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Summary: This book reflects mother-daughter relationships.
Review: I just finished this book and was greatly impressed with the relationship of mother-daughter, sister-sister, grandmother-granddaughter, and girlfriend-girlfriend. The author uses the plot line to reveal just how complex mother-daughter relationships are as well as women-women. The past played such an important part in the raising of Sophie as well as the significance of just being in Tante Atie's life. The story line is years long but seems like a short time with a very surprising ending yet you some how knew. A fast and easy read but well written and inspiring.
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Summary: I was surprised and impressed by the Haitian culture.
Review: I admit I've felt burned before by "Oprah Books" and have since been hesitant, but I decided to give one more book a try. I'm glad that I did. I read the book in one sitting and just kept thinking, "Wow! I had no idea how different cultures can be." I'll be sure to add this to my list of multicultural selections for my advanced students to read. Tastefully handles a difficult "rite of passage" for young girls, something that is often ignored in my own white culture. I'm sure to look for more by Danticat.
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Summary: Hurston & Danticat
Review: I read Breath, Eyes and Memory a few years ago. Danticat's write style reminds me of Zora Neale Hurston. Her style is unique in that its lyrical cadence places your imagination right smack dap in the middle of the setting, whether in a Haitian market or a Brooklyn flat.I featured this book on the cover of my bookstore newsletter at the first opportunity after I read the book. I recommend this book for any one looking for a good read with a guarantee: if you don't like the book, bring it back for a full refund. I haven't had one come back yet. I am so glad that Danticat is receiving the recognition she is so worthy of getting. Right on OPRAH!
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Summary: My Mother....MySelf
Review: A story of how tragedy , fear and love are passed down from generation to generation. I couldn't put this book down, I read it form cover to cover in one sitting. I am neither an african american or Haitian for that matter but I related to the Mother, daughter relationship , and the passing on of tragedy and nightmares. A must read!!!!!
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Summary: Flawed...but ultimately moving and well written
Review: The whole while I read this book, I was taken in by the good prose and interesting story. As well, though, I was thinking to myself on many occasions that many parts could have been more smooth and parts could have been cut out completely, and that's not a very good thing while reading a book. But, on the whole, I would recommend this book for a commendable effort.
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Summary: Praise for Breath, Eyes, Memory
Review: "Ms. Danticat's clarity of vision takes on the resonance of folk art. Extraordinarily ambitious... extraordinarily successful."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"Stirring... impressive... a tale of the struggles of four generations of Haitian women to overcome illiteracy, powelessness and abuse."
-- Howard French, Emerge
"Magic... illuminates the beauty and family life of Haiti in a way no news report has done."
-- Jordana Hart, Boston Globe
"Skillful, lyrical."
-- Clarence Major, author of My Amputations
"A wise child's exploration - sensual, moving, clear-sighted as the pearly mornings tha dawin in her Haitian sky."
--Kelvin Christopher James, author of Secrets
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Summary: (An act of violence weaves its way through generations )
Review: Breath, Eyes, and Memory begins as a slow-paced story of a child, Sophie, growing up in Haiti. Sophie's aunt cares for her until her mother, living in New York City, can send for her. When Sophie is a teenager, she joins her mother. Her arrival precipitates a long string of nightmares for her mother: Seeing Sophie's face reignites memories of a rape that occurred many years ago. As the rape moves visibly closer to the plot's center, the pace of the book becomes faster and more chaotic. Both Sophie's eventual marriage and her mother's second pregnancy are colored by this historical event. Breath, Eyes, and Memory shows in painful, understated detail how a violent act stuffed away in a woman's memory can affect generations
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Summary: Unforgettable
Review: A captivating story of mothers and daughters as experienced through the eyes of a young Haitian girl. Bittersweet memories and savage realities thread through this unforgettable tale placed in both the author's native Haiti and in New York City.- Barbara, multiculturalism
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Summary: The Best book I've ever read!...
Review: I chose this book because I'd heard about it on "the Oprah Winfrey Show". "To the brave woman of Haiti, grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, daughters, and friends, on this shore and other shores. We have stumbled but we will not fall." Isn't this a magnificent beginning? It surely took me by storm. I couldn't wait start reading this book. The story is about Sophie, a twelve-year-old girl from Haiti. Her aunt, Tante Atie, has raised her since her real mom couldn't take care of her. But after twelve years Sophie's mom wants her back. This makes Sophie very confused; the only mother she knows is Tante Atie. Anyway, she moves to her mother, who lives in America. The environment in the States is very different from the Haitian countryside. Sophie's mom, Martine, is also different from Tante Atie. Because at the same time as Martine wants Sophie to adjust to the American lifestyle she also wants her to keep the Haitian traditions. This means, among other things, she has to put up with humiliating tests by her mom, to check if she's still a virgin... The book is written in a very poetic way. The descriptions of smells and environment are marvellous. "Night had just fallen. Lights glowed everywhere. A long string of cars sped along the highway, each like a single diamond on a very long bracelet." I just love it. You can really imagine the heavy traffic. This is one of the best books I've read. Even though the author, Edwidge Danticat, is very young (29 years old) she seems to be very mature and competent. Without a doubt in my mind I recommend this book to all you readers who pre-fer books in the original language. I can't imagine reading this book in Swedish. (I'm from Sweden) It's too hard to make a good translation out of the poetic expres-sions. So hurry to the library and borrow "Breath, eyes, memory". I can assure you, you won't regret it.
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Summary: Disappointing, though I wanted to like it
Review: I totally agree with the writer from Uzbekistan who says that Danticat's writing style is lyrical and lovely, but there is just too damn much suffering in this book, especially of the kind involving female genitalia! I can understand why she mentions the Haitian mothers "testing" their daughters' virginity, which has quite a horrifying impact on the reader -- but why does Danticat insist on harping on this over and over and over? Once was enough! And there is definitely too much chronological jumping around. One minute the narrator is in love and about to marry; then in the next chapter she and her baby daughter are running away from the husband. Huh?
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