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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: 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
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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?
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