Breath, Eyes, Memory

Rating:
Summary: A Moving story
Review: Breath, Eyes, Memory is one of the books written about the Caribbean that I really enjoyed. Like Edwidge Danticat's other novels and stories this story is well written in a lyrical evocative style. What I cherish about the story is the fact that I came to have a better understanding of Haiti, their culture which is close to that of Benin in Africa and their rich though mysterious belief. Much of the pains, fears, horrors and complications of Haitian history are unveiled in this amazing story which can make you cry, sigh, laugh, angry and happy in different turns. This true to life story is a recommended read.

Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY

Rating:
Summary: The kind of book you long to award five stars . . .
Review: BREATHE, EYES, MEMORY contains many delicate gems, such as this one: "The stars fell as though the glue that held them together had come loose." The story had all the right elements to magnetize me -- written by a young black Haitian woman about the women in and from her home country -- so I was disappointed when the book didn't grab my soul the way I'd hoped it would. I'm still not really sure why it didn't. Perhaps the emotional dissociation of the narrator, Sophie Caco, was a little too effective?

Rating:
Summary: review for Mrs. McKee ASWS Class
Review: this book was ok. the book had a good story plot.i liked how the book progressed of Sophie's life. I also liked how the author focused on her mother and her aunt's life as well as Sophie's. I liked the end the best when her mother stabbed herslef seven times in the stomach and was laying dead in the bathroom. over all this was a very intriguingand i would recommend this to someone that likes to read books.

Rating:
Summary: Reflected Culture
Review: Breathe, Eyes, Memory is a very realistic book reflecting the lives of Haitian women. It shows their beliefs, customs and traditions, their fears, and their strong will. Sophie is one out of the many characters in the book that exemplify these characteristics. Her mother also demonstrates the pain that Haitian women face and their reality. The Haitian women also have a strong beliefs and traditions that are shown in the book. I liked this story because it helped me understand some of the hardships people in other cultures face. The novel gives a very detailed explanation of how Haitian women lived and makes strong opinions on important matters. The characters are all well developed and defined. They all are important in the novel and endure similar things together. Edwidge also makes the characters noticeably different from each other too. I recommend this book to people interested in different cultures and equality.

Rating:
Summary: HighSchool student project
Review: Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat was an intriguing book. From the very beginning, there is action with Sophia, a young girl leaving with her aunt in Haiti, leaving her home in Haiti to live with her mother (who she hasn't seen in awhile) in New York. Once she comes to America, she seeks knowledge of her family and encounters forks in the road. She meets her mother's boyfriend, Marc. Sophia learns about how she was conceived. She must wake up her mother every time she has the nightmare about that day when she was raped in the sugar cane fields on her way from school. After getting acquainted to her New York life, she falls in love with Joseph, a musician. Her mom finds out and starts testing her (making sure she is still pure). This leaves a permanent scar mentally and physically on Sophia. Her mom, Martine, gets angry that she is getting more serious with Joseph and gives her the choice to marry him and leave her, or leave Joseph. She decides to leave her mother for Joseph. Sophia has a baby, but it is hard for her because of her mother's testing. She goes back to Haiti to clear her head. She is reunited with her aunt, Tante Atie, and her grandma. Her mother comes to help her Mother with funeral arrangements and to take Sophia and Brigitte, Sophia's baby, back to New York. Amends are made and Sophia and Martine settle their differences. Martine tells Sophia that she is pregnant with Marc's baby. Even though it is Marc's baby, it still hurts her mentally to have it. Her nightmares of that day in the sugarcane fields keep on getting worse. She even starts to see the man who did it in place of Marc. Martine decides to commit suicide and her funeral is held in Haiti.
I liked this book because it had action from the beginning. You were hooked the first couple of chapters. At times the book got slow, but soon sped up again. I never knew anything about Haiti when I started reading this book. Once I finished reading, I learned about Haitian people's lives. I learned daily struggles they faced with the Macoute and selling just enough to feed themselves. Sometimes the story would jump into another one and I would get confused.


Rating:
Summary: A wrenching coming-of-age story
Review: Rooted in tradition, torn by political strife, Haiti is a place where "breath, eyes and memory are one, a place where you carry your past like the hair on your head."

Edwidge Danticat, like Sophie Caco, the narrator of her first novel, left Haiti and joined her parents in America when she was 12. Wrenched from all she knows and loves, Sophie is sent to New York, to the worn "scrawny" stranger who is her mother, Martine, a woman beset by nightmares.

Baldly, Sophie learns she is the child of rape. Resembling no one else in her family, Sophie realizes she looks like her anonymous father.

The story skips six years, to Sophie's first real boyfriend, a Creole her mother distrusts. Martine institutes the old Haitian tradition, mother to daughter, of keeping the daughter pure by testing for virginity, a test that echoes rape. Sophie puts an end to it in an act that leaves her scarred, and runs off to marry.

Part Three finds Sophie returning to Haiti, searching for the peace she hasn't found in marriage. Haiti's "cult of virginity" has left her sexually dysfunctional. But, her grandmother explains, "If a child dies, you do not die. But if a child is disgraced, you are disgraced."

There are no simple solutions. The rape of Martine colors her life and drives her to her death. The tradition of women's honor, a hated humiliation, is nonetheless, perpetuated by women. Danticat's novel is many layered, touching on tragedy, violence and fate, sometimes at the expense of character development and story. But hers is a powerful, lyrical voice.

Rating:
Summary: The curse of being woman
Review: If a Martian arrived on Earth and read this novel right away, it would deduce that women are tormented beings, while men walk around perfectly content. This may be a simplistic summary of the novel, but tell me i'm wrong! What starts with some rather beautiful depictions of life in Haiti ends up being a collection of tortured life accounts. The common thread is that all the tortured characters are women. In the eyes of the author, this suffering saga started generations before, and it is being perpetuated along with every new woman that is born. The ones that are abused keep abusing, and do not know the way to escape that vicious circle. Grandma Ifé was just the recipient of years of superstition and servitude, Aunt Tatie a spinster with a collection of unrequited love stories, Martine the abused/abuser and ghost fighter, Sophie the inadequate daughter and frigid wife... What about the men? They are too cool and composed, too perfect, too understanding (especially Joseph, Sophie's husband). This book moves fast, years go by in a matter of three pages, and the pace is never slow. However, it is depressing, there is no resolution to any conflict, no redemption of any kind. The best parts are the vivid descriptions of Haiti, in all its poverty and grace.

Rating:
Summary: AN UNCOMMONLY FINE FIRST NOVEL
Review: Few first novels are as impressive as Breath, Eyes, Memory, the story of a young Haitian girl's passage to maturity."

"I come from a place whre breath, eyes and memory are one, a place where you carry your past like the hair on your head," writes Edwidge Danticat through the voice of her protagonist, Sophie.

There are many parallels between Sophie's fictional life and the author's. When Danticat was four-years-old, she and her brother were left in Haiti when their mother joined their father in New York City. Thus, the 12-year-old island girl who spoke no English was tossed into one of the world's largest, rudest and sometimes loneliest cities.

And, so is Sophie. She comes of age on the streets of New York as, in many respects, so did Ms. Danticat.

This is a sad, painful story, yet it is also life-affirming and triumphant.