At an astonishingly young age, Edwidge Danticat has become one of our most celebrated new novelists, a writer who evokes the wonder, terror, and heartache of her native Haiti--and the enduring strength of Haiti's women--with a vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people's suffering and courage.
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.
Edwidge Danticat has a cool name and is a contemporary Haitian
writer whose master's thesis for her MFA at Brown University is
this novel. I had heard a lot of hype about her for awhile so
I was anxious to read the book.
Sophie is a little girl growing up in Haiti and through a series
of unfortunate events, moves to the US to begin a new life.
There she learns that growing up in another country is not the
picnic that it seems. The book is quite heavy at times, dealing
with issues like rape, female mutilation and the immigrant's
struggle to assimilate in America.
The story employs the same stream-of-consciousness that
fellow contemporary writers like Junot Diaz uses. Some
reviewers on here had a difficult time with her writing
techniques but as the story progresses, Danticat is able
to tie in any loose plot points. The author is gifted and
is a lovely writer but I wasn't blown away by the story.
For a good companion piece on reading about Haitian
culture from a female perspective, I suggest
reading Jamaica Kincaid's Autobiography of My Mother.
"Breath, Eyes, Memory".....first part was very good. Second part not so good. The rest went downhill.
I thought the story would focus more on Sophie's childhood. If that were the case, maybe I would have understood her and the relationship with her Mother better. Maybe I would have cared about the characters.
This book tells of a girl named Sophie who is raised in Haiti by her aunt Tante Atie, and later goes to New York to spend time with her mother. It is a very moving story and it tells about the culture of Haiti. It tells of Sophie growing up and some parts are sad but I really enjoyed this book, and read it in one day. I would read it again. I donated this one to a local supermarket for Juvenille Diabetes Research and it was gone within the hour. I hope that the next person enjoyed it as much as I did. This book was well-written, moving, and easy to read and understand.
