Breath, Eyes, Memory

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Summary: What can I say? It was great!
Review: This book is written beautifully with a hint of gracefulness in it. It was clear, short, and straightforward without a lot of the waste reading. I was glued to the book!

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Summary: Danticat's first book is light as air and fades quickly
Review: Edwidge Danticat's first novel is clearly written from the heart but fails to resonate despite all her efforts... the novel, for all its attempts to provide the reader with the life's breath of its subjects, the visions of their eyes, and their individual memories, fails to resonate deeply. The language, despite the sprinkling of non-English words and phrases, feels horribly cliched. And in the one area that we seemingly would need the author to come through most, that is in the description of places and images and local color, she falters consistently. Her descriptions, when present (which is rarely) do not equal her aspirations. This is a kind of travelogue novel completely absent of any sense of atmosphere... Despite the "shocking" (yet too familiar) subject matter, with little ability to convey any sense of surroundings or anything more than a hackneyed image of her characters, Danticat provides us with a thin, and easily forgettable, novel...

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Summary: A fine book that does not go far enough.
Review: Breath, Eyes, Memory is a good novel, that bring to life the hidden pain that is faced the the everyday Haitian. Ms. Danticat's writing is vivid and refreshing, and forces the reader to use thier imagination. While, I enjoyed the book and would reccomend it to all, I have two complaints. First, Ms. Dandicat does not probe deep enough in the psyche of her characters. Just as the reader is about the understand the pain that the characters have endured, Ms. Danticat cuts off the reader and leaves us to imagine the rest. There are several points the the novel where the story stops abruptly and rather rough transitions are made. Finally, in her effort to create very strong female characters Ms. Danticat virtually ignores the male characters in the book.

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Summary: This book was a disappointment to me.
Review: I go into these Book choices of Oprah's expecting great things as I started with the Wally Lamb books which were. This book did not hold my interest--it plodded along and I was glad when I finished it. Oprah should submit some more good books as I am losing patience with most of them.

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Summary: This is very interesting book that analyzes and gives life t
Review: I thought that this was a wonderful and easy to read story. It's basis was powerful and well- stated . As young Haitian woman I can defenetly relate to her experiences. The story in itself hits close to home , because her arrival to the states were very similar to mine.The bond she develops with her mother at the end was magical. A sort of link that Haitian women have with one another that is needed for support. Ms. Dandicat used alot of Haitian language(creole) which introduces a lot of the culture to its audience. It is a lways a gift and a benefit to learn about cultures. I defenetly would recommend this book to anyone that is looking to expand their horizon, and communicate in the language of another ethnic group.

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Summary: I enjoyed learning the cultural differences
Review: I enjoyed learning the cultural differences even though the story made me squirm in my seat. I find it hard to accept that so many women could continue such extreme female mutilation. I'm glad Oprah suggested it. I would never have picked it up otherwise. It was a good reading experience

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Summary: Couldn't Put It Down!!
Review: This was a very educational look at Haitian women's culture. I could not tear myself away from this book, although it was quite disturbing.

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Summary: What a charmer!
Review: After the first chapter of this lovely little book my immediate reaction was "Oh no! Oprah's given us another 'oh the poor women' story, but by the end i was totally won over. Danticat loves the women, you can tell by the way she treats them. Even when you can see that their actions are flawed and almost verge on pathetic, this sense of 'I can understand her doing that' floats gently back into your mind and then BAM! hits you square in the face. And if the last page of this book is not the best I have read in a while then I just do not have a clue.

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Summary: A tale of strong but troubled women
Review: I liked the strong connection of these women in the story--Sophie, her mother, her Aunte Atie, and her grandmother. It is amazing for 4 women in one family to have so much in common and yet be such different people. The customs, traditions and folklore of this Haitian family were so primary as to almost be characters in the story themselves.

I found this book to be so charming and eloquent as to distract me from its flaws. My only major disappointment is that there couldn't have been a more positive way for Sophie and her mother to escape the ghosts of their pasts.

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Summary: Enjoyable Light Reading
Review: I enjoyed the book but did not see the suffering and courage of Haitian women it is supposed to show us. It was a light tale of how traditions follow through generations. Even the ones which maybe should have been let go many years prior and how tragedies can take over our lives if we let them.