Devil Makes Three

Has Ben Fountain lived in Haiti? I don’t know, but I was utterly convinced by every detail of this novel set in the aftermath of the coup that deposed Haitian President Aristide. Fountain is great at limning the gray areas such as the compromises his Haitian characters – including the most idealistic - must make to survive. His American characters include a young man with a plan (that had not seemed insane at the outset), to start a scuba business on the Haitian coast, Embassy and CIA officers most of whom are both cynical and ignorant as they try to… show more.

Ben Fountain’s extraordinary ability to weave together politics with profound character studies is on full display in Devil Makes Three. Fountain sets his tale during the political upheaval in Haiti in 1991 when President Aristide was overthrown. We follow an American expat scuba instructor who soon finds himself out of business and in over his head, and a Haitian grad student who has returned to her family from the US just in time for in the chaotic and violent aftermath of the coup. Each of them must make decisions about how and when to take a stand while navigating politics… show more.