rocilanda's review against another edition
4.0
The beauty of it relies in the crude accuracy of it. Got goosebumps at the end.
hannicogood's review against another edition
2.0
To me, this book glossed over important events without enough detail. It could have been more interesting if it were longer.
jz_reads's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.25
I don't remember much from this book except that there was lots of castle-building, people turning into animals, and the ending made me pretty sad :( too spiritual for my liking (religion in general...ick), but I can see how others would enjoy it. I, personally, did not.
brynn_kathryn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.5
Read this for a college course about Magical Realism, and I could not get into it at all. There are some--very few, but some--parts that I found interesting, but I wasn't captivated at all. I found myself dreading reading this book, because I was just so bored with it. I didn't care about the various characters or the jumps through time and place. I was just...emotionless towards it.
athenameilahn's review against another edition
3.0
This was a gift & a fascinating glimpse of Haiti post revolution. Brutal, complicated, pithy. Lots of race, class, gender & vodou issues. It was hard to connect to the characters so it was a bit of a chore so I read it too fast which made it hard to connect...I’ll have to reread it and teach it as part of a Caribbean class.
ravenmaty's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Después de haber tenido pequeños acercamientos al realismo mágico que no tuvieron un buen resultado, me encontré con la sorpresa que supuso para mí este libro. No creo que esté capacitada para hablar de los sucesos que cuenta, pero sí del entretenimiento y el quizás misterio que aporta. Desde luego, me ha renovado las esperanzas en una literatura que creí que no era para mí y en la que quizás tengo que buscar más hasta encontrar libros que me enganchen tanto o más que este.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death, Violence, Slavery, Sexual violence, Murder, and Torture
jbogerhawkins's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
kingeditor's review against another edition
5.0
If The Kingdom of This World were even a little bit longer, it would be unbearable. The misery of the plot and the sumptuousness of the prose would drive any reader either to despair or exhaustion. As it is, The Kingdom of This World is brimming but not overstuffed with some of the most baroque language, passionate struggles, and inhuman cruelty to ever fill a novel of such short length.
The title’s meaning is stated outright at the very end, but I feel that a reader could discern it from the opening pages, in which the decadence of the colonial ruling class is put on extravagant display. Decadence—material, cultural, and sexual—is what separates Earth from Heaven and is Alejo Carpentier’s obsession, along with musicology. Both are intertwined through the cycle of revolutions, as the classical European music of the oppressors gives way to the primal drum rhythms of the Haitian people who continuously overthrow them.
This motif of eternal recurrence, by which a new class (and skin color) of enslavers replaces the old, lends the novel a tone of overwhelming pessimism all the way until its last gasp. I won’t spoil it, but the main character, Ti Noel, has an epiphany about the prospects for mankind in the torturous injustice that is life on Earth. That this provides some semblance of catharsis for the reader yet not a corrective to the events they have just witnessed is not a discredit to Carpentier’s skill as a writer, only a testament to the colossal tragedy of Caribbean history.
The title’s meaning is stated outright at the very end, but I feel that a reader could discern it from the opening pages, in which the decadence of the colonial ruling class is put on extravagant display. Decadence—material, cultural, and sexual—is what separates Earth from Heaven and is Alejo Carpentier’s obsession, along with musicology. Both are intertwined through the cycle of revolutions, as the classical European music of the oppressors gives way to the primal drum rhythms of the Haitian people who continuously overthrow them.
This motif of eternal recurrence, by which a new class (and skin color) of enslavers replaces the old, lends the novel a tone of overwhelming pessimism all the way until its last gasp. I won’t spoil it, but the main character, Ti Noel, has an epiphany about the prospects for mankind in the torturous injustice that is life on Earth. That this provides some semblance of catharsis for the reader yet not a corrective to the events they have just witnessed is not a discredit to Carpentier’s skill as a writer, only a testament to the colossal tragedy of Caribbean history.
kbuchanan's review against another edition
4.0
This electric little book deals with the slave uprisings in Haiti at the beginning of the 19th century and the rise and fall of Henri Christophe, the country's first black king. The novel itself is an early and influential example of magical realism in its first form, and writers from Gabriel Garcia Márquez to Isabel Allende express indebtedness to it. Carpentier's writing is a firestorm: rich, bloody, and insistently poetic. This world is brutal and complex, showing us both the oppressive French colonial regime and its aftermath of a society run by the often cruel Henri Christophe. Given the novel's extremely short length, Carpentier gives us an impressive epic on a scale far grander than its brevity would suggest. From the early stirrings of revolution under the leadership of Mackandal to the downfall and looting of Sans-Souci palace, this novel opens up a whole world to explore, and one that was new to me. I was somewhat surprised, given the level of importance afforded this work, that I had never heard of this writer or this novel, originally published in 1949. It left me feeling the gaps in established literary canon acutely.