A GRIMY noon. Bouba went out. I’m typing the last chapter at top speed. The end of my ordeal is in sight. The Remington (my partner in crime) hasn’t lost its touch. I’ve just got to finish this prologue. When you add it up, I wrote this novel in thirty-six days and eighteen nights, using three ribbons, four jars of liquid paper, five hundred sheets of bond paper, thirty bottles of wine and a dozen cases of beer. I totalled it up in a little black notebook, a gift from Miz Literature. I’m typing like crazy. The Remington is having a ball. Words are squirting out everywhere. I type. I can’t take it any more. I type. I’m at the end of my ribbon. I finish. I crash out on the table next to the typewriter with my head on my arms.
You’re Not Born Black, You Get That Way
DAWN CAME up, as always, independent of my will. Sweet adolescent dawn. The lances of the sun without their sting. Gentle and cajoling. My novel stares at me from the table, next to the old Remington, in its fat red folder. My novel is a handsome hunk of hope. My only chance. Take it.
About the Author
DANY LAFERRIÈRE was born in Port-au-Prince in 1953. He worked as a journalist under Haiti’s notorious Duvalier regime before immigrating to Montreal in 1976. Laferrière is the author of fourteen novels and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix RFO du Livre 2002, Le Grand Prix de la ville de Montréal 2009, the first Prix Carbet des lyceens and the Governor General’s Award. How to Make Love to a Negro, originally published in French in 1985, was his first novel and later adapted into a Genie Award— nominated film. Laferrière’s other novels include Heading South, I Am a Japanese Writer and the international bestseller L’énigme du retour, which won the prestigious Prix Médicis in 2009. Laferrière lives in Montreal.