A Journal of the Caribbean and its Diaspora Tae wrierSpngz0e NOT Wadabagel is a Garifuna name for the conch shell which is frequently used as a wake-up call in Caribbean villages and to announce community gatherings. It symbolizes the historic call to action by Haitian slaves and the Caribbean peoples’ continuing struggle for self-expression and self determination. ISSN 1091-5753 Caribbean Diaspora Press, Inc. Brooklyn, New York.Steady, Filomena, 1982, The Black Woman Ciltwally. Cambridge (MA): Schenkman Publishing 168 BOOK REVIEW “Seven Dreams of Elmira” ‘Cambridge, MA: Zoland Books (Tr. Mark Poli by Jean-Luc Laguarigue, 1999), By Patrick Chamoiseat ti, Photographs The great Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier weote the prologue to AP reino de este mundo (The Kingdom of tis World) in 1948, ia Which he ariculated his theoey (or notion) of “lo real ‘maravillos,” the °marvelous-real.” According to Carpentier, the Americas, with “its Faustic presen ‘ofits Negroes and Indians. js the privileged focus of the marvelous, the uncanny or unfathomable which permeates both quotidian and historical iy i the New World, In Old Europe on the other hand, aching under the weight of 190 centuries of the Enlightenment ‘with its atendant pulverization of myths, the marvelous is relegate tothe meager realm of the literary With the inellectual cushion of hindsight Carpentir’s binaryism of jaded Europelyouthful America seems like an easy deconstruction if there ever was one (the unraveling question being, as Roberto Gonzilez Echevarria poses it, where docs Carpenters own writing stand inthis dualistic state of affairs? In another scathing but litle-known critique Horst Rogsman takes Carpentier and other practitioners of “ealismo migica” to task, 169And. yet there are nonetheless no lack of waiters, critics and readers of Latin American and Caribbean literature today who st seck in these regions an alternative toa reality pertaining 10 “the West." “Western Modernity," “Euroce persists that while the polarity between center and periphery as aniculaed in autochihony, Jo real maraviloso, magical realism, ism In fact the paradox ‘ranscuturation and in its more recent metamorphoses such as hybridity (see Moreias for genealogy of these schools of thought), is perhaps theoretical Caribbean culture and literature rely on sich a distinetion for asailable, Latin American and much oftheir aesthetic, entologie and dssplinary autonomy. Patrick Chamoiseau's he Seven Dreams of Elmira confirms the enduring continuity of these questions at the heart of Latin American and Caribbean literature, We could even go $0 far as 10 say that Chamoiseau's book is an attempt to assemble these Aisparate trations and movements into a concise pastiche of patchwork, The most prominent genre in Seven Dreams of Elvira is that of testimonial erature: Chamoiseau assembles the accounts of “the residents of Gros-Momne™ (who are listed by tame inthe acknowledgments, and some of whom appear in Jean Lue Laguarigue's photographs), dsiling them into. a monologic aration of man claiming to be older than one hundred, ‘This old Marinican has spent the beter part of his century of ie ‘working inthe Sain-Exinne rum distillery, ‘The tales he recounts permit an almost eubisic reconsruction of ram manufacturing For [have known the cutting, the hoisting, the mashing. I've brewed the ferment in the vats. I've worked the distilling column, 170 [ve seen the hot liquid being tested, pu the um in asks, and served a ilbury driver to the Founding Békes. ve seen ital” (9) Though there isin the text humorous references to “the tractor with its big whee that came from France (13) and the cadaver Which “sti and dead ashe was, spread his arms ina Lang-Livesde Gaulle to keep tom going into his poorsman’s cof,” (1) the ‘wealth of details relating to rum production donot apparently ser an antiimperalsic agenda, as in Carpenit's descriptions ‘of sugar production in Ecus-Yamba-O (1933, a book that was original ‘that persuades me even further of the validity of this Caribbean constellation of texts across languages and the twentieth century) ‘or Cesar Uribe Piedrahita’s lesser-known denunciation of the Venezuelan petroleum industry in Mancha de aceite (1935). Nor ‘does Chamoiscau’s text seem intended to celebate (and eritique) the shoot materiality of ram, cubano del tabaco y det azar (Cuban Counterpoint of Tobacen ‘and Sugar, 1940), In an almost allegorical correspondence to the Published with documentary photographs, similarity in Femando Onti's Contrapureo ‘spirtual” process of fermenting and distilling ur ffom sugar, ‘Chamoiseau focuses on the ethereal and magical memor “legends, seres, a thousand tales, So many (10) ~ ofa Sain Etienne rum worker The narrator recalls seven brief episodes ofthe “marvelous” history of Saint-Etieane ram, but these minor vignetes lad up to felons the contenarian narrator's principal preoccupation and frusteation, “Life becomes cheap when you pass hundred.” he declares (14), Not even the spectacular Caribbean landscapes, mine nutmeg trees [Which] are so rch the leaves explode in blue bursts amid the tres (14),” hold much interest for him any longer. ‘he narrator's one remaining passionate deste sto behold before ying the divine vision of Eira, Elmira appears only to those whose smacence render them worthy of he, oF So the naratr conjectures. She fst appeared to te simpleton Isidore Adlodsine during the annual ceremonial” tasting ofthe first droplets ofthe season's yield of rum: “the rum had gone beyond good: it had eareened into those raptures thatthe rmasterdisillers acknowledged by saying, Yeah Yeah Yea” (18) I was at this moment that Elmira appeared before Isidore “Though he was unable to describe what he had seen, he spent the remainder of his life guzzling rum “without periods or commas” in 8 fatle attempt 10 revive that fleeting. moment of bliss and plenitude, In the aforementioned prologue to The Kingdom of this World, Cagpentier mestions thatthe French artist Paul Masson, when confronted withthe exuberant landscape of the Caribbean, the prodigious flora ofthe Martnican jungle lft him “impotent before the blank page” (11). In Chamoisea’s text, another pursuer of Elmima’s vision is a pater “who arrived from who snows where” (25: He had found a battle of our S Etienne on a boat that ran aground near Maripasoula, in Guyana, in the depths of the jungle, among the ‘baboons and anacondas. He had drunk it inthe company of Ndjuka maroons and Wayampi m Indians atthe fot ofthe sacred mountain. Aad by ‘harrowing stroke of lick, they had all glimpsed Elmira at the same moment, but in various ways mira smiling at them, and even (but this pat 1 do not beieve) Elmira speaking to them, ina voice that can’t be repodoced in writing. (26) “This unidentified painter makes a pilgrimage to Saint-tienne from the local flor, like cane juice, to ‘where, using mater enhance his pains, he attempts and fails to fx the image of Elmira ‘om canvas. “The painter spent the rest of his ie trying 0 eeapture hee face in pastel stoke, orn paint." (27). Like Ti Noe! in The Kingdom of this Word ths painter disappears ina tropical storm “without ever having completed his portrait, but one of the sketches ‘of Elmira let bend is henceforth used asthe label affixed tothe hotles of Saint-Etienne rum. Elmira then, whose countenance cannot be captured in ether iconic or graphic representation, ‘remains an elusive referent, pure subjectivity, a Caribbean Aleph, ‘Seven Dreams of Elvira is rich in elements and motifs that {it niely into the modem Caribbean and Latin American literary heritage. This is at once the book’s strength and its weakness strength because it handles this raw material this loca coor, with absolute mastery; but « weakness because itresuscitates many of the theoretical impesses commonly associated with the frustrated quest for regional essences in Latin American fiction. The image of Elm tuneprescatable It should be mentioned that Seven Dreams of Elmira is 13 “at once yeamed for though inaccessible and perhaps an allegory for this double gesture.published in a splendid hard-over edition by Zoland Hooks, who had the good sense 19 emulate the original Gallimard edition, ‘Mark Polizzoti's translation reads wonderfully, ceasily, when we consider the heav 1nd perhaps 100 Créoteinected nature of ily, Jean-Luc Laguarigue's included photographs, in both black and ‘people and places who populate Chamoiseau's testimonial accou ‘are quite stunning ~ so vivid and evocative that they form an eloquent and ironic contraistintion to Elmira’s unevocable Visage. Polizot's translation should provide a weleome adiion 1 readers of Caribbean literature in English who willbe pleased at Chamoiseau's oxiginal French. Fis how Chamoiseau's text both challenges and complements their understanding ofthe achipelago’s literary expression. Paul B. Miller Vanderbilt Universicy and color, of the References Carpenter, Alejo, 1989, Eeue-Yamba-O. Madrid: Alianza. —, 1966, “Pogo.” in: Alejo Carpentier, BI reino de este ‘mundo, 9-15, Montevideo: Area Gonzilez. Echevaria, Roberto, 1990, Alejo Carpenter: The Pilgrim at Home. Austin: Universiy of Texas Press. Moreira, Alberto, 1999, “Hybrid and Double Consciousness.” in: Cultural Studies 13(3), 373-407. Rogmana, Horst, 1979, “Realismo migico” y ‘negritue™ como ‘eonsrucciones ideologies,” i: Ideologies. and Literarre 2:10 (SeprOer), 45-55 us