Chapter 1 - Joseph Binbin Mauvant Summary and Analysis

The first chapter of the book begins in the rural mountains of Haiti, on a typical early morning. The day is typical, that is, until the "disappearance" of Joseph Binbin Mauvant, Mama Lola's great grandfather. The short, fictitious story told here is one of Mama Lola's family lore and held as historical truth. The town is Jean Rabel, in the northwest corner of Haiti, and Joseph Binbin Mauvant is aged seventy-nine years. The setting is the Mauvant family compound, and Manman Marasa, the wife of Mauvant, is going about her usual morning business of breakfast and tending to children. The compound is a grouping of huts for the Mauvant family's grown children and their children as well. Philomise is the youngest daughter of Marie Noelsine, the family beauty. Most of the compound's women...