Rating: 
Summary: Must read, must have!!
Review: I gotta say the Dew Breaker should definitely be on everyone's must read list. Dandicat's voice is clear, compelling and transports you to the moment in time that she is speaking of. It's a page turner to the very end. One thing though, there were times when I was confused as to who was talking. But once you understand that there are different people telling their stories and they are all related in some way (though not all of them are related to the main character "the dew breaker"; which can have you wondering why is this story there)it works very well. She really did a great job on researching the Duvalier regime and how people were treated. It brought a lot of things to the surface and helped me to now grasp what the revolt was really about, because though I was there, I was a child who I was just happy not to have to go to school for a few months.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling but just slightly lacking
Review: I loved the beginning of the book. I was drawn right in my the great storytelling and unusual story but I got a little frustrated as the book began to skip around giving short vignettes of other characters - but not quite anough of any one. The end was again moving and compelling.
Rating:
Summary: There Are Some Things that can Never be Forgiven
Review: Ka Bienaimé, daughter of Haitians who have immigrated to New York, couldn't have known the secrets that would be revealed when she was working on the mahogany sculpture of her father, depicting him as a victim of Duvalier's terror. Dark secrets. When she shows it to him, he snaps, destroys it, claiming he's unworthy. Then he tells her about his past, about how he really got the rope-like scar on his face. He was a torturer of men back in Haiti in the 1960s, the scar, he tells her, was the result of an attack by his last victim.Her father had been a member of the dreaded Tontons Macoute, enforcers of the dictator François Duvalier. They were called dew breakers because they usually came "'before dawn, as the dew was settling on the leaves" to snatch their victims away from their homes in the name of Duvalier. Victims that were tortured, many killed, many never heard from again, many who were innocent of any crime, many not even political. From this horrific revelation the novel moves to chapter-long looks at the lives of the people Ka's father had tortured, lives he'd ruined, lives he'd changed. The chapters move back and forth through time, letting us see the dew breaker from the points of view of his family, friends and his victims. Ms. Danticat has written a troublesome novel about a subject many would choose to ignore and that, I suppose, is the problem. For too long in this world torture has been ignored, because good and decent people shudder at the thought of it. And even though Ms. Danticat does a superb job making the Dew Breaker at times seem sympathetic, I couldn't find any sympathy for him in my heart. Forgiveness for men like that, if there is any, should come from their maker, not from us in the hear and now, not from me. That said, this is a wonderful book, just simply wonderful. Sophie Cacique Gaul
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, painful, and ultimately rewarding book
Review: Much like Tim O'Brien's THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, this book lingers in that nebulous hinterland between short story and novel where few writers have the gumption or the ability to tread. Each chapter is a self-contained story, with divergent and seemingly random settings--Haiti in the dictatorial 1960s, Manhattan in the 1970s, Brooklyn and Queens in the 21st century. And yet slowly, irrevocably, the reader is drawn into the shared love, the shared remorse, the shared history, the shared hope, the shared rebellions--both personal and political--that circle round this unassuming man...this husband...this father...this friend...this torturer...this dew breaker. About three-quarters of the way into THE DEW BREAKER I couldn't see myself giving it anything more than 3-1/2 or 4 stars. This is a book that rewards patience, one whose ultimate purity is not realized until the very last sentence, when that "pendulum between regret and forgiveness" swings one last time. Given what's going on even as we speak in the island nation of Haiti, THE DEW BREAKER's timeliness is nearly as haunting as Ms. Danticat's prose. Maybe this isn't a book for everyone...but it should be. Postscript: I bought the audio edition of THE DEW BREAKER after I read the print book. For those of you who find yourself tripping over some of the Creole dialect in print, try the audio. The narrator, Robin Miles, is an extraordinary talent.
Rating:
Summary: A tapestry of discrete stories.
Review: One of the book's face pages mentions that the "Dew Breaker" is actually comprised of many shorter stories, some of which were previously published independently of one another in various journals. It takes an artist to blend these discrete stories, string them together as chapter titles, making them cohesive so that the reader understands a larger picture. Danticat does this with style, with escalating tension, and by drawing the reader into a maze of facts, characters and their personal stories with similar characteristics. All their lives have been touched by the reigns of terror under the Haitian dictators, Papa Doc and Bebe Doc Duvalier.
The novel opens with the Dew Breaker's telling his beloved daughter of his background. Prior to the confession, he had been the tortured...not the torturer. And, following this confession, the story moves back and forth in time.
One very clever touch, among many, is the portion where the Dew Breaker, now a respectable barber living a very quiet life in New York attends Christmas Eve Mass with his daughter and wife, Anne. Ka, his daughter, stares at a man she thinks to be a wanted man in Haiti. His picture appears on posters all over town because of his human rights violations. In the end, noticing the suspect bears an overall resemblance to the criminal, but is not an exact match, the reader is drawn to the fact that her own father, the Dew Breaker, altered his own appearance so as not to be recognized. He was formerly described as a very large man. No more. A parallel to the man in the pew?
Going along with this strain of disguises, the bridal dress seamstress is also sure the Dew Breaker lives across the street from her but when a nosy reporter attempts to look into the house, a neighbor tells her no one has lived there for a long time. When this is pointed out to the seamstress, she relates that no matter where she moves, he finds her. How? Because she tells her "girls" (the various women who utilize her dressmaking skills) when she is moving. That's how the Dew Breaker knows. Is this accurate? Her imagination, grown out of her own story of horror when the Dew Breaker tortured her because she would not date him?
Then there is Anne, his wife, who has known her husband's story for many years and has willing collaborated in her husband's obscure existence in order to keep a very low profile. They have no friends, cannot risk ever being recognized, seem to operate exclusively in a Haitian neighborhood. Which begs the question, wouldn't the probabilities be even greater that a criminal would heighten the chances of his recognition in a smaller neighborhood where so many have been touched by the regimes of the Duvaliers?
Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that if the personification of horrors lives and works just down the street, a victim would be less likely to stir up a hornets nest! Nonetheless, Anne too, was touched by the Dew Breaker. Her own stepbrother was murdered by him yet she appears to believe that her stepbrother, a minister who openly preached against the regime, committed suicide. Is the author trying to show that many mechanisms are employed to stay alive? To attempt to forget? To make the best of the hand one is dealt?
Danticat employs interesting characters to tell her short stories and she effectively uses the breaks in the various narratives to grow her overall story. And those short stories also provide her with the mechanism to jump back and forth in time between Haiti and New York. The reader is transported briefly into the stories of these diverse characters, their time in history, its effects on their lives and, when blended together, they create a whole, engrossing story.
Her final coup d'etat is the story of the "Dew Breaker" himself; he is detestable, heartless, ruthless, cunning and he has become the quiet scholar, the man fascinated with the Egyptian "Book of the Dead". What does he seek there?
Rating:
Summary: THAT IS A GREAT BOOK
Review: That book is very educational. I liked it very much and I will recommend for my friends to buy it and read it. Good work Danticat.
Rating:
Summary: Scarred
Review: THE DEW BREAKER is a collection of vignettes featuring characters whose lives intersect mostly as a result of fate. At the heart of the story is a nameless man who is known as "The Dew Breaker." Early in the book his daughter, unaware of his torrid past, creates a sculpture in honor of her father, a Haitian immigrant now working in the U.S. as a successful barber. He carries a menacing scar on his face which is only a superficial representation of his inner turmoil and his unsavory past life in Haiti. Subsequent vignettes provide additional information about "The Dew breaker" from the perspective of his wife, neighbors, boarders and others. With each vignette another layer of this story and the main character's past is uncovered. The ending, while satisfying in a sense, will leave you to consider the moral imperatives that are presented and come to your own conclusions. Danticat takes us on a series of highs and lows while traveling back and forth through time, from Haiti to the U.S and back. Ultimately, she leaves it up to readers to decide whether the main character is remorseful and seeking redemption or happily basking in the fact that he has gotten away with heinous crimes. While fate is often the impetus that brings the characters together, each of the vignettes and characters ultimately fit together in a synthesis that is both realistic and believable. This is a book filled with intricate nuances and minute complexities that, if overlooked, will prevent some from fully grasping and appreciating this fine work. It is complex, thoughtful, and sure to become a timeless classic. Edwidge Danticat has done it again. She presents a complex and multi-faceted character driven story that includes keenly executed and descriptive prose. From the first page I was drawn into the story and felt as if I was experiencing things right along with the characters. She provides a well-rounded and empathic look at the varied experiences of some Haitian and Haitian American people. Danticat is a vibrant, young voice that is sure to go down in history as a literary great. Reviewed by Stacey Seay
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: A terrific story
Review: The Dew Breaker is a very educational book with unique contradictions in the characters in the story. This is a story about the haunting tale of a man who left Haiti for New York, and still could not leave behind his memory of victimizing. I enjoyed this book to the very end.
I recommend it along with DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE and DISGRACE
Rating:
Summary: Not For
Review: The Dew Breaker is not for "linear readers". It tells the story of dictatorship and shows the residue of a Haitian father who, in the past, participated in torturing innocent people. Ms. Danticat weaves this project together like a jigsaw. There are many pieces, each with its own depth, region, and time--but no doubt an integral part of the whole. The stories are beautifully written. However, I find Ms. Danticat's talent (as I have known it in The Farming of Bones and Krik Krak) most demonstrated in The Funeral Singer, Night Talkers and The Dew Breaker. While some of the stories tug at the reader, the latter three stories I have mentioned, lock the reader in through Ms. Danticat's obvious gift of storytelling. I recommend The Dew Breaker as it is always a privilege to be graced with insight into Haitian life. I look forward to more works by this young, talented author.
Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect as the driven Dew
Review: This book is so great, because it tells a chilling tale of physical and mental torture. We learn more about Haiti and the lives of Haitian immigrants in America. Their struggle to assimilate to a new culture and forget their past no matter how horrific it was. The novel was setup more like a series of short stories instead of the traditional novel structure, which would have made the story a greater read as we felt a continuous peak and valley moving us to the most horrible moment of Ka's father's life. I wanted to drop with him and that didn't happen because of the structure of this book. Moreover, the pacing slowed the story down in places where it didn't need to be. Nonetheless, this book is one of the most well written books I have read ever. I look forward to more of her work.
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