Vodoun

Voodoo, Haitian history and the U.S. State Department's vacillation and hypocrisy are rich and timely fare. Madsen (U.S.S.A.; Black Plume) fails to take advantage of these thematic opportunities, however; in addition, his novel suffers from a flat but pretentious style, an unsympathetic protagonist, often incredible plot turns and B-movie villains. Award-winning journalist Ray Falco, the story's narrator, has been turned into a murderous zombie by a Haitian wheeler-dealer who plans to return to his ancestral post as the power behind the throne (or in this case the presidential chair). Falco becomes possessed of the spirit of a young American envoy in Haiti during a failed 1792 slave revolt and writes a diary in that man's voice. Though readers may be drawn in by the voodoo lore, the dramatic comparisons between historic and present-day Haiti and the ``relentless, hustling energy'' of Port-au-Prince street life, Madsen's handling of historical details may prove confusing. (Aristide is not mentioned, and the leader of the 1792 uprising is fictional.) For a fuller telling of the ``tragicomedy of Haiti,'' audiences would fare better with Graham Greene's The Comedians. (Oct.)