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Introduction: Brian Moore's No Other Life
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11689 |
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BOOK WORLD
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2 / 1994 |
304 Words |
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Brian Moore began writing No Other Life during Jean-Bertrand Aristide'sbrief period in office as president of Haiti. Although some details and events parallel recent Haitian history, Moore insists that this novel is not just about Aristide. He wanted to raise the question, Is it possible to be a religious leader and a political leader at the same time and be true to both? Fascinated by the peculiar kind of messianic power leaders such as Aristide possess, Moore set out to probe difficult moral questions about leadership and responsibility.
No Other Life takes place in Ganae, a destitute Caribbean island that is and yet is not Haiti. The story is told as the memoir of Fr. Paul Michel, a white Canadian priest who has spent thirty years teaching in an elite secondary school in Ganae's capital city. On the eve of his retirement, Father Michel recalls his protégé, Jean-Paul Cantave-Jeannot--whom he plucked from a poor rural village and educated. He remembers that even as a young boy, the brilliant and charismatic Jeannot expressed a desire to live a life in imitation of Christ. Jeannot became a revolutionary priest whom many believed to be a messiah. Although bloodshed followed in the wake of his calls for freedom and justice, Jeannot himself seemed accountable solely to God. Father Michel recounts the time of crisis when Jeannot, as president of Ganae, faced a military coup.
No Other Life, then, is Brian Moore's parable for the postcommunist world. In the commentaries that follow, historian Lee Congdon discusses the novel in depth, considering its importance for a time when the false religion of perfect justice still has its devotees. Author James Thompson delves into Moore's previous oeuvre to discern the themes that have dominated the
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