Alejo Carpentier: THE KINGDOM OF THIS WORLD

Alejo Carpentier's THE KINGDOM OF THIS WORLD, a historical fiction, is populated with characters who are fictional and real. The events used as setting of the novel are those that took place during the Haitian Revolution - when King Henri-Christophe, chaos, violence, voodoo, and supersition ruled.

The protagonist in the novel is Ti Noel, a product of the colonial system, plagued with identity crisis: no longer African, but far from being French. The novel reveals Ti Noel's complexity, perversity, and desire to survive and attain redemption.

The "magical realism" format of the novel makes this piece of literature admirable. However, the book has to be read slowly.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

{27 May 2010}