Detour by Évelyne Trouillot, 2013
The magic trick:
Crescendo of doom
Like the great Apartheid stories of Nadine Gordimer set in mid-century South Africa, “Detour” examines devastating inequality. Here, it’s Haiti, and Trouillot emphasizes the dual nature of life there by alternating perspectives in the story. It’s all free indirect narration, switching between a comfortable, privileged woman (at least privileged enough to be driving a Honda), and a man on the street who observes her. It shouldn’t be that intense an interaction for the woman in the car. But, as it appears she’s spent most of her life pretending the other half of society didn’t exist, it’s a heck of a reckoning.
And that’s quite a trick on Trouillot’s part.
The selection:
One day, a somewhat cynical friend had reproached her for being too attentive to other people: “You can’t go on living in this country if you care about everybody; you have to learn to close your eyes to certain things. It’s like when you’re driving: Almost all the roads are bad, if you try to avoid every little pothole, you’ll never get where you’re going. If you fret about every petty vendor in the road, you’re finished before you’ve even begun. You just have to plow straight through and not worry about splashing mud on them. After all, you’re not responsible for the state of things.”
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