“Breath, Eyes, Memory”
by Edwidge Danticat
Published: May 1998
ISBN: 037570504X

(Updated: August 5, 2007.)

From the Publisher…

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.

One of the reviews I read of this book uses the word “folk art” to describe the work. Yes. Beautiful, strong, concise, back-and-forward carrying “folk art”. Amazing writing. Amazing telling. Beautiful. And, my description of the book is much more along these lyrical and “full of art” lines that the somehow objectified description of the publisher.

Cycles and passing on and moving along and alone and in company… the things of our lives. This book is not violent. It describes and focuses on the women who, yes, carry the effects of violence. And, the book, the writing, the characters feel honest and strong and beautiful.

Moving from Nine Parts of Desire to this book was, I see now, perfect and natural. I highly recommend reading both with Sidney Poitier’s The Measure of a Man thrown into the mix as well.