Amy Wilentz is the author of The Rainy Season, Martyrs’ Crossing, and I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen. She has won the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN/Martha Albrand Non-Fiction Award, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award. She writes for The New Yorker and The Nation and teaches in the Literary Journalism program at UC Irvine.
“Farewell, Fred Voodoo showcases all [Wilentz’s] formidable gifts
as a reporter: her love of, and intimate familiarity with, Haiti;
her sense of historical perspective; and her eye for the revealing
detail. Like Joan Didion and V. S. Naipaul, she has an ability not
only to provide a visceral, physical feel for a place, but also to
communicate an existential sense of what it’s like to be there as a
journalist with a very specific and sometimes highly subjective
relationship with her subject.”
*The New York Times*
“Excellent and illuminating….a love letter to—and a lament
for—Haiti, a country with an already strange and tortured history
that became even more tragic, interesting and convoluted in the
months after the earthquake…. [Wilentz] brings to Haiti empathy and
her great skills as a narrator….it's Wilentz's honesty about her
own role in Haiti and that of so many other American visitors to
that country that ultimately distinguishes her book most from other
works that cover similar terrain.”
*Los Angeles Times*
"A veteran journalist captures the functioning chaos of Haiti. ...
An extraordinarily frank cultural study/memoir that eschews
platitudes of both tragedy and hope."
*Kirkus Reviews, starred review*
“Farewell, Fred Voodoo is engrossing and gorgeous and funny, a
meticulously reported story of love for a maddening place.
Wilentz’s writing is so lyrical it’s like hearing a song – in this
case, the magical, confounding, sad song of Haiti.”
*Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin*
“Farewell, Fred Voodoo is written with authority and great
affection for Haiti and Haitians and for those who are trying to
help them. An informative and wonderful piece of writing, it is a
work of considerable artistry, immensely evocative. I read it with
pleasure and with mounting gratitude.”
*Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains*
“Amy Wilentz is a brilliant writer, an ace journalist and, perhaps
most important, she is not an outsider. She's the perfect guide
through the heartbreak and beauty of post-earthquake Haiti. I was
gripped by her respectful and first-hand reporting on Voodoo, and
impressed by her enormous sensitivity to the crushing deprivation
most Haitians endure.”
*Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed*
“Amy Wilentz knows Haiti deeply: its language, its tragic history,
the foibles of her fellow Americans who often miss the story there.
This makes her a wise, wry, indispensable guide to a country whose
fate has long been so interwoven with our own.”
*Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost*
“I can't imagine there's a better book about Haiti—a smarter, more
thoughtful, tough-minded, romantic, plainspoken, intimate,
well-reported book. Amy Wilentz has paid exceptionally close
attention to this dreamy, nightmarish place for a quarter century,
and with Farewell, Fred Voodoo she turns all that careful watching
and thinking into a riveting work of nonfiction literature.”
*Kurt Andersen, author of Heyday and True Believers*
Haiti has been marked by colonial oppression, revolution, dictators, and foreign occupation by American imperialism-to say nothing of widespread poverty, social and political turmoil, disease, and the crippling earthquake in 2010. Caught in the remarkable prose of Wilentz (The Rainy Season) the tragedy is told through the eyes of Fred Voodoo, Haiti's fictional everyman, a figure who fits invisibly in Haitian society but whose insight is unmatched. The author's fluid and engaging narrative delves into Haiti's history and focuses on the current plight of a nation of ten million living in stark poverty. Sean Penn, "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Jimmy Carter, and dozens of other personages appear across her pages, as do the voodoo priests and the Tonton Macoutes, Duvalier's personal police force. VERDICT Tragic, ironic, humorous, scary, and fascinating, the book is a remarkable achievement and a must read for those interested in Caribbean affairs. An overwhelming positive recommendation.-Boyd Childress, formerly with Auburn University Libs., AL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
"Farewell, Fred Voodoo showcases all [Wilentz's] formidable
gifts as a reporter: her love of, and intimate familiarity with,
Haiti; her sense of historical perspective; and her eye for the
revealing detail. Like Joan Didion and V. S. Naipaul, she has an
ability not only to provide a visceral, physical feel for a place,
but also to communicate an existential sense of what it's like to
be there as a journalist with a very specific and sometimes highly
subjective relationship with her subject." -- Michiko Kakutani *
The New York Times *
"Excellent and illuminating....a love letter to-and a lament
for-Haiti, a country with an already strange and tortured history
that became even more tragic, interesting and convoluted in the
months after the earthquake.... [Wilentz] brings to Haiti empathy
and her great skills as a narrator....it's Wilentz's honesty about
her own role in Haiti and that of so many other American visitors
to that country that ultimately distinguishes her book most from
other works that cover similar terrain." * Los Angeles Times *
"A veteran journalist captures the functioning chaos of Haiti. ...
An extraordinarily frank cultural study/memoir that eschews
platitudes of both tragedy and hope." * Kirkus Reviews, starred
review *
"Farewell, Fred Voodoo is engrossing and gorgeous and funny,
a meticulously reported story of love for a maddening place.
Wilentz's writing is so lyrical it's like hearing a song - in this
case, the magical, confounding, sad song of Haiti." -- Susan
Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin
"Farewell, Fred Voodoo is written with authority and great
affection for Haiti and Haitians and for those who are trying to
help them. An informative and wonderful piece of writing, it is a
work of considerable artistry, immensely evocative. I read it with
pleasure and with mounting gratitude." -- Tracy Kidder, author of
Mountains Beyond Mountains
"Amy Wilentz is a brilliant writer, an ace journalist and, perhaps
most important, she is not an outsider. She's the perfect guide
through the heartbreak and beauty of post-earthquake Haiti. I was
gripped by her respectful and first-hand reporting on Voodoo, and
impressed by her enormous sensitivity to the crushing deprivation
most Haitians endure." -- Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and
Dimed
"Amy Wilentz knows Haiti deeply: its language, its tragic history,
the foibles of her fellow Americans who often miss the story there.
This makes her a wise, wry, indispensable guide to a country whose
fate has long been so interwoven with our own." -- Adam Hochschild,
author of King Leopold's Ghost
"I can't imagine there's a better book about Haiti-a smarter, more
thoughtful, tough-minded, romantic, plainspoken, intimate,
well-reported book. Amy Wilentz has paid exceptionally close
attention to this dreamy, nightmarish place for a quarter century,
and with Farewell, Fred Voodoo she turns all that careful
watching and thinking into a riveting work of nonfiction
literature." -- Kurt Andersen, author of Heyday and True Believers
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