Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Berlinski follows his National Book Award-nominated debut (Fieldwork, 2007) with a compelling tale that again immerses readers in the intrigues of an enthralling locale. This time it's Haiti, a place his narrator likens to an overripe peach: alluring, juicy with stories, but containing something rotten. The intrigues surround the meteoric political career of Johel Celestin, a reform-minded judge with U.S. legal training and a soft but tough demeanor. With the encouragement and security detail of Terry White, a gruff-but-earnest Florida cop-turned-U.N. official, Celestin wages a populist senate campaign against a powerful incumbent, and for a time it looks like the impoverished coastal town of Jérémie may get the road its people need to sell their goods in the capital. But White falls hard for Celestin's beautiful wife, Nadia, whose singing career in the States was cut short by domestic abuse and deportation, and Celestin's rise to power is complicated by jealousy, corruption, and natural disaster. Berlinski's narrator purports to tell a story in which the world makes sense, with every death a murder, every misfortune a crime, but the Haiti he describes is one in which there are always multiple versions of the truth, some we can bear to tell ourselves, and others we cannot.--Driscoll, Brendan Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In tones that shift effortlessly from journalistic to atmospheric to deeply, darkly funny, Berlinski (Fieldwork) evokes a very detailed sense of place in his second novel. Set in Jérémie, a small town on the southwestern peninsula of Haiti, on the edge the "azure stage" of the Caribbean-where "life is fragile, transient: any day might be your last"-we are introduced to Terry White, a former deputy sheriff and failed Florida politician, who, looking for redemption in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, takes a position with the United Nations Police peacekeeping mission. Terry is drawn first by his close relationship with the brilliant American-educated judge Johel Célestin and then by the judge's beautiful, enigmatic, green-eyed wife, Nadia ("Haiti," according to our narrator, a writer in Jérémie accompanying his wife, who is a member of the UN mission, "was a place that sunk tentacles down deep into the soul"). The political and personal become entangled as Terry encourages the judge to challenge the long-standing Senatéur Maxim Bayard's hold on the region and build a road between the town and Port Au Prince. In the Judge's words, "A mango tree and a road are school fees for your child... A mango tree without a road is a pile of fruit." The narrator is an unnamed friend of Terry's well-meaning and sociable wife, Kay, and the story unfolds as his account of the events. Berlinski himself lived in Jérémie while his wife worked for the UN, and the pages are steeped in verisimilitude, even (and perhaps more so) when the story tips to the outrageous. This is a fascinating and well-plotted novel. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Review by Library Journal Review
Berlinski's second novel (after Fieldwork) is narrated by an unnamed American attached to the UN mission in Haiti just before the 2010 earthquake, but the central character is Terry White, a former deputy sheriff who lost his job for political reasons, went broke in the financial crisis of 2008, and has now come to Haiti looking for a second chance, working with UNPOL (UN Police), training Haitian officers. White becomes involved with Johel Célestin, an American-educated Haitian judge, and encourages him to run for office against the powerful and corrupt Sénateur Maxim Bayard. Célestin's vision of a road that will link his remote province to the capital helps him mount a strong challenge to the sénateur, while Terry's attraction to Célestin's beautiful wife, Nadia, threatens to undermine the campaign and much more. VERDICT With the eye of an anthropologist and the heart of a novelist, Berlinski vividly depicts the stark contrast of physical beauty and grinding poverty that is the essence of Haiti. Much of the novel's tension-and its humor-is born out of the clash of these extremes. Berlinski's Haiti is a place where dreams are crushed routinely by the harsh realities of poverty, power, and political corruption. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 9/21/15.]-Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
On the troubled half-island of Haiti, love, power, and poverty collide, as do a tough Florida cop, a beautiful singer, politicians, and the United Nations post-2004 peacekeeping mission. Former Deputy Sheriff Terry White comes to Haiti after a failed try at politics in Florida and an affair that shakes his marriage to Kay. He joins the U.N. police force and befriends Johel Celestin, a Haitian trained as a lawyer in the U.S. who works on the island with the U.N. Terry's urging persuades Johel to run for a Senate seat long held by the powerful Maxim Bayard. Terry also has begun an affair with Johel's wife, the singer Nadia. Then Kay comes to Haiti to help with Johel's campaign, and all the ingredients of an equatorial soap opera are present. But Berlinski (Fieldwork, 2007) avoids melodrama with a no-nonsense voice that never loses sight of the grim facts behind the fiction. "I had never been anyplace so dysfunctional, so rotten, or so very fascinating," says the unnamed American novelist who narrates, a man friendly with but arm's length from all the characters whose back stories he provides. He and the book spend a lot of time with visiting whites and the well-off native establishment because they are the malevolent or well-meaning people who have so often failed one of the world's poorest nations. Johel's campaign pledge, a road to bring goods in and out of a cut-off area, is typical of the relatively simple fixes that have been held back or hamstrung by corruption and mismanagement. Tensions rise along with Johel's popularity as the election and, not incidentally, the 2010 earthquake draw near. Berlinksi, whose Fieldwork was nominated for a National Book Award, is a kind of heir to Graham Greene and Robert Stone, both for his excellent storytelling and for the way it can reveal a bigger picture. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
