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Summary: A trip to another time and place
Review: This is the first book I have read by Edwidge Danticat. Breath, Eyes, Memory was an enjoyable, attention getting story. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down. When the story ended I wanted more, I wasn't ready for the ending. My eyes and mind were glued to the pages. The experience opened my eyes and my heart. What a journey! This is one of those must read. The story opens with a small girl and the next thing she is all grown up. The journey she takes is one that will affect the rest of her life and possibly her childs. She learns that life can be very cruel and rough, but she takes what she has and moves on. But she will never forget the past.
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Summary: Journey from girlhood to womanhood
Review: As I have read the writer state, this book follows a girl's painful journey from girhood to womanhood. It is a book that tells a story almost "out of breath" covering a broad and singular lanscape all at once. The growth of the character in the story travels along with the voice and at the end we feel that the character--and the reader--are both stronger for all that has happened in this wonderful novel.
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Summary: Way Overrated
Review: As sociology, this book succeeds, as it provides a perspectiveon women in a war-torn country. As a novel, it was pretty weak. Whilethe main character, Sophie's plight is interesting, she is not the least bit interesting as a person,and we do not get to know her at all. Her progress through life isn't believable. She comes from a family of hard working women, yet never holds a job herself, but marries young to an older man who mysteriously is also free from the need to work. Just not believable. The book is also ridden with victim-coincidences -- people always get pregnant after one instance of sexual intercourse, people always go crazy after getting raped (even though it's very common in that sad landscape) etc., etc. etc. I personally can't have much sympathy with a heroine who has never worked but always been dependent on other people, taken care of her whole life.This was a really amateurish book. Obviously, publishers are eager to find multicultural material and make a star of someone. Dandicat benefitted from this trend. But as a writer who delivers a believable, fully developed story with characters the reader can care about, she fails miserably.
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Summary: interesting
Review: Breath, Eyes, Memory, is a very interesting book. It provides a point of view to life in a way I have never considered. Today many people feel they need to live their life as their own individual. To be their own unique person. but this book reveals the relation between a mother and a daughter as being one. How one can experience the same nightmares or hopes as their mother. One thing I wish that was different about this book, is how years were cut out of Sophie's life. At points it became confusing and droned on, but all together it is a good book and I recommend it to anyone.
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Summary: A Review of Edwidge Danticut's Breath, Eyes, Memory
Review: I thought that the novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat was a powerful and compelling novel. Edwidge Danticat captured readers with her emotional story of a young Haitian woman's struggles in life. Her writing style brought the story to life. I believe that it was her creative and mature writing style that helped the reader relate situations from Breath, Eyes, Memory to the situations in life that some of us experiences, and other hear about. Overall, I enjoyed reading Danticat's novel. My only complaints are about certain events in the in the book. From time to time I found myself confused about the events that occurred throughout the novel. It was hard an extremely confusing to follow the plots throughout the story, they seemed to jump around too much to get an accurate view of what was happening at times. I have no other complaints, and overall I enjoyed reading this novel, and would not hesitate to recommend it to others.
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Summary: Dysfunctional
Review: Breathe, Eyes, Memory, a story of a dysfunctional relationship between a Haitian mother and daughter, is not a well written book, therefore I do not recommend it as a must-read book. Breathe, Eyes, Memory lacks creativity in tying important and turning point events together. Although the story line is extremely captivating, the author does not elaborate well from point to point. This causes the mood or tone of the book to sway in every which diection, leaving the reader in a confussed state. Because of this dysfunctional set up, the book loses its credibility.
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Summary: A slow. but good book!
Review: The book of a Haitian girl who moves from Haiti to America at the age of 12. She goes to New York to live with her mother that left Haiti to find a life for herself. When she get's to America her life chances and for the good and the worse. This book I found to be a good book. It had a lot of surprises that came slow, but they were very exciting,sad, and valued surprises. This book taught me a lot about the relationship beteween a mother and her daughter. Although it doesn't tell you in the book, the daughter and the mother really depended on each other. They needed one another one way or the other. The traditions of Haitian women are also in this book and I must say some are heart turning. To see what these women went though and how they continued the tradition, because it was "tradition". The book keeps you in suspition and at points you'll never want to put in down. Someone has to pull it away from you! The ending as a challenging purpose that you can only think for yourself about. Is this a good book? Yes, it is a good book and keepsake. I will value this book for the rest of my life and I hope that everyone will too.
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Summary: A story in the eyes of a Haitian girl
Review: Set in the mid 1900's in Croix-de-Roset a Haitian city which Edwidge Danticat writes her story of a Haitian mother who has a disturbing moment in the cane fields and ends up with a baby girl that she can't take care of. She quickly decides to send her daughter out to live in this city with her aunt and grandmother who will take good care of her. Years later her mother will send for her and expect her to start a new life. The main character is Sophie who is the daughter in the story who was conceived by her mother being raped by a stranger in the cane fields. She lives with her aunt for many years and makes a strong bond with her. Sophie is very confused about having to go live with a woman she hardly knows and has to move to a big city called New York city. Sophie's mother carries on a lot of the family traditions that Sophie despises very much and grows a hate for her mother because of it, which you will find out later in the story. Also, there isn't a father figure to anyone in this story. At the age of twelve, Sophie's mother sends for her to come and begin this new life with her real mother. Sophie didn't want to leave her aunt because she always thought of her as her mother. The family convinces her to go and she could come back soon. On her way to New York she meets a little boy who has just lost his father and is very hysterical. Her first impression of her mother was a skinny and pale women that didn't look anything like herself. While living with her mother Sophie realized her mother would have nightmares of that one night she was raped and these dreams would almost make her mother kill herself in them. Sophie had the responsibility of waking her up from these dreams. After a few years she came adapted to having to wake her mother up at night. Also, Sophie falls in love with an older American man who lives next door to her mother's house but keeps it a secret from her mother. One of the family traditions that her mother carried upon Sophie was the virgin test which Sophie hated and promised to never do this to her daughter. Each night her mother would do this to her and one night her mother came to check her and she had failed. Sophie became afraid and ran away with this man not telling her mom a word. This was an excellent book for me to read and I'm glad I chose to read it. Something new would happen in each chapter making it hard to set it down. I would suggest this to young females and mothers because it ties into their lives and is more of a chick book. Also, something interesting about this book was that is has a bit of french words because that is what they speak in this book and I'm taking french at this time. I'm glad this is on Oprah's book list because it will encourage many readers to read it!
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Summary: A FAIR BOOK
Review: I found this book to be difficult to conmtinue. This is the first book I have ever read by this author, and I would try another one. The charcters were never really my friends, and I love that in a novel. If you liked this book, or want to read one that goes straight to your heart, read Stolen Moments by Barbara Jeanne Fisher. . .It is a beautiful story of unrequited love. . .for certain the love story of the nineties. I intended to give the book a quick read, but I got so caught up in the story that I couldn't put the book down. From the very beginning, I was fully caught up in the heart-wrenching account of Julie Hunter's battle with lupus and her growing love for Don Lipton. This love, in the face of Julie's impending death, makes for a story that covers the range of human emotions. The touches of humor are great, too, they add some nice contrast and lighten things a bit when emotions are running high. I've never read a book more deserving of being published. It has rare depth. Julie's story will remind your readers that life and love are precious and not to be taken for granted. It has had an impact on me, and for that I'm grateful. Stolen Moments is written with so much sensitivity that it made me want to cry. It is a spellbinder. What terrific writing. Barbara does have an exceptional gift!
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Summary: A Young woman's search for her past
Review: Edwidge Danticat, a young Haitian woman, has written a beautiful and heartrenching novel of discovery, cleaning and redemption. Sophie Caco, 12 year old Haitian girl, is sent from her remote village and her grandmother, the only mother she hasever known, to New York City to live with her real mother. Not only is the city a frightening change for her, but the mother she never knew is foreign and distant. Only when she returns to Haiti as a young woman does she learn and begin to understand the tragic circumstances of her birth and the subsequent richness of her early years. The circle of loving women who raised her leave an impression not only of love but also of a cultural heritage that lies deep and sweet inside her. Regardless of the sparseness of her youthful home, it was not lacking in love and security. When Sophie learns about her past, she is able to accept it and go on with her life, secure in herself and those who love her. This is also the story of the richness of a little known culture, the terror that existed during times of political unrest, and the resulting social pheaval of society in general when dictators control one's basic existence
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