M.J. Fievre’s A Sky the Color of Chaos Transports Readers on a Stirring Coming of Age Journey in Haiti
by Carmella De Los Angeles Guiol
As a child, M.J. Fievre witnessed terror on the streets of Port-au-Prince during a time when Haiti was enduring multiple military coups, an embargo, and a United Nations occupation. M.J.’s home life was not any easier, living with a domineering father who ran his household of women with a firm and fiery hand. With each passing year, M.J. grew more and more determined to leave this turbulent life behind. Knowing her studies would be the ticket out, she applied herself to her schoolwork, delving into the worlds of writing and medicine. Readers will cry with laughter and shudder in fear as they walk beside this young woman maneuvering the intricacies of being a friend, lover, sister, and daughter, all the while learning how to love her country, her family, and herself.
In her simultaneously heartbreaking and heart-lifting memoir, A Sky the Color of Chaos (Beating Windward Press, 184 pp., $17.95, November 2015), Fievre comes to the page with raw fierceness, unafraid to make herself vulnerable to her readers. Not only does this author do the hard work of digging deep into her emotional past to tell this chaotic coming of age story, she also buoys her personal experiences with a wealth of research on Haiti’s political climate during the years of her youth. Whether it’s dancing in a nightclub for the first time or witnessing a live body on fire below her balcony, Fievre brings the reader into the sweaty club – and onto the balcony – with her, imploring us to see, smell, taste, hear, and most importantly, feel the weight of her lived experiences.
Although this is Fievre’s first book in English, she has been publishing since she was sixteen. She has authored nine books in French, several for young adult and child audiences; Fievre has also written countless essays, short stories, plays, and poems in English, French, Spanish and Haitian Creole. An active member of Miami’s thriving literary scene, Fievre is the founder of Sliver of Stone Magazine and the editor of So Spoke the Earth, an anthology about Haiti’s past, present, and future. Her writing is a bridge between the Americas and the Caribbean, a fresh voice in an increasingly globalized world. Given the breadth of her experiences and her passion for telling stories, Fievre is well on her way to becoming one of our generations’ most enduring literary talents
In her simultaneously heartbreaking and heart-lifting memoir, A Sky the Color of Chaos (Beating Windward Press, 184 pp., $17.95, November 2015), Fievre comes to the page with raw fierceness, unafraid to make herself vulnerable to her readers. Not only does this author do the hard work of digging deep into her emotional past to tell this chaotic coming of age story, she also buoys her personal experiences with a wealth of research on Haiti’s political climate during the years of her youth. Whether it’s dancing in a nightclub for the first time or witnessing a live body on fire below her balcony, Fievre brings the reader into the sweaty club – and onto the balcony – with her, imploring us to see, smell, taste, hear, and most importantly, feel the weight of her lived experiences.
Although this is Fievre’s first book in English, she has been publishing since she was sixteen. She has authored nine books in French, several for young adult and child audiences; Fievre has also written countless essays, short stories, plays, and poems in English, French, Spanish and Haitian Creole. An active member of Miami’s thriving literary scene, Fievre is the founder of Sliver of Stone Magazine and the editor of So Spoke the Earth, an anthology about Haiti’s past, present, and future. Her writing is a bridge between the Americas and the Caribbean, a fresh voice in an increasingly globalized world. Given the breadth of her experiences and her passion for telling stories, Fievre is well on her way to becoming one of our generations’ most enduring literary talents
