Edwidge DanticatReseñas

A beautifully written, often poignant and harrowing, collection of short stories by Haitian author Edwidge Danticat. These stories reveal aspects of Haitian life and focus in particular on women’s lives. In the Haitian storytelling tradition the listeners ask, “Krik?” to which the storyteller replies, “Krak!” My favourite story was Children of the Sea, about lovers separated as he makes the hazardous crossing to America in a leaky boat of refugees and she is caught behind in the troubles of Haiti with her family. My only complaint as with all short stories is that they end too rapidly. The audio narration by Robin Miles and Dion Graham was also beautifully done. 4.5 stars for me.

I read this book as part of my read around the world challenge, and if it is a country I know little about I find myself inspired to seek out a few facts. The country of Haiti is the western part of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic making up the eastern part. The island was originally inhabited by the Indigenous Taino people, then was under Spanish rule after Columbus, then became a French colony in 1697. The French brought in African slaves and established plantations. Haiti gained independence in 1804 after a slave revolt. It has had an unstable political climate since, with 32 coups following on from the revolt, and several ruthless dictators such as François and Jean-Claude Duvalier. Then there was the huge earthquake in 2010. Haiti now has a population of 11.4 million, ¾ of whom live on less than US$2 a day.½

Family Love and Loss

The Danticat family experienced separation but we're able to maintain strong ties due to their love for one another. Denticat writes beautifully about two brothers, her father and uncle, and their experiences with the upheaval they faced in Haiti, and their attempts to protect their families. The closing paragraph brought tears to my eyes.

Nightmares Passed on Through Generations

"I come from a place where breath, eyes and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head."

Much of this book is difficult to read. The pain and horror that the women expierence affect them and their relationships through generations..."and recreate the same unspeakable acts that they themselves lived through."

Sophie's mother experienced horrible violations in her youth, making motherhood unbearable. Once Sophie and her mother reunite, her mother passed on nightmares "like heirlooms".
In the end, compassion helps Sophie realize that her mother was as b"brave as stars at dawn".

Absolutely beautiful, heartbreaking memoir that should be better known.

Right away, you know you are in the presence of a great writer when you read the very first short story of Krik? Krak! In "Children of the Sea" two teenagers who are in love keep journals when they are separated by dictatorship. Danticat keeps the two first person narratives clear by using capitalization and punctuation for one voice but not the other. The educated boy, a member of the Youth Federation, has escaped Haiti on a boat bound for Miami, Florida, while his young love (who does not use capitalization of punctuation) is left behind to endure military abuses. This was probably one of my favorites. Each subsequent story builds upon the next with the tiniest of threads. A minute detail will tie one story back to another.
"Nineteen Thirty-Seven" is a painful story about a woman visiting her mother in prison. Her mother is accused of flying. The government believes she is a witch, capable of rising like a bird on fire.
"A Wall of Fire Rising" tells the short but devastating story of a family barely making ends meet.
"Night Women" demonstrates the lengths a woman will go in order to provide for her child.
"Between the Pool and the Gardenias" is another heartbreaking story about loss.
"The Missing Peace" illuminates innocence abandoned.
"Seeing Things Simply" shares the story of an artist looking for beauty while ugliness crowds all around her.
"New York Day Women" demonstrates just how much a mother's love can suffocate a daughter.
"Caroline's Wedding" weaves a tale of expectation in age old customs.
"Women Like Us" is a message to daughters.
"In the Old Days" is an additional story for the twentieth anniversary edition of Krik? Krak! It tells the story of a woman asked to visit her dying father, a man she has never met.

This is in diary form. She tells her story to through her diary. Living in Haiti with her father gone. Being injured in a bombing. Than dealing with the move to join her father in the US. Well told from a young girls POV.

Author’s note details her own life in Haiti and emigration to New York. There is also a list of suggested websites and discussion questions

Very sad. Glad to have read it. Really amazing commentary and imagery about motherhood. Great perspective!

I’ve waited too late to review this book. I don’t remember much at all about it. Was it not memorable? Or was it that the short stories, being short stories, didn’t take as much time to read so more quickly left my memory banks? I better remember books I read before this one so I’m perplexed. Well, I do recall liking the book, it was compelling, but mostly sad. It felt like no spark of joy exists in Haiti or amongst Haitians. Perhaps that’s the truth from what I read in the news about this very poor country embroiled in turmoil. I do remember the last story, and I loved the premise and writing style. The author’s talented. I probably should try one of her novels next that will more likely stick with me.½

Here's what I wrote in 2009 about this read: "Dominican Republic & Trujillo reveiwed again. A haunting tale of loss, partially, but not only, from the purging of Haitians from the Dominican Republic by Trujillo in 1937. Amabelle Desir is memorable, lonely survivor, spending her life hoping for the return of her love."

These stories didn't give me the emotional experience I thought was in store. A few brief tugs on the heartstrings here and there, but at the end of the book I thought, "That's it? That's all she's got?" My suspicion is that these stories have more going on beneath the surface, and if you can decipher the symbolism you'll get a lot more bang from this book. I'm more of a surface reader - I enjoy the actual story being told and am not willing or able to look for extra meaning in a river or a cat or a cloud - and so this book didn't give me much enjoyment at all.

Absolutely loved this! She tells the many different threads of lives in a Haitian community through the evening Claire goes missing in a way that made complete sense to me, despite all the different directions in went in. Her writing is beautiful and he story craft is as well. I was holding my breath til the ending worked itself out. I must read more by her.

Break my heart.

A daughter is not feeling well so the mother comforts and offers many options for the daughter. The daughter is appreciative of all the things her mom does and values comfort. The daughter expresses love for the consideration of the mother when she is unwell.

Giselle and her twin sister Isabelle were born holding hands. Though they've always been encouraged to develop their own interests and friend groups, they're still as close as twins can be. On the way to a school concert, the family's car is struck by a van. One twin is killed in the accident, and everyone in the family is injured. The remaining sister swims in and out of consciousness. When she wakes up, she must deal with the grief of living without her twin.

This is a poignant story of a family suffering together through a terrible tragedy, and how grief can affect all kinds of relationships. There's a side plot about the teen driver who caused the crash that I found unnecessary, and I thought it actually detracted from the main story. Recommended to readers of realistic (sometimes tragic) YA.½

I would use this for intermediate. This book is about a mom being taken to immigration prison and her daughter and husband being left at home just reading letters that the mom writes. I would use this book to show how sad and harsh our immigration sysyetm works and to bring awreness to this injustice.

This book is good for a primary age group. It tells the story of a young girl working for her mother, imprisoned for illegal immigration, to come home. I would have this in my classroom, and maybe even read it aloud to teach students about immigration and some of the difficulty and pain that can accompany it.

This book is the story of a community and its inhabitants. Ville Rose, Haiti, is a small fictional town located about twenty miles from Port au Prince. It reads like a series of short stories, bookended by the tale of Claire and her father. Claire’s mother died when she was born. Her father is a poor fisherman who has asked the local fabric vendor to adopt his daughter. It is a story of community, class, and corruption.

Due to its beautiful title, I thought the book would be more about Claire, but she is only one of many characters. The other stories are only loosely connected, which makes the narrative feel fragmented. It is told in a non-linear manner. The writing is elegant. Danticat employs vivid images of darkness and light, life and death, and growth and decay, which are effective in conveying mood. I liked this book enough to read another of Danticat’s works.

“The slaughter is the only thing that is mine enough to pass on.”

Beautifully written historical fiction about the 1937 Haitian massacre in Hispaniola. Haitian workers had emigrated to the Dominican Republic, many to serve as sugar cane cutters. Protagonist Amabelle Désir, a Haitian orphan, is a domestic servant to a wealthy Spanish family. She has formed a relationship with one of the cane cutters, Sebastién, and they plan to marry. She fulfills the role as preserver of memories, and this story is her testimony. While she tells her personal story, she also speaks for the many voiceless victims of the massacre that took place under Trujillo’s regime.

The story is told in a linear fashion. It is interspersed with chapters told in present tense that allow the reader a glimpse into Amabelle’s interior world, as she attempts to work through her traumatic experiences. These sequences include haunting dreams, disjointed memories, and painful reflections. They are short and in bold type. It feels like a creative way to reflect the delay between the onset of a harrowing experience and the ability to speak about it. And the reader is relying upon Amabelle to tell a coherent story.

This is historical fiction of the highest quality. It is easy to empathize with the characters. While there is much death, there is also hope. The conclusion, which could have easily gone awry, is deftly handled and provides a sense of closure. It is superbly crafted. This book will linger in my memory.

Autobiographical work recording the lives and events of the author's family, from the time they lived in BelAir, Port O Prince, Haití, to New York City and Miami, Florida. Haiti was passing through years of political upheaval and unrest, aggravated by U.S. intervention and gang warfare. Danticat's uncle, a Baptist preacher with his own church and school, was targeted for retaliation when UN soldiers shot at hang members and civilians from the roof of his church. Fleeing their promise to behead him, he seems temporary Asylum in Miami, only to be fvcked over by the U.S. Customs. At the same time that her uncle is being killed by a racist U.S. regime, the author's father is dying of lung disease in NYC. An important work, however frustrating and disheartening.

A tale of women across 4 generations dealing with old traditional virginity safeguards. Learning to honor the pluses of their Haitian culture while breaking the chain of abuse. Also a tale of forgiveness.

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Insightful into both Haiti and Haitan life in New York City. Likely worth a re-read to reinforce and remember in more detail."

At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers.
There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti--to the women who first reared her.
What ensues is a passionate journey through a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence, in a novel that bears
witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of an entire people.

Beautifully written story of a Haitian girl living in the Dominican Republic who experiences the 1937 Parsley Massacre. While most of the novel focuses on the weeks before and after the massacre it extends to her old age where we see the life-long effects of the trauma of her's and others' lives.

I am still processing this novel. I thought is was extremely well-written; the characters and place came to life so clearly. While I hoped for a happy ending (as did Amabelle) I understand that the book would not only have been cheesy and ridiculous, but a horrible disservice to the Haitians who lived through the Massacre. In addition to memorializing the poorly-remembered/documented event, Danticat seems to be showing the reader that traumas (hurricanes, massacres, beatings, losing loved ones) don't just last for the moment but are with the survivors for life. Amabelle was haunted and could not really recover happiness though the opportunities were there. While not a tear jerker, the story was deeply sad, perhaps all the more because these types of tragedies happen all over the world constantly.

This picture book highlights the problem with our justice system and immigration. This young girls mother gets separated from her family when they are immigrating to the United States. The girls mother is thrown in jail due to her having the wrong papers. The daughter ends up writing a letter the the judge that gets posted in the newspaper. This book would be a good read aloud for older students who can discuss the injustice that happens to people of color.