Breath, Eyes, Memory - Hardcover

"I come from a place where breath, eyes and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head. Where women return to their children as butterflies or as tears in the eyes of the statues that their daughters pray to." The place is Haiti and the speaker is Sophie, the heroine of Edwidge Danticat's novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory. Like her protagonist, Danticat is also Haitian; like her, she was raised in Haiti by an aunt until she went to the United States age 12. Indeed, in her short stories, Danticat has often drawn on her background to fund her fiction and she continues to do so in her debut novel.

The story begins in Haiti, on Mother's Day, when young Sophie discovers that she is about to leave the only home she has ever known with her Tante Atie in Croix-des-Rosets, Haiti, to go live with her mother in New York City. These early chapters in Haiti are lovely, subtly evoking the tender, painful relationship between the motherless child and the childless woman who feels honour bound to guard the natural mother's rights to the girl's affections above her own. Presented with a Mother's Day card, Tante Atie responds: "'It is for a mother, your mother.' She motioned me away with a wave of her hand. "When it is Aunt's Day, you can make me one.'" Danticat also uses these pages to limn a vibrant portrait of life in Haiti from the cups of ginger tea and baskets of cassava bread served at community potlucks to the folk tales of a "people in Guinea who carry the sky on their heads."

With Sophie's transition from a fairly happy existence with her aunt and grandmother in rural Haiti to life in New York with a mother she has never seen, Danticat's roots as a short-story writer become more evident; Breath, Eyes, Memory begins to read more like a collection of connected stories than a seamlessly evolved novel. In a couple of short chapters, Sophie arrives in New York, meets her mother, makes the acquaintance of her mother's new boyfriend, Marc, and discovers that she was the product of a rape when her mother was a teenager in Haiti. The novel then jumps several years ahead to Sophie's graduation from high school and her infatuation with an older man who lives next door. Unfortunately, this is also the point in the novel where Danticat begins to lay her themes on with a trowel instead of a brush: Sophie's mother becomes obsessed with protecting her daughter's virginity, going so far as to administer physical "tests" on a regular basis--testing which leads eventually to a rift in their relationship and to Sophie's struggle with her own sexuality. Soon the litany of victimisation is flying thick and fast: female genital mutilation, incest, rape, frigidity, breast cancer and abortion are the issues that arise in the final third of the novel, eventually drowning both fine writing and perceptive characterisation under a deluge of angst.

Still, there is much to admire about Breath, Eyes, Memory, and if at times the plot becomes overheated, Danticat's lyrical, vivid prose offers some real delight. If nothing else, this novel is sure to entice readers to look for Danticat's short stories--and possibly to sample other fiction from the West Indies as well. --Alix Wilber, Amazon.com

Praise for Breath, Eyes, Memory

Oprah Book Club Selection

"Vibrant, magic . . . wraps readers into the haunting life of a young Haitian girl.""--Boston Globe"

"Danticat's calm clarity of vision takes on the resonance of folk art. . . . Extraordinarily successful.""--The New York Times Book Review"

"A novel that rewards the reader again and again with small but exquisite and unforgettable epiphanies."--Washington Post Book World

"A distinctive new voice with a sensitive insight into Haitian culture distinguishes this graceful debut novel . . . In simple, lyrical prose enriched by an elegiac tone and piquant observations, [Danticat] makes Sophie's confusion and guilt, her difficult assimilation into American culture and her eventual emotional liberation palpably clear."--"Publishers Weekly"

"Danticat has created a stirring tale of life in two worlds: the spirit-rich land of her ancestry, whose painful themes work their way through lives across generational lines, and her adopted country, the United States, where a young immigrant girl must negotiate cold, often hostile terrain, even as she spars with painful demons of her past."--"Emerge "

Praise for Breath, Eyes, Memory
Oprah Book Club Selection
"Vibrant, magic . . . Danticat's elegant, intricate tale wraps readers into the haunting life of a young Haitian girl."
" The Boston Globe"
"Danticat's calm clarity of vision takes on the resonance of folk art . . . Extraordinarily successful."
" The New York Times Book Review"
"A novel that rewards the reader again and again with small but exquisite and unforgettable epiphanies."
Washington Post Book World
Written in prose as clear as a bell, magical as a butterfly, and resonant as drum talk . . . An impressive debut.
Julia Alvarez, author of" In the Time of the Butterflies"
Reading Edwidge Danticat s first novel, "Breath, Eyes, Memory, " for the first time in 2015 is a remarkable experience . . . It is clear in retrospect that this is a novel whose literary resonance has been profound, one that opened many doors for others without it, would we have "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"?
Barnes and Noble Review
"Danticat has created a stirring tale of life in two worlds: the spirit-rich land of her ancestry, whose painful themes work their way through lives across generational lines, and her adopted country, the United States, where a young immigrant girl must negotiate cold, often hostile terrain, even as she spars with painful demons of her past."
"Emerge
"
"A distinctive new voice with a sensitive insight into Haitian culture distinguishes this graceful debut novel . . . In simple, lyrical prose enriched by an elegiac tone and piquant observations, [Danticat] makes Sophie's confusion and guilt, her difficult assimilation into American culture and her eventual emotional liberation palpably clear."
"Publishers Weekly""

Praise for Breath, Eyes, Memory

Oprah Book Club Selection

"Vibrant, magic . . . Danticat's elegant, intricate tale wraps readers into the haunting life of a young Haitian girl."
--The Boston Globe

"Danticat's calm clarity of vision takes on the resonance of folk art . . . Extraordinarily successful."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A novel that rewards the reader again and again with small but exquisite and unforgettable epiphanies."
--Washington Post Book World

"Written in prose as clear as a bell, magical as a butterfly, and resonant as drum talk . . . An impressive debut."
--Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies

"Reading Edwidge Danticat's first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, for the first time in 2015 is a remarkable experience . . . It is clear in retrospect that this is a novel whose literary resonance has been profound, one that opened many doors for others--without it, would we have The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?"
--Barnes and Noble Review

"Danticat has created a stirring tale of life in two worlds: the spirit-rich land of her ancestry, whose painful themes work their way through lives across generational lines, and her adopted country, the United States, where a young immigrant girl must negotiate cold, often hostile terrain, even as she spars with painful demons of her past."
--Emerge

"A distinctive new voice with a sensitive insight into Haitian culture distinguishes this graceful debut novel . . . In simple, lyrical prose enriched by an elegiac tone and piquant observations, [Danticat] makes Sophie's confusion and guilt, her difficult assimilation into American culture and her eventual emotional liberation palpably clear."
--Publishers Weekly