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.

I don't command the English language well enough to describe how heart breaking, beautiful, touching, thought provoking, and how well written this book is. It is at once a tale of abuse, healing, and the unbreakable bond between mothers and daughters. It describes the several dual roles that a person plays each day--mother/daughter; victim/abuser; American/immigrant. Breath, Eyes, Memory is the type of book you can delve into, read in a day or so, and come out on the other side a better person. ( )

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat. (Section 13, adult fiction). In 1994 a 25 year old Haitian-American writer created this semi-autobiographical novel about a Haitian girl raised by her aunt, who gets sent to America to be reunited with her mother, who left her in Haiti as a baby.
This book is about female family relationships set against two very distinct cultures of Haiti and America. Sophie Caco, age 12, has been raised by Tante Atie, in the impoverished Haitian village of Croix-des-Rosets, where life is colorful, poor, and sometimes violent. School lessons are in French, Creole is spoken at home. For Sophie village life revolves around her aunt and the other women in the neighborhood with their stories, songs and cooking. And then there are visits to her grandmother in a far off village, where grandmother tells the children supernatural tales designed to scare them into being good.
Sophie’s life changes forever when she is sent to her mother she doesn’t remember, who left Haiti years ago to begin a life of opportunity in America. After Sophie has grown, married, and had a baby girl, she returns to Haiti at a crisis point in her own life, seeking answers to questions that have bothered her and her mother for many years. As she visits for a time with her aunt and grandmother, and when her mother returns to Haiti to clear the air, a legacy of shame is uncovered and the women in this family come to understand one another much better.
Since this book was written Edwidge Danticat has written many other books and received many awards. She writes beautiful prose that weaves around you, enveloping you in her characters and their stories, their family histories, cultural environments, songs and memories. ( )