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Krik? Krak!
Arriving one year after the Haitian-American's first novel ( Breath, Eyes, Memory ) alerted critics to her compelling voice, these 10 stories, some of which have appeared in small literary journals, confirm Danticat's reputation as a remarkably gifted writer. Examining the lives of ordinary Haitians, particularly those struggling to survive under the brutal Duvalier regime, Danticat illuminates the distance between people's desires and the stifling reality of their lives. A profound mix of Catholicism and voodoo spirituality informs the tales, bestowing a mythic importance on people described in the opening story, "Children of the Sea," as those "in this world whose names don't matter to anyone but themselves." The ceaseless grip of dictatorship often leads men to emotionally abandon their families, like the husband in "A Wall of Fire Rising," who dreams of escaping in a neighbor's hot-air balloon. The women exhibit more resilience, largely because of their insistence on finding meaning and solidarity through storytelling; but Danticat portrays these bonds with an honesty that shows that sisterhood, too, has its power plays. In the book's final piece, " Women Like Us," she "Are there women who both cook and write? Kitchen poets, they call them. They slip phrases into their stew and wrap meaning around their pork before frying it. They make narrative dumplings and stuff their daughter's mouths so they say nothing more." The stories inform and enrich one another, as the female characters reveal a common ancestry and ties to the fictional Ville Rose. In addition to the power of Danticat's themes, the book is enhanced by an element of suspense (we're never certain, for example, if a rickety boat packed with refugees introduced in the first tale will reach the Florida coast). Spare, elegant and moving, these stories cohere into a superb collection.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1996
380 people are currently reading
11510 people want to read
About the author
Edwidge Danticat
133 books2,777 followersEdwidge Danticat is a Haitian American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, was published in 1994 and went on to become an Oprah's Book Club selection. Danticat has since written or edited several books and has been the recipient of many awards and honors. Her work has dealt with themes of national identity, mother-daughter relationships, and diasporic politics. In 2023, she was named the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 924 reviews
August 24, 2016
I’d never heard the words Kirk? Krak! and wondered what they meant when I picked this book up. Reading the back cover, I learned that storytellers say Krik? and listeners say Krak! in Haiti. Krik? Krak! is a poetic collection of connected short stories that explores the Haitian community in the United States and in Haiti. https://browngirlreading.com/2016/08/...
December 26, 2025
This is a reread of a book I discovered in 2003.
I first read and experienced the tragic magic of Edwidge Danticat’s work through anthologies that featured her work, such as “Night Women”, a harrowing story where a boy has to keep quiet behind the curtain only to hear his mother prostituting herself- and mulling over what she may tell her son should he wake up and catch her in the act, “I will tell him that his father has come, that an angel brought him back from Heaven for a while” (88). This was a short story that had been assigned to me during my years as a community college student. It changed my life.
Afterwards, I read and expanded my knowledge of her through a Women in Literature class where we were assigned to read the entire story collection “Krik? Krak!”- it means a call and response to telling a story.
Krik.
Oh, Professor Danticat, tell me a story?
Krak!
Goes the rest of the stories…
“Children of the Sea” is a heartbreaking story of Haitian refugees trying to get to America during a hot day where everyone is passing out at sea due to thirst and hunger, life hanging in precarious balance.
It’s told in shifting voices: the political refugee who is writing his story down as he witnesses a woman give birth and throws her stillborn baby into the sea, where sharks lurk below. She soon follows, as other refugees live through the stench of vomit, piss and shit.
The other voice is of the woman he left behind, trying to get away from her abusive father and the generational trauma of women and a nation held captive by poverty, death and dictators.
For everyone the only way out is certain death, “she had chosen me to live life, eternal, among the children of the deep blue sea, those have escaped the chains of slavery to form a world beneath the heavens and the blood drenched earth where you live” (27).
“A Wall of Fire Rising” is a masterful tragic story of Guy and his wife Lili and son Little Guy. Living in Ville Rose, Haiti- he works at a sugar factory owned by a Palestinian immigrant named Young Assad. Guy discovered a hot air balloon and out of curiosity succeeds flying away in it. His inevitable doom begs to ask the questions: accident or suicide?
This is a sorrowful story of how one dreams defiantly in the face of oppression, and how “there is so much sadness…that we shall let out one piercing cry that we may either live freely or we should die” (71).
“1937” is about a woman named Josephine visiting her mother imprisoned due to Dominican President Trujillo’s genocide against Haitians.
If you want to read more about this, Danticat’s book “The Farming of Bones” expands on this shameful past of Caribbean history more, and it’s well documented in the novels of Junot Diaz and Julia Alvarez.
Professor Danticat shifts from Haiti to Flatbush Brooklyn in the 1990s in the stories: “New York Day Women” and “Caroline’s Wedding”.
“New York Day Women” is reminiscent of Paule Marshall and Jamaica Kincaid’s writing, about mothers and daughters, assimilating from Haiti to Brooklyn during the 1990s. This is a funny and humorous look at a daughter observing her immigrant mother’s assimilation into modern New York gawking at Tiffany’s, Bergdorf Goodman’s and eating hot dogs.
The final story, the touching novella “Caroline’s Wedding” is about sisters Grace and Caroline who live with their widowed mother Hermine in Brooklyn, teaching English.
Caroline meets and is marrying Eric, a Bahamian man with whom Hermine disapproves of. It is the story of three women who must separate after all the trauma they went through in exile and haunted by the ghost of their dead father.
Ms Danticat has the ability to hypnotically draw her readers into the complicated and harrowing worlds her characters live in, but it is through her compassion and love for them is what makes reading her work so special and unique.
Most of her work to me has been heartbreaking, sad, and most of all: literature as a call to action, to bring an awareness that life in Haiti is still a difficult one, and a difficult conversation to tackle out of systemic racism and oppression.
In crystal clear prose and some of the most beautiful voices of sorrow you’ll ever read you’ll understand why she was loved both by Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison.
I first read and experienced the tragic magic of Edwidge Danticat’s work through anthologies that featured her work, such as “Night Women”, a harrowing story where a boy has to keep quiet behind the curtain only to hear his mother prostituting herself- and mulling over what she may tell her son should he wake up and catch her in the act, “I will tell him that his father has come, that an angel brought him back from Heaven for a while” (88). This was a short story that had been assigned to me during my years as a community college student. It changed my life.
Afterwards, I read and expanded my knowledge of her through a Women in Literature class where we were assigned to read the entire story collection “Krik? Krak!”- it means a call and response to telling a story.
Krik.
Oh, Professor Danticat, tell me a story?
Krak!
Goes the rest of the stories…
“Children of the Sea” is a heartbreaking story of Haitian refugees trying to get to America during a hot day where everyone is passing out at sea due to thirst and hunger, life hanging in precarious balance.
It’s told in shifting voices: the political refugee who is writing his story down as he witnesses a woman give birth and throws her stillborn baby into the sea, where sharks lurk below. She soon follows, as other refugees live through the stench of vomit, piss and shit.
The other voice is of the woman he left behind, trying to get away from her abusive father and the generational trauma of women and a nation held captive by poverty, death and dictators.
For everyone the only way out is certain death, “she had chosen me to live life, eternal, among the children of the deep blue sea, those have escaped the chains of slavery to form a world beneath the heavens and the blood drenched earth where you live” (27).
“A Wall of Fire Rising” is a masterful tragic story of Guy and his wife Lili and son Little Guy. Living in Ville Rose, Haiti- he works at a sugar factory owned by a Palestinian immigrant named Young Assad. Guy discovered a hot air balloon and out of curiosity succeeds flying away in it. His inevitable doom begs to ask the questions: accident or suicide?
This is a sorrowful story of how one dreams defiantly in the face of oppression, and how “there is so much sadness…that we shall let out one piercing cry that we may either live freely or we should die” (71).
“1937” is about a woman named Josephine visiting her mother imprisoned due to Dominican President Trujillo’s genocide against Haitians.
If you want to read more about this, Danticat’s book “The Farming of Bones” expands on this shameful past of Caribbean history more, and it’s well documented in the novels of Junot Diaz and Julia Alvarez.
Professor Danticat shifts from Haiti to Flatbush Brooklyn in the 1990s in the stories: “New York Day Women” and “Caroline’s Wedding”.
“New York Day Women” is reminiscent of Paule Marshall and Jamaica Kincaid’s writing, about mothers and daughters, assimilating from Haiti to Brooklyn during the 1990s. This is a funny and humorous look at a daughter observing her immigrant mother’s assimilation into modern New York gawking at Tiffany’s, Bergdorf Goodman’s and eating hot dogs.
The final story, the touching novella “Caroline’s Wedding” is about sisters Grace and Caroline who live with their widowed mother Hermine in Brooklyn, teaching English.
Caroline meets and is marrying Eric, a Bahamian man with whom Hermine disapproves of. It is the story of three women who must separate after all the trauma they went through in exile and haunted by the ghost of their dead father.
Ms Danticat has the ability to hypnotically draw her readers into the complicated and harrowing worlds her characters live in, but it is through her compassion and love for them is what makes reading her work so special and unique.
Most of her work to me has been heartbreaking, sad, and most of all: literature as a call to action, to bring an awareness that life in Haiti is still a difficult one, and a difficult conversation to tackle out of systemic racism and oppression.
In crystal clear prose and some of the most beautiful voices of sorrow you’ll ever read you’ll understand why she was loved both by Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison.
February 12, 2014
“These were our bedtime stories. Tales that haunted our parents and made them laugh at the same time. We never understood them until we were fully grown and they became our sole inheritance.”- Edwidge Danticat, “Krik? Krak!”
This selection of short stories was absolutely amazing. Heartbreaking, but brilliant. We see Haiti through different eyes, each pair experiencing a lot of pain and loss. Even with the knowledge that I have of Haiti’s horrific history, what Danticat wrote (using vignettes told from the point of view of various characters) still managed to shock me. In that way, I feel Danticat illuminates Haiti’s painful history the way Toni Morrison highlights slavery in “Beloved.”
The stories were separate yet created a larger picture spread over decades. There’s a lot of heartbreak in these tales. The one that touched me the most was “Children of the Sea”, which featured a story about Haitian refugees trying to make it to Miami in boats. It’s obvious that this is a difficult and risky feat but have we considered the psychological issues and the everyday constraints that the migrants have to deal with? I hadn’t, Danticat obviously had. That’s one of the many things l like about fiction; being given the opportunity to think about something that would probably have never crossed my mind otherwise.That scene really created a lot more empathy in me:
“Sometimes, I forget where I am. If I keep daydreaming like I have been doing, I will walk off the boat to go for a stroll.”
The whole book was very much alive for me due to Danticat’s superior writing. Her narrative just flows and manages to incorporate so much; history, relationships, superstition, culture, and so on with such honesty and clarity.
This is a complex book that made me think of how it is that one can love their homeland so much, yet at the same time realize there is so much ugliness present, embarrassing stuff at that.Judging from Danticat’s writing, that doesn’t mean one loves their country any less.
Definitely a rewarding read. Hopefully more books like this are read so people can have more empathy for migrants.
This selection of short stories was absolutely amazing. Heartbreaking, but brilliant. We see Haiti through different eyes, each pair experiencing a lot of pain and loss. Even with the knowledge that I have of Haiti’s horrific history, what Danticat wrote (using vignettes told from the point of view of various characters) still managed to shock me. In that way, I feel Danticat illuminates Haiti’s painful history the way Toni Morrison highlights slavery in “Beloved.”
The stories were separate yet created a larger picture spread over decades. There’s a lot of heartbreak in these tales. The one that touched me the most was “Children of the Sea”, which featured a story about Haitian refugees trying to make it to Miami in boats. It’s obvious that this is a difficult and risky feat but have we considered the psychological issues and the everyday constraints that the migrants have to deal with? I hadn’t, Danticat obviously had. That’s one of the many things l like about fiction; being given the opportunity to think about something that would probably have never crossed my mind otherwise.That scene really created a lot more empathy in me:
“Sometimes, I forget where I am. If I keep daydreaming like I have been doing, I will walk off the boat to go for a stroll.”
The whole book was very much alive for me due to Danticat’s superior writing. Her narrative just flows and manages to incorporate so much; history, relationships, superstition, culture, and so on with such honesty and clarity.
This is a complex book that made me think of how it is that one can love their homeland so much, yet at the same time realize there is so much ugliness present, embarrassing stuff at that.Judging from Danticat’s writing, that doesn’t mean one loves their country any less.
Definitely a rewarding read. Hopefully more books like this are read so people can have more empathy for migrants.
January 15, 2020
The sort of short stories that novelists envy. Danticat writes with such fury, with such purpose--about a topic neither you or I are acquainted with! (Well, maybe I don't know you too much, do I?)
Haiti. The last time I gave this country a lick of thought was when I explained to my niece how zombies are made. I am sooo horrid! Just like the orange infant in the White House--unaware, HAPPY to be ignorant of, places other than here.
That the book begins with an epistolary of two different souls, never to be reunited (is my thought)... We will never know what these people had to endure in Haiti, then the U.S. Some people suffer and suffer & suffer... & our own lives never looked better! Her prose is masterful--the tales are solid and (mostly) tragic (which is very hard to pull off, since melodrama is so easy to fall into).
I encourage you to read it. Yep YOU.
Haiti. The last time I gave this country a lick of thought was when I explained to my niece how zombies are made. I am sooo horrid! Just like the orange infant in the White House--unaware, HAPPY to be ignorant of, places other than here.
That the book begins with an epistolary of two different souls, never to be reunited (is my thought)... We will never know what these people had to endure in Haiti, then the U.S. Some people suffer and suffer & suffer... & our own lives never looked better! Her prose is masterful--the tales are solid and (mostly) tragic (which is very hard to pull off, since melodrama is so easy to fall into).
I encourage you to read it. Yep YOU.
June 17, 2023
April 2018
This was an interesting re-read for me because based on the review below, I didn't enjoy it too much the first time. Eight years later, I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would. I love how each story reads like a book and how engaging the characters are. Some of my favorite stories were:
Children of the Sea
A Wall of Fire Rising
Between the Pool and the Gardenias
Seeing things Simply
New York Day Women
Caroline Wedding
Women Like Us
First book by Danticat and I am intrigued. I liked the book but I didn’t love it, even though it had all the elements of a great book. It was set in the Caribbean, written by a Caribbean author and mostly women were at the center piece of the stories. I liked the very first story, because it gave the Krik Krak appeal, where there were two narrators telling two stories, I thought it would be like that throughout the book, it wasn’t.
Aside from that, a good read.
This was an interesting re-read for me because based on the review below, I didn't enjoy it too much the first time. Eight years later, I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would. I love how each story reads like a book and how engaging the characters are. Some of my favorite stories were:
Children of the Sea
A Wall of Fire Rising
Between the Pool and the Gardenias
Seeing things Simply
New York Day Women
Caroline Wedding
Women Like Us
First book by Danticat and I am intrigued. I liked the book but I didn’t love it, even though it had all the elements of a great book. It was set in the Caribbean, written by a Caribbean author and mostly women were at the center piece of the stories. I liked the very first story, because it gave the Krik Krak appeal, where there were two narrators telling two stories, I thought it would be like that throughout the book, it wasn’t.
Aside from that, a good read.
April 27, 2016
Everyone knows what the baseline reader is. The body is abstract, the habits of the norm, the names of a conventional origin, the hierarchy unquestioned. To get a hint of the opposite, look at which covers are commissioned for thematic design and which consist of bodies and cultural artifacts. You'll learn about the blackened butterfly of this cover through one of the stories, as well as about the lives of the women that fit the archetype of my alternative cover that the digitized edition does not currently show. A portrait of the author, perhaps? Certainly not of the intended readership. She, with locs and bronze all woven through, is not the socioeconomic poster child of the marketer's design.
The majority of lauded books are written for a mere ten percent of the population of the globe, and the biggest con of capitalism and cultural domination was to call such tomes universal. To subvert such persistent gall requires continual regrounding of what is the usual, what is granted, what is the destiny and what is the choice. No, accommodated reader, you are not white. No, communicated reader, you are not male. No, handheld reader, your world is not of free suburbia but of heritage, revolution on one side and massacre on the other, tales on the kitchen stove and Icarus in the shanty, where liberty and death become far more complicated when the fire has been rising for nine hundred ninety-nine generations and counting. Women come and women go, and there is no telling in this shifting scape of love and loss when a turn around the corner will bring to life a familiar face, when looking back requires a loss forever.
It's easy enough to look Haiti up in the history books and Danticat up in the halls of literary excellence and mix the two together to get a prelude of what is to come from a writer who concerns herself with the death of infants in her homeland and all lost in transit so that they may live. She is not that lazily thrown about enforcement of 'universal', nor can that term be applied to any work in this era of broadcasting the tippy top to the world and calling it the modern normality. She is, however, to those sick of tailor-made literary expectations and open to theories of literature forever on the knife edge of then and now and what is to come, worth reading.
The majority of lauded books are written for a mere ten percent of the population of the globe, and the biggest con of capitalism and cultural domination was to call such tomes universal. To subvert such persistent gall requires continual regrounding of what is the usual, what is granted, what is the destiny and what is the choice. No, accommodated reader, you are not white. No, communicated reader, you are not male. No, handheld reader, your world is not of free suburbia but of heritage, revolution on one side and massacre on the other, tales on the kitchen stove and Icarus in the shanty, where liberty and death become far more complicated when the fire has been rising for nine hundred ninety-nine generations and counting. Women come and women go, and there is no telling in this shifting scape of love and loss when a turn around the corner will bring to life a familiar face, when looking back requires a loss forever.
It's easy enough to look Haiti up in the history books and Danticat up in the halls of literary excellence and mix the two together to get a prelude of what is to come from a writer who concerns herself with the death of infants in her homeland and all lost in transit so that they may live. She is not that lazily thrown about enforcement of 'universal', nor can that term be applied to any work in this era of broadcasting the tippy top to the world and calling it the modern normality. She is, however, to those sick of tailor-made literary expectations and open to theories of literature forever on the knife edge of then and now and what is to come, worth reading.
May 15, 2012
Beautifully written stories, featuring women in difficult lives. I particularly enjoyed the epilogue, "Women Like Us," that has a sense of a recited poem to it.
I had selected a pile of books set in various Caribbean places to read when I was in the Caribbean, so it was interesting to end up reading Krik? Krak! while I was in the Bahamas. A recurring theme throughout these stories is how Bahamians treat Haitians cruelly. Just a few islands away!
"They treat Haitians like dogs in the Bahamas, a woman says. To them, we are not human. Even though our music sounds like ours. Their people look like ours. Even though we had the same African fathers who probably crossed these same seas together."
"We know people by their stories."
This is true. I'd like to read more of Danticat, particularly post-earthquake.
"Are there women who both cook and write? Kitchen poets, they call them. They slip phrases into their stew and wrap meaning around their pork before frying it. They make narrative dumplings and stuff their daughter's mouths so they say nothing more."
I had selected a pile of books set in various Caribbean places to read when I was in the Caribbean, so it was interesting to end up reading Krik? Krak! while I was in the Bahamas. A recurring theme throughout these stories is how Bahamians treat Haitians cruelly. Just a few islands away!
"They treat Haitians like dogs in the Bahamas, a woman says. To them, we are not human. Even though our music sounds like ours. Their people look like ours. Even though we had the same African fathers who probably crossed these same seas together."
"We know people by their stories."
This is true. I'd like to read more of Danticat, particularly post-earthquake.
"Are there women who both cook and write? Kitchen poets, they call them. They slip phrases into their stew and wrap meaning around their pork before frying it. They make narrative dumplings and stuff their daughter's mouths so they say nothing more."
August 22, 2015
!!! blog review: http://africanbookaddict.com/2015/08/...
I really liked this! It was the perfect summer read, especially since most of the short stories in this collection take place in Haiti - the island with the indigo blue skies and the sandy beaches. It is very evident that Danticat wrote this from her heart and I felt her love for her island in every story. My fave stories were: Children of the Sea (tender tale of two lovers separated by political violence and the sea) ; Between the Pool and the Gardenias (crazy story! I was shocked while reading this! Loved it) ; The Missing Peace (I always love a story with a precocious, brave girl in it) ; Caroline's Wedding (This was interesting...I adored the sisterhood between Caroline and Gracina. The mother in the story irked me- she was such a debbie-downer, but I understand why) ; Epilogue: Women Like Us (Great ending. I'm guessing this is a true 'story' on the struggle Danticat went through with convincing her family that she wanted to become a writer instead of the stereotypical role of a great housewife or cook which women in her family prided themselves with).
I like that I learned a bit about Haiti and the hardships it has faced and how it has affected its citizens. I'm definitely going to google some stuff from the book to learn more - like the coup d'etat it faced, Papa Doc Duvalier (ex-president Francois Duvalier) etc. I hope to read more Danticat in the future!
[MORE ON THE BOOK BLOG SOON].
I really liked this! It was the perfect summer read, especially since most of the short stories in this collection take place in Haiti - the island with the indigo blue skies and the sandy beaches. It is very evident that Danticat wrote this from her heart and I felt her love for her island in every story. My fave stories were: Children of the Sea (tender tale of two lovers separated by political violence and the sea) ; Between the Pool and the Gardenias (crazy story! I was shocked while reading this! Loved it) ; The Missing Peace (I always love a story with a precocious, brave girl in it) ; Caroline's Wedding (This was interesting...I adored the sisterhood between Caroline and Gracina. The mother in the story irked me- she was such a debbie-downer, but I understand why) ; Epilogue: Women Like Us (Great ending. I'm guessing this is a true 'story' on the struggle Danticat went through with convincing her family that she wanted to become a writer instead of the stereotypical role of a great housewife or cook which women in her family prided themselves with).
I like that I learned a bit about Haiti and the hardships it has faced and how it has affected its citizens. I'm definitely going to google some stuff from the book to learn more - like the coup d'etat it faced, Papa Doc Duvalier (ex-president Francois Duvalier) etc. I hope to read more Danticat in the future!
[MORE ON THE BOOK BLOG SOON].
September 5, 2020
One of the books that got me into reading when I was much younger. Krik? Krak! is poetic, raw, simple to read, and fills you with emotion. It's great if you want something that bites but doesn't push you too far. Danticat is a very raw voice, and while she's not a timeless genius, she fills you a lot as you read her. Great for fans of Jhumpa Lahiri, but who want to read something from a different cultural context.
December 30, 2021
Rating 3.75
January 22, 2025
3.5 stars
A short story collection focused on Haitian (and, toward the end, Haitian-American) women. It leaves you a lot to ponder in a literary sense—it would make for great classroom discussion in terms of themes, symbolism, etc.—although I would have liked a bit more from the characters and the writing style. It baffles me that so many people are calling it beautiful when it’s just standard, professional literary writing; nothing wrong with it, but nothing to write home about either.
Meanwhile, the arrangement of stories seems to have hooked many readers, though it almost caused me to abandon the collection: they’re ordered by how depressing and atrocity-heavy they are, beginning with the most dire and hopeless. The first couple stories didn’t really work for me: they felt like awareness-raising pieces about terrible things happening in Haiti, without enough character depth or stylistic pizzazz to do much beyond that. However, as I read on I wound up actually liking the last four; by “The Missing Peace” the atrocities are a backdrop rather than happening directly to the protagonist, and then the final, long story, “Caroline’s Wedding,” is a sweet one about a mother and two adult daughters living in New York.
Overall, I don’t know that I’d return to this author, but it’s an interesting collection that will teach you a bit about 20th century Haitian history. Worth a read if you are interested in Haitian lit or the literature of horror.
A short story collection focused on Haitian (and, toward the end, Haitian-American) women. It leaves you a lot to ponder in a literary sense—it would make for great classroom discussion in terms of themes, symbolism, etc.—although I would have liked a bit more from the characters and the writing style. It baffles me that so many people are calling it beautiful when it’s just standard, professional literary writing; nothing wrong with it, but nothing to write home about either.
Meanwhile, the arrangement of stories seems to have hooked many readers, though it almost caused me to abandon the collection: they’re ordered by how depressing and atrocity-heavy they are, beginning with the most dire and hopeless. The first couple stories didn’t really work for me: they felt like awareness-raising pieces about terrible things happening in Haiti, without enough character depth or stylistic pizzazz to do much beyond that. However, as I read on I wound up actually liking the last four; by “The Missing Peace” the atrocities are a backdrop rather than happening directly to the protagonist, and then the final, long story, “Caroline’s Wedding,” is a sweet one about a mother and two adult daughters living in New York.
Overall, I don’t know that I’d return to this author, but it’s an interesting collection that will teach you a bit about 20th century Haitian history. Worth a read if you are interested in Haitian lit or the literature of horror.
August 15, 2007
I remember when I was in high school, Edwidge Danticat was one of the new rising literary stars who was getting a lot of attention. It's nice to come back to this collection of short stories and realize that it was completely justified. Krik? Krak! is that rare collection which feels like a novel in its own right -- each story is not only a perfect gem on its own, but connects thematically to the rest of the stories to create a greater whole. The stories are linked by a network of metaphors an grounded in two geographic locations--Ville Rose in Haiti and New York in America.
Some stories focus on figures who are sickeningly familiar in their rages and frustrations in the midst of violence and poverty. These stories tend to work with less conventional storytelling techniques which help keep the tension alive in the story. Other stories are gloriously original, and offer voices that are perhaps finding their way into print for the first time ever. Throughout the collection, Haitian culture is the centerpiece, with stories that focus on intracultural relations as well as those that investigate how Haitian perspectives interact with European or American ones.
Some stories focus on figures who are sickeningly familiar in their rages and frustrations in the midst of violence and poverty. These stories tend to work with less conventional storytelling techniques which help keep the tension alive in the story. Other stories are gloriously original, and offer voices that are perhaps finding their way into print for the first time ever. Throughout the collection, Haitian culture is the centerpiece, with stories that focus on intracultural relations as well as those that investigate how Haitian perspectives interact with European or American ones.
February 13, 2022
THAT FIRST STORY!!!!
April 27, 2017
Heartbreaking and beautiful collection of short stories.
August 10, 2018
I absolutely loved these heartbreaking and poignant short stories. Brava, Edwidge!
March 7, 2019
Still my favorite.
January 21, 2018
Mein Gott, dit was zoveel sterker en pittiger dan ik verwacht had. o mein Goethe. Dit is hoe Alice Munro zou hebben geschreven als ze Creools was in plaats van Canadees.
Krik? Krak! zijn de verhalen van verschillende generaties Haïtiaanse vrouwen, die vooral worstelen met moederschap (of dochterschap) en de noodzaak tot emigratie (maar dit niet altijd doen). Alle verhaalmoeders blijken tot dezelfde familie te horen, allemaal mislukt of onderdrukt op een eigen manier, en dat is nou juist het beste aan dit boek. In veel verhalen worden even casual oude generaties herinnerd en ze lijken meer op elkaar dan ze zouden willen.
Acht briljante verhalen en één zwaar disturbing verhaal, maar ook dat maakt een goede auteur.
Krik? Krak! zijn de verhalen van verschillende generaties Haïtiaanse vrouwen, die vooral worstelen met moederschap (of dochterschap) en de noodzaak tot emigratie (maar dit niet altijd doen). Alle verhaalmoeders blijken tot dezelfde familie te horen, allemaal mislukt of onderdrukt op een eigen manier, en dat is nou juist het beste aan dit boek. In veel verhalen worden even casual oude generaties herinnerd en ze lijken meer op elkaar dan ze zouden willen.
Acht briljante verhalen en één zwaar disturbing verhaal, maar ook dat maakt een goede auteur.
May 28, 2025
Starts off with a promising bang. The first three stories in this collection are unquestionably the best. The middle four are solid, with some strong moments. The final three don't seem to be in the same league. As an Own Voices work from a passionate writer, though, it was time well spent.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
January 14, 2021
Krik? Krak! is a collection of entwined short stories about Haitians, especially Haitian women.
I came across this book while looking for books based on Haiti. The title caught all my attention, strange words that sound funny. Only after I started reading the book did I find that there is nothing funny in it.
Through the stories, Danticat gives the readers a glimpse of the pain that Haitians suffered due to the complicated politics. Individually the stories cover some particular characters and their traumatic experiences. These stories cover everything from the miserable life in Haiti to the adventurous fleeing to other nations and life as an immigrant. The collection as a whole gives the feel of a novel that covers all the shades of the hardships that Haitians bored. For someone like me, who knows nothing much about Haiti and its history, this book would serve as an incredible start.
The stories are heartbreaking, but Danticat crafted it in such a way that it's hard to stop yourself from getting immersed in it. The snippets of Haitian culture, tradition, and superstitions added to the beauty of the stories. Last but not least is the poetic, well-turned language; I don't have enough words to express how I loved the writing style.
My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I came across this book while looking for books based on Haiti. The title caught all my attention, strange words that sound funny. Only after I started reading the book did I find that there is nothing funny in it.
Through the stories, Danticat gives the readers a glimpse of the pain that Haitians suffered due to the complicated politics. Individually the stories cover some particular characters and their traumatic experiences. These stories cover everything from the miserable life in Haiti to the adventurous fleeing to other nations and life as an immigrant. The collection as a whole gives the feel of a novel that covers all the shades of the hardships that Haitians bored. For someone like me, who knows nothing much about Haiti and its history, this book would serve as an incredible start.
The stories are heartbreaking, but Danticat crafted it in such a way that it's hard to stop yourself from getting immersed in it. The snippets of Haitian culture, tradition, and superstitions added to the beauty of the stories. Last but not least is the poetic, well-turned language; I don't have enough words to express how I loved the writing style.
My Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
March 8, 2012
Danticat offers a beautiful rendering of Haitian life, in a novel that utterly evokes the many shades of suffering. Tears, the author demonstrates, are life. Tears are words. Tears heal the pains of the past. Stylistically, I feel that Danticat implemented a structure that absolutely suits her writing--there are separate strands of stories, implying the individuality of angst and emotion; yet these parts are unified by being braided together by the commonality of vibrant Haitian culture and beliefs.
The language Danticat employs is stirring, moving, and highly effective in conveying Haitian culture and ideals. Her striking diction invited me to intimately experience the texturally rich and nuanced Haiti through this nation's effects upon each character.
What made this book so resounding, to me, was the sincerity and the clear genuine nature of Danticat's writing. I felt that "Krik? Krak!" expressed the author's soul, without artifice or distance. It was raw, and therefore honest and alive.
I hope to derive inspiration from "Krik? Krak!" and apply it to my writing. Danticat has shown me that there is power in culture, as long as it is voiced.
The language Danticat employs is stirring, moving, and highly effective in conveying Haitian culture and ideals. Her striking diction invited me to intimately experience the texturally rich and nuanced Haiti through this nation's effects upon each character.
What made this book so resounding, to me, was the sincerity and the clear genuine nature of Danticat's writing. I felt that "Krik? Krak!" expressed the author's soul, without artifice or distance. It was raw, and therefore honest and alive.
I hope to derive inspiration from "Krik? Krak!" and apply it to my writing. Danticat has shown me that there is power in culture, as long as it is voiced.
March 2, 2020
Whenever I read stories from Haiti, I learn a little bit more. No, I don't think I'll ever fully understand the country's history or its people's lives, but I love that I get to know it a little. This collection is beautiful, even when the stories are anything but. Krik? Krak! is some poetic justice for the people of Haiti. Love this!!
June 16, 2020
Heartrending, elegant short stories from a Haitian-American woman, spanning both lands.
This is one of the best-written books I've ever read. Lush and gorgeous, tales that read more like myth than any fantasy story can do. Incredibly well grounded.
Recommended.
This is one of the best-written books I've ever read. Lush and gorgeous, tales that read more like myth than any fantasy story can do. Incredibly well grounded.
Recommended.
March 8, 2012
Krik? Krak! is a collection of stories that mainly highlights the negative consequences of Haiti’s complicated history of violence and power struggles through the stories of lives of ordinary Haitians. All the characters that are given shape in this book suffer in some ways directly from the complicated politics within Haiti that has led to mass murdering and countless sufferings. On a deeper level, Krik? Krak! also underscores the important question imposed on citizens of all developing countries that is, whether it is betrayal to leave behind one’s motherland in search of happiness and better opportunities outside? Many characters within the story face with the similar dilemma of loving Haiti because it’s their motherland and hating it because of its never ending troubles and its brutality. Krirk? Krak! also highlights the cost of political uncertainty through the pain and suffering it brings to one’s loved ones. Through personalized stories of characters and how they suffer from the tough conditions within Haiti, the author provides a visceral experience of such pain to the readers. Apart from the well-crafted political plotlines, Danticat’s brilliant writing ability to portray her characters, the victims of Haitian political upheaval, in such a way that their pain is closely felt by the readers themselves is very impressive. The scenes she develops in the story, whether be of a lover writing a letter to his love whom he may never see again or a mother who prostitutes herself away while her son sleeps in the corner of the same room, seems so visceral while reading that it feels as if the readers are present in the scene themselves. “My son's bed stays nestled against the corner, far from the peeking jalousies. Furthermore, her unique perspective of being a Haitian woman herself shines in the genuine characters and the plausible plots she develops. All in all, it is one of those few books that really made me feel the emotions that the writer was attempting to express through her beautiful words.
August 19, 2011
"The Groom's Still Waiting at the Alter" is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, but it's on one of his worst albums. So I rarely recommend it. Nevertheless, it's a great single and it can exist independently of the album (Shot of Love) on greatest hits albums, live albums, and even as a single song downloaded from iTunes, Amazon, or a Torrent. You could probably find it on youtube.
If only short stories had it so easy. They don't even get radio play, for one thing, and few make it to anthologies, let alone "greatest hits" collections.
Danticat could use a model like that. In Krik? Krak!, she tells stories centered around life in Haiti and life for Haitians that live in America. There's a lack of consistency that we can complain about in this collection, but there are some amazing singles.
The best story is almost certainly the opening, "Children of the Sea." The voice alone is enough for readers to drown in, and the story is even better. There are two perspectives. The first is a man on a ship that we later learn is sinking. The second is his lover, left behind to face violent civil unrest in Haiti. This is compelling reading.
In another story, a man realizes that there is no hope for his life. He will never do anything in Haiti other than waiting in line for a job cleaning toilets. However, he thinks that he could fly a hot air balloon. Sadly, it's easier to take off than it is to land and his solution makes for a powerful ending.
Unfortunately, I was otherwise disappointed with many of these stories. Perhaps Danticat should have arranged the story order differently. I found that my expectations were set incredibly high after reading "Children of the Sea" and the rest of the collection just couldn't keep up.
But as a single, what a success "Children of the Sea" would have been.
If only short stories had it so easy. They don't even get radio play, for one thing, and few make it to anthologies, let alone "greatest hits" collections.
Danticat could use a model like that. In Krik? Krak!, she tells stories centered around life in Haiti and life for Haitians that live in America. There's a lack of consistency that we can complain about in this collection, but there are some amazing singles.
The best story is almost certainly the opening, "Children of the Sea." The voice alone is enough for readers to drown in, and the story is even better. There are two perspectives. The first is a man on a ship that we later learn is sinking. The second is his lover, left behind to face violent civil unrest in Haiti. This is compelling reading.
In another story, a man realizes that there is no hope for his life. He will never do anything in Haiti other than waiting in line for a job cleaning toilets. However, he thinks that he could fly a hot air balloon. Sadly, it's easier to take off than it is to land and his solution makes for a powerful ending.
Unfortunately, I was otherwise disappointed with many of these stories. Perhaps Danticat should have arranged the story order differently. I found that my expectations were set incredibly high after reading "Children of the Sea" and the rest of the collection just couldn't keep up.
But as a single, what a success "Children of the Sea" would have been.
March 8, 2012
in Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat successfully defines Haitian identity through various young women in different short stories by telling of their hardships and struggles. This novel is harrowing and at the same time uplifting because reading of these women's lives is humbling to anyone who has only ever known freedom, yet their strength and determination to attain true freedom lifts the reader up. Krik? Krak! embodies the strength of the Haitian identity through women. Cold reality told with stylistically engaging, captivating language makes this text beautiful in terms of literary value as well as cultural value. An award winning author, Danticat's Krik? Krak! is revolutionary to its time as well as its region.
For me, Krik? Krak! was a novel that I could not stop reading. Danticat ties all of her short stories together by reusing traditional Haitian names as well as emphasizing certain similarities native to the Haitian identity that span between several characters. Krik? Krak! is a good read for anyone looking to read something that will radically change the way they view the region as well as his or her own life.
For me, Krik? Krak! was a novel that I could not stop reading. Danticat ties all of her short stories together by reusing traditional Haitian names as well as emphasizing certain similarities native to the Haitian identity that span between several characters. Krik? Krak! is a good read for anyone looking to read something that will radically change the way they view the region as well as his or her own life.
January 4, 2010
She then gave me the pillow, my mother's pillow. It was open, half-filled with my mother's hair. Each time they shaved her head, my mother had kept the hair for her pillow. I hugged the pillow against my chest, feeling some of the hair rising in clouds of dark dust into my nostrils. -48
She nearly didn't marry him because it was said that people with angular hairlines often have very troubled lives. -65
He always slaps the mosquitoes dead on his face without even waking. In the morning, he will have tiny blood spots of his forehead, as though he had spent the whole night kissing a woman with wide-open flesh wounds of her face. -84
You have to save every piece of flesh and give it a name and bury it near the roots of a tree so that the world won't fall apart. -93
It's so easy to love somebody, I tell you, when there's nothing else around. -96
Most of the women in your life had their heads down. They would wake up in the morning to find their panties gone. -223
She nearly didn't marry him because it was said that people with angular hairlines often have very troubled lives. -65
He always slaps the mosquitoes dead on his face without even waking. In the morning, he will have tiny blood spots of his forehead, as though he had spent the whole night kissing a woman with wide-open flesh wounds of her face. -84
You have to save every piece of flesh and give it a name and bury it near the roots of a tree so that the world won't fall apart. -93
It's so easy to love somebody, I tell you, when there's nothing else around. -96
Most of the women in your life had their heads down. They would wake up in the morning to find their panties gone. -223
June 15, 2018
This is a collection of heart-wrenching stories which take place in Haiti and New York. My favorite part was the Epilogue:women Like Us. It is about keeping stories alive for generation; about the need to put them down so they can continue.
October 11, 2017
The most beautiful and moving stories I've ever read. They are about Haiti.
July 19, 2020
A haunting and beautifully written collection of short stories! Managed to capture the pain of memory & intergenerational trauma and of the healing that comes with loving. Love love loved this book.
February 9, 2023
Krik Krak
Coleccion cuentos sobre Haiti y sobre Haitianos en USA.
Empieza con un cuento fuerte, por un lado un grupo de Haitianos en un bote en el mar huyendo, y por otro alguien en Haiti viendo las represalias, entre ellas una que si te hacer dudar de la humanidad.
Otro sobre una mujer en prisión y las visitas de su hija, desagarrador
A wall of fire raising, sobre un hombre, un globo aerostatico, la libertad, un cuento con un mensaje para pensar
Nightwomen, sobre el amor de una madre a su hijo, y la forma de proteger su inocencia en esa profesión.
Between the pool and the gardenias, sobre una massacre en el rio frontera con Republica Dominicana, fuerte.
The missing peace, sobre el nuevo y el antiguo régimen, y sobre cómo es lo mismo, y como mantenerse a pesar de.
Seeing things simply, este es el que más me gusto, y no sé porque, la trama parece sencilla, una pintora y su modelo, pero las pocas veces que hablan sobre la identidad, sobre la posteridad, sobre la esencia de que se es, y de alguna forma me llego mucho más de lo que esperaba.
Los siguientes 3 cuentos, son más sobre la vida de los Haitianos que logran escapar y vivir en USA, ese querer mantener sus tradiciones, ese mantenerse informados sobre lo que sigue ocurriendo, también un poco la culpa del sobreviviente, son interesantes, y creo que ayudan a cerrar el libro en un tono menos trágico.
Me gusto el cuento epilogo, creo sobre la autora y como tuvo que romper con esa barrera tradicional, que le decía, las mujeres de Haití no escriben.
De promedio me da 4.16 estrellas, pero creo que si lo subiré.
5 stars
Coleccion cuentos sobre Haiti y sobre Haitianos en USA.
Empieza con un cuento fuerte, por un lado un grupo de Haitianos en un bote en el mar huyendo, y por otro alguien en Haiti viendo las represalias, entre ellas una que si te hacer dudar de la humanidad.
Otro sobre una mujer en prisión y las visitas de su hija, desagarrador
A wall of fire raising, sobre un hombre, un globo aerostatico, la libertad, un cuento con un mensaje para pensar
Nightwomen, sobre el amor de una madre a su hijo, y la forma de proteger su inocencia en esa profesión.
Between the pool and the gardenias, sobre una massacre en el rio frontera con Republica Dominicana, fuerte.
The missing peace, sobre el nuevo y el antiguo régimen, y sobre cómo es lo mismo, y como mantenerse a pesar de.
Seeing things simply, este es el que más me gusto, y no sé porque, la trama parece sencilla, una pintora y su modelo, pero las pocas veces que hablan sobre la identidad, sobre la posteridad, sobre la esencia de que se es, y de alguna forma me llego mucho más de lo que esperaba.
Los siguientes 3 cuentos, son más sobre la vida de los Haitianos que logran escapar y vivir en USA, ese querer mantener sus tradiciones, ese mantenerse informados sobre lo que sigue ocurriendo, también un poco la culpa del sobreviviente, son interesantes, y creo que ayudan a cerrar el libro en un tono menos trágico.
Me gusto el cuento epilogo, creo sobre la autora y como tuvo que romper con esa barrera tradicional, que le decía, las mujeres de Haití no escriben.
De promedio me da 4.16 estrellas, pero creo que si lo subiré.
5 stars
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