gruesome or violent. If you read and there are too many words, then what are you reading for? If you understand the course of human events in the recorded world then you should know that human beings are not shinking violets when it comes to killing creatively, or rape or a host of other truly horrid human activities. The glory of Bell's achievement here is that he makes it all so real. Not too real, just humanly real. You can feel the heat. You can taste the coffee with a stick of sugar cane stirred in it. You can feel the characters love and hate based on their natures which are influenced by their experiences in life. This is not a read, it's a journey and one well worth taking. Masterful...

Haiti's history of revolution.......2007-04-29

I loved this book.
It is not to say that it was pleasant to read or that it was not horrible but it rang believable and true to me. The ugly reality of slavery and the poison that institutionalized slavery inflicts upon the human soul is different for each person. You see the different human reactions to anarchy within a slave revolt. There is heroism as well as horror contained within these pages.

gruesomely good.......2007-03-31

For any student of slavery or history, this is a great historical work. As a novel, it reads equally well. There is much to learn about not only Haitian but French history from this work. The sequence of events in the back of the book enriches greatly the historical context of the novel itself. I have often read of the relative brutality of Caribbean slavery compared to North American slavery - the events described in this book make the brutality abundantly clear, disturbing and historically consequential.

A great book with no simple phiosophisizing or side taking.

A DIFFICULT READ, BUT WORTH IT...I SUPPOSE.......2005-04-27

First, I have to admit, this was not my cup of tea. I read it due to the fact that I, over the years, have had a number of friends from Haiti, children of those who have fled. That being said, I did give this one four stars in that I feel it is a book, or series of books, that probably should have been written. For a country so close to us, we know so little about it. Actually, I like my history books just that, history books, and am not all that enthusiastic about "historical fiction" good or bad. But, from what little I have read, this seems to be pretty good, well written, and I can only speculate, well researched. As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a difficult read. It is difficult on several levels. I cannot say I particularly enjoyed the vivid accounts of rape, torture, killing, etc. etc., but I suppose they were indeed apart of the story and should be told. I do admire the writers unusual use of the language, syntax, et al. All in all, I do recommend this one.

Average customer rating:

a depressing conclusion to an excellent story
A Truly Great Series Of Historical Novels.

Stone that the Builder Refused
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Master of the Crossroads
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ASIN: 1400076188
Release Date: 2006-02-14

Book Description

The Stone that the Builder Refused is the final volume of Madison Smartt Bell’s masterful trilogy about the Haitian Revolution–the first successful slave revolution in history–which begins with All Souls' Rising (a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award) and continues with Master of the Crossroads. Each of these three novels can be read independently of the two others; of the trilogy, The Baltimore Sun has said, “[It] will make an indelible mark on literary history–one worthy of occupying the same shelf as Tolstoy’s War and Peace.”

Customer Reviews:

a depressing conclusion to an excellent story.......2005-01-03

I had read the first 2 books of this trilogy and looked forward to the third with a great deal of anticipation. After a hundred pages, however, I felt a sinking sensation as I realized that this story could not possibly have a happy ending. Bell had done such an excellent job realizing his characters that I felt deeply involved in their lives. After the horrendous atrocities of slavery and the slave revolts and subsequent battles, it seemed that the island was finally at some sort of peace.
But what a price! Then as the French arrived to re-assert their primacy and General Louveture succumbs to hubris the precarious peace falls apart and the bloodshed begins again with blacks against whites.
This last book completes the trilogy and tells a story that few of us know anything about. Haiti is a huge mystery to me and these books helped me understand a little why this country is the way it is. The legacy of slavery and the battles that were required to end it as well as the enduring suspicians between white and black are lessons for all of us even at this time (maybe particularly at this time).

A Truly Great Series Of Historical Novels........2004-12-22

The three novels in this series are the best historical novels I have ever read. They deal with a horrifying event, the slave rebellion in Haiti. Bell does not flinch from the horrors the contending groups and individuals inflicted on each other. The historical background is well covered in the plot and appendix. Written by a master novelist. Bell also covers fascinating subjects like the Voodoo mythos that still exists in Haiti today. Reading this novel, one begins to understand the chaos of Haiti today. A country born in this much bloodshed and hatred is destined for more. In terms of gallons of blood spilled, our own revolution was a mere skirmish.

If you are at all interested in Haiti, race, relations, history, or just reading a good story, you should read this and the other two novels in the series, All Souls Rising and The Master Of The Crossroads.

Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft, and Form

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Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft, and Form
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work
Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction
Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life
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ASIN: 0393320219

Book Description

With clarity, verve, and the sure instincts of a good teacher, Madison Smartt Bell offers a roll-up-your-sleeves approach to writing in this much-needed book. Focusing on the big picture as well as the crucial details, Bell examines twelve stories by both established writers (including Peter Taylor, Mary Gaitskill, and Carolyn Chute) and his own former students. A story's use of time, plot, character, and other elements of fiction are analyzed, and readers are challenged to see each story's flaws and strengths. Careful endnotes bring attention to the ways in which various writers use language. Bell urges writers to develop the habit of thinking about form and finding the form that best suits their subject matter and style. His direct and practical advice allows writers to find their own voice and imagination.

Average customer rating:

As Magnificent as All Souls' Rising, and that's saying a lot
My Bicorne goes off to Bell
"Crossroads" of Destiny
Ponderous and sporadically involving
Historical fiction at its finest

Master of the Crossroads
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Stone that the Builder Refused
All Souls' Rising
Toussaint Louverture: A Biography
Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

ASIN: 1400078385
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Amazon.com

In 1995 Madison Smartt Bell published All Souls' Rising, earning both critical plaudits and a National Book Award nomination for this fictional account of Haiti's 18th-century slave rebellion. Now he continues the saga with Master of the Crossroads, the second volume of a projected trilogy. Even in his earlier narratives of contemporary America, the author has always been attuned to the byzantine politics of color. But by focusing on the figure of Toussaint Louverture--the black general who led the Haitians to independence only to be jailed for treason against the French Republic--Bell allows the politics of race to point him in unexpected and rewarding narrative directions. This is a big, muscular book, which derives much of its strength from the author's willingness to paint his tumultuous political and physical landscapes with broadly sweeping strokes. But it is also a work of surprising delicacy, whose finely drawn characters come to life with the minutest gesture or softly whispered word.

The crossroads herein are not merely literal but metaphorical. Yes, the former slaves and their courageous leader are pinned down in the island's remote interior, caught between the English forces and the Spanish army (their nominal yet treacherous ally). But more to the point, Haiti's intricate progress from slavery to freedom brings each of the characters to a crucial, defining moment of energy or introspection. And finally, swirling through the book like an island mist, is the voodoo figure of Mâit' Kalfou, or the "Master of the Crossroads." Straddling the worlds of the dead and the living, this ecstatic spirit may at any time inhabit the body of a believer: <blockquote> Between Legba and Kalfou the crossroads stood open now, and now Guiaou could feel that opened pathway rushing up his spine--passage from the Island Below Sea inhabited by les Morts et les Mystères. His hips melted into the movement of the drums, and the tails of the red coat swirled around his legs like feathers of a bird. With the other dancers he closed the small, tight circle around Legba and Kalfou, who faced each other as in a mirror: the shining surface of the waters, which divides the living from the dead. </blockquote> Throughout, Bell's captivating vision of the battlefield bears witness to his rigorous research. Still, the voodoo celebrations, and the author's sly evocation of their unexpected resonance, remain the novel's strongest moments. Why? They speak, perhaps, to the apocalyptic nature of the Haitian rebellion. And more intriguingly, they permit Bell to play with the deceptive nature of belief and reality--a move that, in an avowedly historical novel, hints at the ironic fluidity of history itself. --Kelly Flynn

Book Description

Continuing his epic trilogy of the Haitian slave uprising, Madison Smartt Bell’s Master of the Crossroads delivers a stunning portrayal of Toussaint Louverture, former slave, military genius and liberator of Haiti, and his struggle against the great European powers to free his people in the only successful slave revolution in history. At the outset, Toussaint is a second-tier general in the Spanish army, which is supporting the rebel slaves’ fight against the French. But w hen Toussaint is betrayed by his former allies and the commanders of the Spanish army, he reunites his army with the French, wresting vital territories and manpower from Spanish control. With his army one among several factions, Toussaint eventually rises as the ultimate victor as he wards off his enemies to take control of the French colony and establish a new constitution.

Bell’s grand, multifaceted novel shows a nation, splintered by actions and in the throes of chaos, carried to liberation and justice through the undaunted tenacity of one incredible visionary.

Customer Reviews:

As Magnificent as All Souls' Rising, and that's saying a lot.......2005-07-28

I'm in the middle of the trilogy here, so I don't want to waste too much time writing about the unfinished work, but after 750 pages, let me note that I'm still spellbound by Bell's work. I love the way the title informs the whole work: at each crossroads (and there are many) I marvel at Toussaint's vision. Sometimes he slips out of his carriage or off the road at just the right time to avoid ambush or attack, more often than not in a kind of trance. The crossroads also seems like the meeting of two worlds, whether the spiritual and carnal, the Christian and Vodoun, or European and African. Riau and even Doctor Hebert have some mastery of those crossroads, as do some of the minor characters like Claudine and Moustique. I love the religious syncretism of this novel -- it's at once modern and ancient. Haiti is such a melting pot of culture, race, history, and belief that it's no wonder the stew is still bubbling. Even in poverty and despair, something so rich, so deeply, darkly true is being created that this reader feels compelled to journey there to taste it for himself.

The violence and politics continue to shock and delight. I particularly loved the story of Choufleur in this novel -- the kind of character you love to hate -- and the complex portrayal of Elise's new husband, Toquet. As for the many developments in the life of the characters -- births, deaths, victories, defeats, etc. -- one reads them passionately, but after 1500 pages they are threads in a tapestry that's still a work in progress. I'd love to discuss them with others, but I'm moving on.

In the meantime, there are the pleasures of Bell's trilogy to savor and enjoy. His writing is so confident, his grasp of the wide sweep of narrative and history so embracing, and his sense of the eternal so inspiring that I eagerly plunge on to The Stone that the Builders Refused.

My Bicorne goes off to Bell.......2005-04-18

The depth and breadth of Bell's research indicates a colossal, inhuman effort that would take most people a lifetime, never mind the collation and fictionalisation of it afterwards. Haiti's colonial past is so convoluted it almost defies analysis, especially as much of her written history has been destroyed during centuries of successive sackings and burnings, and climate.

The violence contained within is grim and profoundly depressing - the horror, the horror, the horror - but it did happen and is still happening. Don't blame Bell for your revulsion. Use it to help the people who still live in Haiti.

I see there's some criticism about `magic realism' in this trilogy, but Bell clearly understands the part Vodou played in the Revolution, that Vodou - a valid religion born of slavery - ultimately helped slaves to overthrow slavery, although more so in the initial uprisings (i.e. Boukman). Today, without Vodou, the French would probably be using Haiti for nuclear testing, not that the average Haitian would be much worse off.

To bring the history and Vodou of Haiti together in such a linear historical masterpiece as this trilogy is nothing short of miraculous. Bell is surely served by the lwa, and if he isn't he should be.

"Crossroads" of Destiny.......2001-07-28

Note: This review was published November 12, 2000, in the Seattle Times ...

The American Revolution helped inspire the French Revolution, which in turn sparked the Haitian Revolution -- an uprising of Africans against the sugar plantation owners who wrung their fabulous wealth from slave labor. Madison Smartt Bell's projected trilogy of historical novels tells the least well known of these momentous late-18th-century stories.

Volume 1, "All Souls Rising," traced the gruesome first stages of the rebellion in the French colony then called Saint Domingue, from 1791 to 1794. One who hasn't read that harrowing masterpiece can still enjoy Volume 2, "Master of the Crossroads," based on events of the next five years. In this novel the revolution is well under way, but the outcome is still uncertain.

It's a tumultuous, confusing time. The Spanish, who own the eastern half of Saint Domingue, and the British, who are at war with France, separately hope to oust the French, subdue the blacks, and possess the island known worldwide as the Jewel of the Antilles. Among the islanders, the French blancs, or white colonials, have split into factions: the royalists who want to enslave the Africans again, and the revolutionaries who believe that liberty is a universal human right. Old disputes flare between native-born Haitians and immigrants, between mulatto plantation owners and poorer mulattos, between rivals among the island's 500,000 rebellious Africans and, more broadly, between members of the resident races - 64 in all, according to France's official classification of blends ranging from Blanc to Négre.

Toussaint Louverture, whose amazing career Jacob Lawrence memorialized in a series of paintings, is at the center of the storm. Small and tough, formerly a slave, he possesses such extraordinary charisma and talent for leadership that he can force, frighten, mystify, or cajole various factions into agreeing to work for peace. Toussaint unites the armed, roving bands of blacks who seized their liberty and transforms them into a well-disciplined army. A brilliant military tactician, he regularly defeats the English and Spanish forces. His political gifts make him a formidable negotiator with the French and a master at switching alliances at strategic moments. He alone seems committed to protecting, regardless of the race or ideology of their owners, the lives and property that survived the time of bloodbath and burning.

Toussaint's motives are endlessly debated in the book. People close to him believe that he is unselfishly devoted to securing liberty and peace for everyone. But rumors that he secretly plans to crown himself King and reinstate slavery multiply. We view him from the perspectives of many different characters, yet he remains a mystery: a presence with a godlike power in crisis, an inscrutable Master of the Crossroads like the voudou deity of crossings and change, Legba.

Readers who can tolerate a little disorientation from chaotic historical events swirling around an enigmatic hero will have a wonderful time with this novel. Many of the episodes are works of literary art, the Haitian landscape is superbly rendered, and the characters are fully realized and memorable. We come to care deeply about them: Doctor Hébert; his beloved mistress Nanon; his sister Elise and her smuggler husband Tocquet; Hébert's friends the French captain Maillart and the African captain Riau; the African soldier Guiaou who is Riau's rival in love; plucky, wanton Isabelle; the dreamy boy-priest Moustique; the elusive, fascinating Toussaint.

Since Bell can't string their stories on a clear historical plot-line (this history is a tangle) he braids the everyday incidents and subtleties of their private lives into a central strand to which scattered public events can be tied. The characters, absorbed in ordinary pursuits, are regularly pulled into battles and intrigues, then released again into personal concerns. The point of view shifts from chapter to chapter, and we open each new one with the pleasure of greeting an old friend.

Nobody achieves an overall view of events -- which is partly the point. Yet even patient readers will wish for an index of characters keyed to page numbers. It's hard to keep people named Dessources, Dessalines, Desrouleaux, and Desfourneaux straight in a complicated narrative (sometimes set in Descahaux) with a cast of hundreds that also includes Delahaye and Dieudonné. The author's memory itself falters - the girl Paulette is called Pauline for a while -- but the Glossary and Chronology help.

Without them "Master of the Crossroads" would still be a stunning achievement: marvelously crafted, meticulous in its historical detail, magnificent in its sweep.

Ponderous and sporadically involving.......2001-04-02

Madison Smartt Bell's second volume of his projected trilogy about the Haitian uprising of 1793-1804 is alternately gripping and ponderous. After having been enthralled by "All Souls' Rising" I have to say I was disappointed with this follow-up.

The same characters are all there as are Bell's masterful historical descriptions but something was missing. I too often grew bored and had to put the book down. I can't quite put my finger on what it is that dissuades me from giving this book a stellar review. I suppose at the end of the day I didn't feel as though I really learned much about any of these characters, and subsequently, I didn't care about them. Toussaint L'Ouverture remains somewhat of an enigma despite Bell's painstakingly detailed account. Perhaps this is intentional. Perhaps the point here is that Toussaint is - was - unknowable. This may well be true, but it doesn't make for satisfying reading.

Again, there are impressive set pieces galore. Bell's mastery of historical detail is staggering and genuine moments of suspense sporadically leap off the page. But in the end, none of this was enough to keep me compelled.

Historical fiction at its finest.......2001-03-11

I'd second what the other reviewers noted but would like to add that this is a follow-up to Bell's highly-praised All Souls Rising, also a masterful book about Haiti and one which first introduced many of these characters. The legacy of Toussaint is important for Haiti today, and this book gives valuable insights into today's world. The book can be a tough read--many of the descriptions of the atrocities are brutal--but is well worth the effort. Take time to read the timeline in the appendix and find out what happened after Toussaint's arrest.

Average customer rating:

A Masterpiece!!
Great Novel
The best book I've read this year.

Ten Indians: A novel
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (Winterson, Jeanette)
Unveiling Islam: An Insider's Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs
DESERT QUEEN: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
The Things They Carried

ASIN: 0679442464
Release Date: 1996-10-29

Book Description

From the Haiti of 200 years ago in his most recent, highly acclaimed novel, All Souls' Rising, Bell returns to our own moment, to the racial lines that have riven contemporary America. An edgy, powerful, deeply affecting story of possibility, Ten Indians tells the fast-paced, complex tale of a man who opens a Tae Kwon Do school in a black neighborhood in inner-city Baltimore--and finds himself compelled to enter the lives of his students when the brutality of streets spills into his life.

Customer Reviews:

A Masterpiece!!.......2001-01-16

Bell's ninth novel is a stunning accomplishment; alternating between the explosive language of Baltimore's drug culture with the meditative qualities of Tae Kwon Do, he examines race relations, hope and compassion, and most specifically, the moral dilemma of doing and not just saying. The novel takes places in modern day Baltimore, both in the suburbs of upper middle class, as well as the inner city urban homes.

Mike Devlin seemingly has it all, a successful psychiatric practice, a nice home in one of the wealthier suburbs, a loving wife and a daughter getting ready to go off to the college of her choice in a year. He is also a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and as the top student in his Master's school, Devlin is sent to start a new branch. This branch is set up in the inner city of Baltimore. It is here that the rest of our cast is introduced.

We meet many inner city youth at his school: Trig, Gyp, Kool-Whip, Freon, Sharmane, Tamara, Buster, D-Trak, Clayvon, Stuttz, amongst others. Here we see the opposite life to Devlin's; those with nearly nothing. Living in projects, one or maybe no parents, and children way before they were ready.

There are virtually no minor characters in this novel besides maybe some of Devlin's patients. They are used to foreshadow some events and to allow the reader the possibility that Devlin is not satisfied with his current life. Over half of the dope dealers and those residing in the projects are fully realized. We understand what they do, how they do it, and sadly, why they do it.

Bell is one of the few authors out there seriously writing about race issues. It's as if he needs to do so, as if his writing about the problem will help him come to some conclusions. In lesser writer's hands, this set up could lead to a very cliché book. In the hands of Bell it becomes anything but. His use of language is true; as the story alternates between various narrators (including an omniscient third person narrator), the language takes on the structure and vocabulary expected.

To the outsider, as Devlin gets more involved in his school, he begins acting strangely. To some it would appear as some sort of a mid-life crisis. Even his wife, an ex-social worker with some professional acumen, feels he is sliding down a tunnel of depression and warns him he won't drag her along. He even struggles himself at times to come to words for what he is doing, but before his final actions he comes to a realization.

He is not succumbing to the notion that one individual can't make a difference. He is following the words of his Master and doing what he says, not just saying it. He is getting involved in lives, trying to make a difference. For an hour a day, he is fairly successful. It is the other 23 that put him to the test.

There is plenty of action throughout the novel; both in and out of the Tae Kwon Do school. Bell does a great job of describing hand to hand combat. His writing allows the reader to visualize each action, almost well enough to believe he or she is learning Tae Kwon Do, banging along with the characters, or watching Devlin's patients describe their lives.

You won't soon forget Devlin, his daughter Michelle, Trig or any of the other characters in this book; their efforts, actions and plight will stick with readers for awhile. Amazingly enough, Bell published this book in between volumes I and II of his Haitian trilogy. With ten novels in print now, and two short story collections, Madison Smartt Bell has enough to keep you busy reading for a long time. Take advantage.

Great Novel.......1999-12-14

I'm not much of a reader. As a matter of fact, I used to avoid books like the plague. Ten Indians is a book that I had to read during summer school last year in college, and I am glad that I did. The author did a wonderful job of grabbing my attention and keeping it throughout the entire novel. Basically, this review goes for all you non-readers out there, if you have to read a book, read this one.

The best book I've read this year........1996-12-15

Madison Smartt Bell does a masterful job of contrasting inner city and middle-class life through speech, thought, and experience. A good read...compares favorably with Richard Price's "Clockers"

Average customer rating:

good portrait of abuse
Like being in a bar band without the late nights & hangovers
Subtle and poignant
Growing Up.

Anything Goes: A novel
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Amazon.com

In Anything Goes, Madison Smartt Bell's 13th work of fiction, the author follows a Tennessee country/rock cover band as it plays dives up and down the Eastern seaboard. The main character, Jesse, capitalizes on a new lead singer's abilities and the shuffling of band personnel by slipping in his original numbers (and those of the former lead guitarist), much to the crowds' delight.

Bell provides us with a strong sense of who Jesse is: a twentysomething kid of mixed race, drinking and carousing on tour and trying to cope with a once-abusive father who reappears to attempt reconciliation. Other characters, unfortunately, drift in and out, and interesting band members are left half-developed. He does, however, capture the excitement of a band when it clicks, of the adrenaline rush stemming from the audience, and of the delight in finding music for words. After Jesse and the new lead singer, Estelle (depicted as a Dolly Partonesque rural beauty/singer), have a flirtatious encounter, Jesse thinks: "Lover was the word in my mind; I had known lots of girls, women, but hadn't called them that. Or maybe it was something else in Estelle's smile. It was like we had a pleasant secret between us--except she knew what it was and I didn't." The secret, however, is not well disguised; its revelation comes as no surprise. Even Bell's longtime readers may be disappointed by the unevenness of Anything Goes. --Michael Ferch

Book Description

The only taste of life Jesse has known in his twenty years is bitter: his mother disappeared before he could talk, his father never got over being left, and Jesse’s presence seems only to kindle his father’s anger. Jesse’s talent is for music, which has given him a livelihood and a home as a bass player in a bar band called Anything Goes. Band life offers the opportunity for the dregs of experience (hangovers, mildewed hotel rooms), and the antics of his band mates (all of them older than he is; some of them wiser, some not) offer more schooling in hard knocks.

Anything Goes tells Jesse’s story over the course of a year, during which he finds his life slowly being tempered by the unexpected: by a dad who wants to make up and be part of Jesse’s life; by a female lead singer who suddenly makes the band sound a lot better than they have any right to be; and by the confidence Jesse begins to feel in his own musical talent.

A complete departure from the sweeping historical vision of Madison Smartt Bell’s Haitian novels and the gritty cynicism of his intense urban dramas, Anything Goes confirms Bell as one of the most versatile, most gifted, most surprising novelists of his generation.

Customer Reviews:

good portrait of abuse.......2005-11-13

I found this one very readable--the prose flowed right along. The handling here and there of racial issues was interesting, though I was disappointed to see another kind, decent, one-dimensional "magical black friend" helping out a white character at the center, such a typical American literary and cinematic device. But the protagonist isn't fully white, which is an interesting twist, but not one that really ends up going anywhere. Still, those quibbles aside, the movement of Jesse away from his father's abuse toward autonomy, and apparently toward forgiveness of his father, was very effective and honest. Nearly everything in this novel felt very real, and it taught me some things about making music too.

Like being in a bar band without the late nights & hangovers.......2003-02-28

A mildly engaging story about a Southern bar band called Anything Goes told from the point of view of Jesse, the bands' 20-something guitar player. We follow the band as they travel from dive to dive, losing members, gaining members and finding their groove.

Since Jesse is the narrator, the focus is mainly on him: his relationship with his formerly abusive, alcoholic father, his crush on Estelle, the band's new lead singer and his attempts to sort out his post-adolescent angst regarding family, women and music. The other band members don't feature too prominently and aren't very well-developed, although the book would have been more interesting if they were. Nor did Bell delve too deeply in Jesse's past relationship with his dad. There's also a little "surprise" relationship involving Estelle and Jesse's dad, but unless you're really thick, it won't come as much of a shock.

It seemed to me that something was missing from this story. Maybe it was the shallowness of the characters, maybe it was the meandering nature of the novel; there was no real plot, just a succession of gigs at roadhouses up and down the East coast. It was, however, a convincing depiction of life with a bar band, and that managed to hold my interest enough until the rather lackluster ending.

Subtle and poignant.......2002-09-15

"Anything Goes" drifts along, raveling out the thread of its story in a leisurely style that's at once engaging and attractive. Taking place over a year and in many locales, "Anything Goes" introduces us to Jesse, a disaffected and somewhat bitter young man traveling through his life as a member of a band called...you guessed it...Anything Goes. As a band name, the title [is bad].... But as a theme for the novel it works quite well.

Jesse, abandoned as a child by his mother and physically abused by his father, has become a man who doesn't expect good things from the world. As he matures throughout the pages of this book, he discovers himself in ways that are both subtle and poignant. This is a quiet story that stays with you long after you've read it...and I recommend giving it a read!

Growing Up........2002-08-26

Filled with themes of identity, family, and maturity, Bell's thirteen book takes place over a year, following a Nashville-based cover band as they travel down the eastern seaboard and up into Vermont, playing roadhouses a few weeks at a time. Jesse is their bassist, and for him, the ritual of being on the road creates a sense of security and family, since his mother abandoned him soon after birth, and his alcoholic father beat him all through childhood. Jesse is happy to follow the warm weather around, playing music, scoring occasional women, and then hanging out at band leader (and surrogate father figure) Perry's farm during the off-season.

This steady existence is skewed somewhat when Jesse's father shows up clean and sober, and looking for reconciliation. Part of this involves introducing him to a neighbor whose singing knocks his socks off. Soon enough, she's in the band, and they have great and greater success, all while Jesse struggles to identify his feelings for her and hers for him. Nothing earth-shattering happens in the book, but the relationships and issues are all captivating and feel true to life. Jesse 's mother was a Melungeon (a dark mysterious Appalachian people whose origins are unknown) and the band's drummer is black, allowing Bell to touch on racial identity issues here and there as the band drifts though white-trash venues all through the South. The towns, bars, and motels all spring from the page as real places, with history and grit to them.

Over the course of the year's cycle, Jesse comes to terms with his past, his heritage, and his future in a very non-soap opera way. This book could have easily drifted into sappiness (think Oprahish) and never quite does. The last portions get a touch heavy-handed, but never so much as to spoil the easygoing tone of the book. Musicians may especially enjoy this book as there is a great deal of language attempting to describe how Jesse feels about hearing and playing music, and how it infects his whole being. One last note, the first chapter originally appeared as a short story in the "It's Only Rock And Roll" anthology.

Straight Cut (Hard Case Crime)
Average customer rating:

Well-written but ever so boring..

Interesting crime fiction, but not that great overall

a cult classic among fans of noir crime fiction

Straight Cut - page turning

Unexpectedly rewarding

Straight Cut (Hard Case Crime)
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: Hard Case Crime
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0843955929

Customer Reviews:

Well-written but ever so boring.........2007-03-02

Yes, maybe I was expecting something different from Hard Case. I devoured the previous books in the series and enjoyed most of them. But this one stopped me dead in my tracks. It was well-written, no doubt about that. The author has a way with words. But as far as plot goes.. Cliche after cliche. *spoiler* (and as if by the first chapter, after we are told about his dog, we aren't supposed to EXPECT him to sacrifice someone at the end? come on..). *end of spoiler* It was a real chore to get through this book. When I want high literature, I want a layered plot with atypical characters and situations. This book, however, had a plot right out of a Europe-based crime movie complete with idiot foreign gangsters. I probably could have dealt with the cliche plot if the narrator didn't just go ON and ON about philosophy and about film theory (though the chicken thing was interesting, I'll admit) and film editing. Very tedious. Boring. If I wasn't collecting every Hard Case Crime book, I'd through this one right in the trash. I also think HCC was stretching it by releasing it under their name.. This was a mild crime novel that was mostly about friendship and love (not a thriller as the cover blurb says).
So yeah, if you enjoyed the other Hard Case Titles, just skip this and get any of the previous ones. You've been warned.

Interesting crime fiction, but not that great overall.......2006-07-23

Straight Cut features an unconventional protagonist - a Kierkegaard-quoting film editor - and various other unusual aspects for the crime genre. There's the hidden backstory (many areas of the past are never fully revealed) plus the way the lead character "accidentally" falls into a drug deal that becomes the story's main suspense element. Then you've got the writer of Cut, a literary author (Mr. Bell) not normally associated with crime fiction. All of this stuff is interesting, and is also pretty well covered in the other customer reviews. My bottom line on this novel is that there was never really enough suspense. This is NOT edge-of-your-seat story-telling. The lead guy, Tracy, more or less just seemed to wander out of one scene and into another. So I would not recommend it as a good read. One other thing, too ---- the cover art is a fun throwback to pulp fiction covers of the mid 20th century, but it is also a misrepresentation of Straight Cut's story. The scene depicted on the cover never happens in the story, and the teaser quote, "She was a pawn in their deadly game," really has very little to do with what happens in the book. I found that annoying.

a cult classic among fans of noir crime fiction.......2006-06-27

At first blush STRAIGHT CUT is a bit of an enigma within the context of the Hard Case Crime list. Madison Smartt Bell doesn't ordinarily work within the suspense genre in general or hard-boiled crime fiction in particular, though certainly his talent is such that he is capable of writing, and writing well, in any genre he wishes. And STRAIGHT CUT is not as bare-knuckled as, say, BUST, FADE TO BLONDE or KISS HER GOODBYE, or any half-dozen titles from Hard Case you could name (with the exception, of course, of Stephen King's THE COLORADO KID). The publication of STRAIGHT CUT, however, demonstrates the elasticity of even the relatively narrow hard-boiled genre.

Originally published in 1986, the novel has a European feel and edge, and not just because a great deal of it is set in Italy and Belgium. Bell's writing style has a continental flare to it, as well as a cinematic one. At times I felt as if I was reading a script from a Barbet Schroeder film, not topically but stylistically. There is not a great deal of violence in the book, though it is there, interjected at one point to demonstrate that there is more to protagonist Tracy Bateman than meets the eye.

Bateman is a freelance film editor whose personal life is less than ideal. Kevin, a film producer who is Bateman's best friend and occasional employer, is incapable and unworthy of trust, as is Lauren, Bateman's ex-wife with whom he shared at best a marriage of convenience. Yet Bateman is at least partially to blame for this state of affairs, aware that his wife and erstwhile best friend formed points of a romantic triangle, a situation that Bateman tolerated almost from the beginning of his relationship with Lauren.

Bateman is sunk in an alcoholic ennui on his farm in Tennessee, uneasily brooding and reading Kierkegaard, when he receives a call from Kevin with an offer of employment. The job --- editing a documentary film in Italy --- is an interesting one and certainly within the range of his considerable talents. It is made clear though that the job will involve something more, an additional side task involving drugs and money that Bateman has performed before for Kevin. It is only when Bateman is in Italy and immersed in his editing chores that he learns that Kevin has interjected Lauren into the mix as well. Bateman and Lauren resume their relationship, however briefly, and as a result Bateman takes over Lauren's role in the side job, even as Bateman realizes that Kevin had assumed he would do just that. But Bateman is not without his own personal resources, which he utilizes even as he must fight against his own self-destructive impulses.

Though Kevin makes only relatively brief appearances at the beginning and end of STRAIGHT CUT, he is a Machiavellian presence throughout, crossing swords with Bateman at a distance while preserving an amoral detachment from what befalls others at his behest. It is Kevin's machinations, and Bateman's somewhat tardy but effective reactions, that provide the duplicitous elements that has made STRAIGHT CUT a cult classic among fans of noir crime fiction.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Straight Cut - page turning.......2006-06-18

A page turning mystery that takes you to Europe and back. Didn't want it to end yet couldn't put down.

Unexpectedly rewarding.......2006-06-15

Is Hard Case Crime trying to expand its audience? Madison Smartt Bell isn't exactly famous for his crime noir fiction, but is probably best known for his novel, All Souls' Rising (the first of a trilogy of novels on the Haitian Revolution), which won the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a National Book Award finalist. Not exactly the rundown of the average Hard Case Crime author.

A thriller with literary aspirations (the cover quote from Walker Percy, author of The Moviegoer, clued me in to that), Straight Cut gives us the best of both worlds -- although for genre fans, the first two-thirds will essentially feel like exposition.

With an opening that will re-break the heart of anyone who's ever had to put a pet to sleep, Straight Cut tells the story of Tracy Bateman, freelance film editor, before, during, and after he is sent to Rome for a cutting job. Offered the job by his best friend / romantic rival and the film's director, Kevin Carter, Tracy is suspicious from the beginning, but the money is too good to refuse (another reason for his suspicion).

His Italian is poor, but he manages to make a go of it in Rome. He teaches an assistant, Mimmo, the ropes of film editing while dealing with the recent death of his dog, and his stormy relationship with his wife, Lauren (who married him for an American green card and occasionally runs off with Kevin), while spending a lot of time in trattorias drinking grappa. His reliance on the philosophies of Danish existentialist Søren Kierkegaard doesn't help things.

Neither does meeting up again with Lauren, which wasn't exactly on his agenda, but she shows up unexpectedly, carrying a mysterious briefcase, a false identity, and instructions from Kevin. Tracy is conflicted because he doesn't trust that Lauren will ever be the person he needs her to be (though their physical relationship has never been a problem), but he can see what she is getting herself involved in and doesn't want her to get hurt. That Kevin is so obviously careless about putting Lauren in danger only aggravates Tracy's love / hate relationship with him.

This leads to what most Hard Case Crime readers will have been waiting for the whole time: a continent-hopping drug-and-money exchange, with all the border-crossing problems, fistfights, and gun-crazy Bulgarians that implies. It only covers the final third of the book, but Bell's prose is so sparse as to make it feel like a novel unto itself. Tracy's thought processes are fascinating to watch and whether he will get himself out of this situation is always in doubt, making the suspense quotient even higher than expected.

On the whole, however, Straight Cut is a novel of character, not of plot. Go into it expecting a tense page-turner on the level of Bust or Grifter's Game, and you'll likely be disappointed -- but exercise a little patience, and you'll be greatly rewarded.

Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution (Great Discoveries)

Average customer rating:

Lavoisier: "Father of Modern Chemistry"
Lavoisier: A Man of Mysteries
The Chemical Revolution
When revolutions collide
Lavoisier in the Year One has no chemistry

Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution (Great Discoveries)
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393051552

Book Description

<B>A literate and lucid account of the eighteenth century's great race to understand the elements—and found a modern science.</B>

Antoine Lavoisier—who lived at the zenith of the Enlightenment and died at the hands of the Revolution—was himself a revolutionary. Closely followed by the burgeoning international scientific community, he competed with the best minds of his time to be the first to explain how chemical processes really work. Aided by a large fortune and his accomplished wife, he employed the most ingenious and expensive technology of his time in a series of innovative experiments that forever buried medieval alchemy and established a chemical language still in use today. Yet his personal triumph was short-lived, and the glory his achievement brought France could not protect him from the ravages of the Terror.

Madison Smartt Bell, building on his celebrated trilogy about the eighteenth-century Haitian uprisings, dramatically re-creates this turbulent era of reason and revolution, and the work of a man who so thoroughly exemplified its spirit. 8 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Lavoisier: "Father of Modern Chemistry".......2006-04-17

In Lavoisier in the Year One, Madison Smartt Bell makes a good effort in giving a glimpse into the life of one of the most well-known scientist of his time, and also a rather influential politician. Bell starts by giving an insight into the influential figures, such as Abb'e Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who first brought Antoine Lavoisier in contact with the scientific world. Bell reveals the benefits that Lavoisier received as a politician, such as having taxes support for his research; a benefit that other aspiring scientists lacked. Bell illustrates that as Lavoisier made strides, he introduced different theories that differed from the statues quo, such as his theory about combustion. Bell essentially makes it noticeable that Lavoisier did not face resistance for such theories, but Bell does introduce an antagonist force known by as Jean-Paul Marat. Bell achieves his goal of giving detailed insight into a scientist's life.
However, the biography at times presents itself unclear as it tends to go off topic and fails to make connections. More importantly it is unclear to see at times how what Lavoisier had accomplished, influenced the future. Since Lavoisier is "Father of Modern Chemistry," he has much to pass on to major figures in the scientific world. Besides some misguiding in the biography, it presents itself well and it is worthy of respectful recognition.

Lavoisier: A Man of Mysteries.......2006-04-17

Lavoisier in the Year One is a complex biography that discusses both the life of Antoine Lavoisier and also the times that he lived in. Lavoisier was a very intelligent man that lived a multifaceted life. Lavoisier is best known for his work as a scientist, and more specifically a chemist. Known as the "Father of Chemistry," Lavoisier turned chemistry into a mainstream science that was respected by the scientific community as a whole. Before Lavoisier, chemistry was simply a hobby that was essentially a fact-based form of alchemy. This biography discusses how Lavoisier became the man that would change the world of science permanently.

Lavoisier was much more than a chemist. He served various other roles as a scientist, such as a debunker of false scientific claims submitted to the French Royal Society. Lavoisier should also be remembered for the role he played as a member of the French government. He was an inspector for the Tobacco Commission of France, and cracked down both on tobacco smugglers and on those who grew adulterated tobacco. Later, Lavoisier was the head of the Gunpowder Administration, and his efforts to increase the French arsenal proved vital to the American Revolution, as the American revolutionaries received most of their arms from the French. Other major government affairs that Lavoisier was involved in include financing, and the construction of a wall around Paris to prevent goods from being imported into the city without the transporters paying a tax on the goods. Unfortunately, it was his role in these various government affairs that led to his downfall; Lavoisier would be executed by the radical Jacobins during the Reign of Terror in May of 1794.

Chemistry is a subject that is based around elements. In the mid-to-late 18th century, the Aristotelian theory of four elements (fire, earth, air, and water) was beginning to lose popularity after having existed for centuries as the unquestioned truth. Georg Stahl, a German physicist and chemist, came up with the idea of the "phlogiston," which he believed was essentially the driving force behind every effervescent reaction. Lavoisier didn't really believe that the phlogiston existed, even though the idea was gaining popularity at exponential rates. Lavoisier exploited many new inventions, most importantly one which could collect gases that were released during a reaction, to discover and develop the theory of the existence of oxygen. Oxygen was the first element that was discovered, and with its discovery came a chemical revolution.

I believe that Madison Bell was compelled to recount this story because very few people really know about the man that Lavoisier was. Antoine Lavoisier was truly an ingenious man that was involved in just about every part of French society. I believe that Bell simply wanted to share the true story of this complex man.

Anyone interested in reading this book should read it. It is a very well written novel, and Bell shows his mastery of the English language repeatedly throughout the story to bring it to life. This book shows how Lavoisier had ability not only as a scientist, but also as a government reformer, and also how well he was able to keep balance in his life between the two subjects. Bell really did his research with this biography, as he shows how the social developments of the time affected Lavoisier and his work. It truly is a deep book that will show any reader just how intelligent and diligent a man Lavoisier was.

The Chemical Revolution.......2005-08-25

There was the French Revolution in the eighteenth century, but there was an even greater and more far-reaching revolution in France at the time. It was a chemical revolution, an abandonment of ancient ideas about the material around and in us, and an adoption of the products of experiment and rationality. The greatest of the revolutionaries in chemistry was Antoine Lavoisier, whose story has been told many times before. It is brightly summarized within W. W. Norton's valuable "Great Discoveries" series by Madison Smartt Bell in _Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution_ (Atlas Books). Bell is usually a novelist, not a biographer, and he knows how to tell a good story. The title is an exaggeration, as it only concentrates on events around "Year One" of the French Revolutionary Calendar which started at the establishment of the French Republic in 1793. The important accomplishments of Lavoisier's life, and the stupid blood festival that put an end to it, are thus highlighted in a useful and accessible biography.

Lavoisier was born into a prosperous bourgeois family in 1743, and gained his fortune as a private investor working as a tax collector for the government. His wealth enabled him to practice his passion, science. Perhaps more than anyone else, Lavoisier pulled scientific chemistry out of the ancient and respected practice of alchemy. He also dethroned the well-accepted theory that burning represented the release of a peculiar element called phlogiston. He also quite spectacularly decomposed water into hydrogen and oxygen, and recomposed it again from the two gases. The importance of such a literally elemental deconstruction cannot be overstated; water was everywhere, and had been thought of since Aristotle as one of the four basic elements. But deposing the old chemistry did not come only scientifically. It was a political and rhetorical effort. Scientists before Lavoisier had isolated "eminently breathable air," but Lavoisier called it oxygen and further built a new system of chemical nomenclature. For instance, calcium nitrate by its very name reveals that it has more oxygen in it than calcium nitrite. It is the same nomenclature that we use today. Lavoisier's new chemistry was intensely resisted, with phlogiston fans finding new and convoluted ways that their element accomplished everything. His new nomenclature, however, was useful and was an irresistible aid to teaching. Once chemists came to Lavoisier's terms, they had to start accepting his theories.

Some of Lavoisier's previous scientific work endangered him after the Revolution. The Jacobin firebrand Jean-Paul Marat denounced him in 1791 because twelve years before, Lavoisier had discredited Marat as having a charlatan's views of science. Lavoisier had served on the famous committee (alongside his friend Benjamin Franklin) that showed that Mesmerism was bunk, although it had been supported by Marat and by another future member of the Jacobin government Jacques-Pierre Brissot. Brissot went on to champion the abolishment of the national academies of the arts and sciences, insisting that they were elitist and tyrannical. Lavoisier did have a magnificent scientific record, but in gaining it he had made enemies. It was his involvement in the tax system that was his undoing, even though he had been scrupulously fair and honest in his public responsibilities. It may be apocryphal that at his kangaroo court someone said, "The Revolution has no need for scientists," but the outcome once he had been arrested was never in doubt. He was guillotined along with 27 other tax assessors in 1794, facing death with good cheer; he wrote, "The events in which I find myself enveloped will probably spare me the inconveniences of old age." Bell's book rightly concentrates on the scientific accomplishments and explains the way that many of Lavoisier's experiments were performed. It serves well as a reminder of how little we knew of our material world just a couple of centuries ago. It must make us appreciate anew the famous remark of one of Lavoisier's colleagues: "It took them no more than a moment to make that head fall and a hundred years may not be enough to produce another one like it."

When revolutions collide.......2005-08-01

3 ½ stars.

The Englishman Edmund Burke, one of the most outspoken critics of the French Revolution, once said that in revolutionary France "learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude." The death by guillotine of Antoine Lavoisier, one of the founders of modern chemistry, during the revolution's Reign of Terror speaks to Burke's pessimistic prophecy. Lavoisier and his fate is the subject of Madison Smart Bell's compact (186 pages) but informed, "Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution." Despite some flaws I think the book is worth reading.

The first three quarters of the book is a straight forward, condensed biography of Lavoisier. Although brought up in a comfortable environment Lavoisier managed to accumulate great wealth in a very short period of time. Although a student of law, Lavoisier developed a great interest in science and thereafter dedicated his life to his business activities and to expanding his knowledge of the physical world. He quickly focused his greatest efforts and achieved astonishing results in the realm of what we now know as chemistry. In particular, after repeated experiments with equipment he largely designed and built, Lavoisier identified the element of oxygen, which he identified as le principe oxygine. Perhaps more importantly he developed methods for scientific investigation and a particular, methodological language for describing the results of the elements he identified. This language, or nomenclature, was set out in the first periodic table, or Table of Chemical Nomenclature as it was then known.

The revolutionary nature of Lavoisier's work is set out well by Bell. Bell discusses alchemy, the voodoo like practice that tried to convert base elements to gold, as a forerunner of chemistry. By the 18th century alchemy was beginning to evolve. It lost some of its mystical nature. Some historians of science refer to the period leading up to Lavoisier as "chymistry". Lavoisier was the bridge that turned chymistry into chemistry. Bell spends a good deal of time, to good effect, describing how Lavoisier applied to the more rigorous principles of mathematics to his own efforts.

Bell also does a good job in setting out the importance of Lavoisier's focus on addressing narrow questions rather than seeking to find a universal solution for the world and its constituent parts. Bell describes Isaac Newton and Newton's view that the laws of Newtonian physics were originally god-given. Newton saw himself as a discoverer of divine properties installed by god in the natural world. This was dramatically different from Lavoisier's approach and Bell concludes thusly: "Lavoisier, though impressed by Newton and influenced by the logical rigor of Newtonian physics, would begin to deconstruct this holistic vision of the universe by concentrating much more narrowly on its component parts."

The remainder of the book describes Lavoisier's ultimately unsuccessful efforts to navigate safely through the dangerous political currents that made up the French Revolution. Lavoisier welcomed the Revolution but who hoped that it would end in a political system similar to that established by the young United States. But his wealth and standing as an intellectual ultimately brought him down once the Reign of Terror took hold. The great irony of Lavoisier's life and death may be seen in the symbolism of his death. Here was someone whose experiments showed that flames burned brighter when fed oxygen and who died when the oxygen feeding the French Revolution created flames of terror that consumed all those who got in its way.

Unfortunately, the two sections of the book do not seem to mesh as well as they could have. This latter section seems a bit too separate and distinct from the scientific and biographic discussion that preceded it. In other words, I found the bright line between the two sections a bit jarring. For me, the sections on Lavoisier's scientific life and his creation of a language that facilitated scientific advancement were the highlights. The discussion on the Reign of Terror and Lavoisier's demise seemed a bit rushed and disjointed. Hence, I would actually give this book 3 and ½ stars rather than four if the rating system permitted it. Nevertheless, I found the book enlightening and entertaining.

Lavoisier in the Year One has no chemistry.......2005-07-05

After thoroughly enjoying Obsessive Genius I eagerly ordered this book in the Great Discoveries series. A thorough disappointment. I finished it with great effort. The writing was disorganized and muddled.The author apparently is a fiction writer. This book reads like a weak thesis paper. I came away from it with an appreciaition of his accomplishments, although not totally clear, but no strong feelings about Lavoisier
Koz

Average customer rating:

Hello...is there a story in here somewhere?
Funny/sad story of an insomniac hypotist.

Doctor Sleep
Madison Smartt Bell
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Hello...is there a story in here somewhere?.......2003-01-17

I purchased this because I read about a movie being made based on it. Allegedly, it was all about an American hypnotherapist helping Scotland Yard with a serial killer case. Well, that part of the book takes up about ten pages. I know some people enjoy reading just for the words -- sort of like poetry. And there's no doubting that these are good words. However, if you're looking for a story, look elsewhere.

Funny/sad story of an insomniac hypotist........1996-08-15

One of the best novels of recent years. Bell's story of an insomniac hypotist is by turns funny, scary, perplexing, intriquing, and almost any other adjective that inspires interest. All of Bell's fiction ranks among the best being written today, but Dr. Sleep and Waiting for the End of the World are especially rich examples of his earlier work.

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