Read Women discussion

This is our thread for our discovery of Edwidge Danticat, the author we've picked to collectively read and discuss this year. We'll plan to start late January/early February and spend February-March-April and early May reading one or more of Danticat's books. She offers us nonfiction, short story collections and a couple of picture books, in addition to her several novels.

Let's use this thread as our planning and discussion of Danticat and repeating themes, and then, if 2+ members begin to read one of her books, we'll open a new, separate thread dedicated to that book.

Danticat's books, in order of publication

Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) Novel
Krik? Krak! (1996) (Short story collection "SSC")
The Farming of Bones (1998) Novel
After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti (2002) NF
Behind the Mountains (2002) NF
The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States (2003) NF
The Dew Breaker(2004) Novel
Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490, one in the 20 book The Royal Diaries series, targeted toward grades 5 - 8th (2005)
Brother, I'm Dying (2007) NF
Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (2010) - Picture Book
Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work (Vintage contemporaries) (Paperback) - Common (2010) NF
Claire of the Sea Light (2013) Novel Edwidge Danticat
The Last Mapou (2013) - PB
UntwineUntwine (2015) Novel
Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation (2015) PB
(2017) NF ("at once a personal account of her mother dying from cancer and a deeply considered reckoning with the ways that other writers have approached death in their own work)
Everything Inside (2019) - SSC
My Mommy Medicine (2019) - PB Edwidge Danticat
Beginnings and Salt: Essays on a Journey through Writing and Literature (2021) NF
We're Alone: Essays (2024)

She also edited 2 Akashik Noir collections: Haiti Noir (2010), and (2013)Haiti Noir 2: The Classics

Which book are you planning to read first? If you've already read her and have recommendations, feel free to share them here, too.

Brother, I'm Dying is extraordinary. I read it a while ago, so don't recall much of the detail, but it's one of those books that changed my perspective and has stayed with me.

I've had Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490, The Farming of Bones, and Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work on my TBR for ages and have never gotten to them.

I did try to read Claire of the Sea Light, and don't remember anything about it except that it was not nearly as good as Brother I'm dying. Can't recall now if I even finished it.

Thanks Carol!

I haven't read anything by Danticat, so I'm excited to discover a new-to-me author.

I'm starting with We're Alone: Essays.
It's a compilation of essays that discuss some of her past, her family, and past novels, and has been a wonderful introduction to her and her work.

Whilst contemplating our wealth of choices and gathering copies of the chosen, I recommend this 2018 essay, "All Geography is Within Us: Writing Beginnings, Life, Death, Freedom and Salt," for anyone wanting to dip her toes into Danticat's writing style.

https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...

There are a great many used paperback copies of Danticat's back titles in circulation.

+ Amazon US:

Everything Inside paperback is $4.99 (list is $17)
Breath, Eyes, Memory Kindle ebook is $9.99 (list is $18)
Behind the Mountains Kindle ebook is $.99
Haiti Noir Kindle ebook is $9.99 (list is $17)

Audible US - Brother I'm Dying and The Farming of Bones are "included", e/g. $0, in a membership.

Amazon UK
Breath, Eyes, Memory paperback 5.22 bps (list is 10.99)
Everything Inside Kindle 2.99 (9.99)
Krik! Krak! Kindle 7.49 (16.99)
Eight Days Hardcover 4.49 (15.22)

The Art of Death - free with an Audible trial

I'm going to start with Breath, Eyes, Memory since I already have it. I may be able to slip into late January!

Forgot to post when I finished We're Alone: Essays last week.

This was a fantastic introduction into Edwidge Danticat work. It's a compilation of essays: bits and pieces of Danticat's past, her thoughts on civil rights and growing up an immigrant. She mentions a few of her other books in reference which has helped me narrow down and decide what to read next.

It definitely got me interested in reading more.
Thanks to all who recommended and voted for Danticat.

Lindsey wrote: "Forgot to post when I finished We're Alone: Essays last week.

This was a fantastic introduction into Edwidge Danticat work. It's a compilation of essays: bits and pi..."

I had just gotten that one from my library too! Glad to see your comment. It’ll be my first of hers.

Changed my mind. I'm starting Everything Inside today.

I am one third of the way through Everything Inside, my first read by this author, and already I love her style. This book was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2019, The Story Prize in 2019, and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Fiction in 2020.

The book is comprised of 8 short stories, each written for a short period of time in the lives of Haitian diaspora in Miami. Her character development for short stories is impressive. This may very well become my favorite collection.

I have really enjoyed all of the books I have read by Edwidge Danticat. She covers all genres and has a captivating voice, I've tried a novel, a memoir and a book of short stories and I have on my shelf her work of creative nonfiction essays Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work which feels timely to pick up and read this year.

I have read and reviewed here the following :

- Breath, Eyes, Memory (review) - a wonderful novel that helps us understand the importance of memory in the context of a historical narrative of people’s lives and reminded me of Maryse Condé's excellent semi autobiographical novel Victoire: My Mother's Mother

- Brother, I'm Dying (review) - a brilliant and important memoir of hope, struggle and perseverance and a unique tribute to the special connection between a daughter and the two men she considered her fathers.

- Everything Inside (review) - short stories of those who left, those who stayed, those who visited a place for a short time, those who belong, those who are trying to find their place, those who have found success by honest means and those who resorted to taking advantage of the vulnerable.

Krik? Krak!, Claire of the Sea Light, and her children's book Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation are all in.

So many of her other books sound so good, I might end up getting one or two more.

Honestly, I’m nearly finished with We're Alone: Essays and it's just so timely. Of course, at any time the topics she discusses are important. Her experiences with Toni Morrison are lovely, and she incorporates her homages to Morrison and Baldwin and others very seamlessly and eloquently into her essays. A lot of great topics, community, and conversation happening in this one. It definitely makes me eager to read more by her.

Anita wrote: "Honestly, I’m nearly finished with We're Alone: Essays and it's just so timely. Of course, at any time the topics she discusses are important. Her experiences with Toni Morrison ar..."

Anita, I had the same response to this one. I did love how she spoke of her relationship with Toni Morrison.

For anyone like me looking for a super-low barrier to entry, I checked out one of her picture books, Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation, and found it charming.

I plan to read We're Alone next.

Carol wrote: "For anyone like me looking for a super-low barrier to entry, I checked out one of her picture books, Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation, and found it charming..."

Thanks for sharing Carol! I'm always looking for good picture books for my girls (although they're 7 now and reading on their own, it's still fun for bedtime stories)

Lindsey wrote: "Carol wrote: "For anyone like me looking for a super-low barrier to entry, I checked out one of her picture books, Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation, and fou..."

I love finding good ones, although I don’t have bedtime stories as an excuse. A great illustrator can grab my heart easily.

Carol wrote: "...I don’t have bedtime stories as an excuse ..."
You really don't need an excuse! I say I read them before I give them to my grandkids, but if I'm honest I read them because I WANT to and then give them to the kids if it passes my (and their parents) rather relaxed age definition.

You guys have me determined to read We're Alone but in looking for it I also found Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490, a historical fiction she wrote for Scholastic as part of the Royal Diaries series. (which is middle grade/early ya)

Gail W wrote: "Carol wrote: "...I don’t have bedtime stories as an excuse ..."
You really don't need an excuse! I say I read them before I give them to my grandkids, but if I'm honest I read them because I WANT t..."

I totally agree, Gail! I enjoy them. I also am interested in Anacaona. It just looks very interesting. Good on you snagging a copy.

Carol wrote: "...Good on you snagging a copy..."

Nook (maybe even kindle, didn't check) $1.99. Couldn't pass it up especially since I blew my January budget oh - somewhere around the 10th?

I’ve started her debut, Breath, Eyes, Memory as my second. I hadn’t planned it this way, but reading a debut early on could be good. There’s 30 years between her this one (1994) and We're Alone: Essays (2024) and I’m curious/excited to be able to see her writing growth.

Finished Breath, Eyes, Memory, and it was very good. A bit of generational trauma in this one that’s acknowledged but not addressed by our characters- perhaps fitting to those generations, and the mother-daughter relationship. I do still want to read Krik? Krak!, but wonder if I’m a bigger fan of her NF.

I loved this 1996 Danticat essay, "We are Ugly, But We Are Here," available, free at:

https://mamapress.wordpress.com/wp-co...

As I recall, with books I’ve previously read by Edwidge Danticat, I came away heavy hearted. Haiti’s history is full of poverty and violence.
I just finished “The Farming of Bones”. It is about love and loss when dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the slaughter of Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic. This was known as the Parsley Massacre. Danticat is a favorite writer and I hope to read at least one more of her books for this challenge.

I finished Krik? Krak! today. This is the second story collection I’ve read by Danticat. Most of the stories are set in Haiti and made me realize how little I know about Haiti’s history. I enjoyed this collection but not quite as much as Everything Inside, most of which revolves around Haitian immigrants living in the U.S.

Looking forward to reading at least one more book for this author focus.

My second read for this challenge is "Claire of the Sea Light". Thankfully it is not as dark as "The Farming of Bones". Interconnected stories occur in a small Haitian village that revolve around widower Nozias and his small daughter Claire whose mother died during childbirth. I liked the visual descriptions of the location best - the slow life of the seaside fishing village.

Sophie wrote: "My second read for this challenge is "Claire of the Sea Light"...

Thanks for this Sophie. I've had this book for ages and I keep skipping past it and I can't say why. This helps!

Carol wrote: "I loved this 1996 Danticat essay, "We are Ugly, But We Are Here," available, free at:

https://mamapress.wordpress.com/wp-co..."

Thanks for sharing, Carol! A quick read for anyone interested. I’m still waiting on a copy of Krik? Krak! from my library, and then I might try to read Claire of the Sea Light, but I also want to read a longer piece of work rather than short stories. We shall see! Love reading everyone’s comments and suggestions though, thank you everyone who is sharing with us

Oo, thanks for the reminder, Anita, about the links Carol’s shared. I read it now too. Wow. Heart wrenching but beautiful. I need to read this author. Hoping I’ll manage during the challenge but don’t know yet.

I'm still working my way through Krik? Krak!, and this is not an easy read. I like the writing, but goodness, it's heart wrenching!

Claire of the Sea Light is next.

Ozsaur wrote: "I'm still working my way through Krik? Krak!, and this is not an easy read. I like the writing, but goodness, it's heart wrenching!

Claire of the Sea Light is next."

I just started Krik? Krak! and came here to say the same. Like a punch in the gut that hasn’t stopped yet. I’m looking for the hope and resilience to kick in but right now I’m just horrified. I’m only on the first part, Children of the Sea. Something that’s stood out so far, when her mother tries explaining that her father feels helpless and weak because he has no power to protect them from the soldiers.

Just thinking about that. Not having any control or say over your own life or your family’s lives because of soldiers. And the horrendous things they choose to do because they hold power. There are just too many thoughts that tornado through my head when I try to imagine a life like this or just the politics and social conversation that surrounds refugees.

Might follow this one with Everything Inside, but I will probably be cautious and read the blurb and reviews before delving into my next Danticat!

Anita, the third story is the one that really got to me, because it started on such a positive note. It started with such a happy, little family, but that ending.

I'm hoping that Claire of the Sea Light isn't quite as rough.

I started Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 today, an installment in the Royal Diaries series published by Scholastic. Billed for middle grade, it does read young but not annoyingly so. The "royal" is presented in first person and I am really enjoying the cultural references to her life so far (about early teen maybe?). 1490 is two years before Spain brutally colonized the country.

Anita wrote: "... Might follow this one with Everything Inside..."

Anita, (fwiw) I read Everything Inside last month and loved it. It was my first Danticat so I can't compare it to her other's yet, but although there is trauma it is definitely not as bad as some others I've read. In the mood I've been in I probably would have stopped reading it if it were too bad.

I haven't started any of her books yet, but I did a search for her name in my podcast player and found a few podcast episodes that either discussed her books or where she was a guest.

One I'm currently listening to is the podcast called Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller. Edwidge Danticat was a guest on the September 19, 2024 episode and I'm really enjoying listening to her. I've queued up other episodes with her for later listening.

@ozsaur Claire of the Sea Light although a bit sad is does not have anxiety inducing scenes of violence as in The Farming of Bones and Kirk!Krak!

GailW wrote: "I started Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 today, an installment in the Royal Diaries series published by Scholastic. Billed for middle grade, it does read young but not annoyingl..."

I saw this and considered it as well. Anaconda was the subject of that short essay Carol posted. Let us know how what you think.

I ultimately settled on Brother, I'm Dying because I like her NF and also this will fulfill a BINGO prompt (memoir non-celebrity). I will probably take a small break from Danticat after this one as her writing can be heavy. I don’t want to burn myself out on her as I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read so far.this one makes 4 for me.

We're Alone: Essays
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Krik? Krak!
Brother, I'm Dying

Sophie wrote: Claire of the Sea Light although a bit sad is does not have anxiety inducing scenes of violence as in The Farming of Bones and Kirk!Krak!

Thanks for letting me know! I might just get started on it sooner rather than later.

Congratulations on reading four books so far, Anita!

I finished Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 and rated it 3.5 (rounded to 4) stars. It was a good read for early history of the island. Some reviewers complained that she spent too much time on the "before the invasion" but I appreciated that. Gave you a sense of the island, the governance, Anacaona and her family in relatively good times. I also appreciated that, although she was telling Anacaona's story which ends in her death, she treated it more like a history lesson and not the "gut punch" drama of her adult books. I'm glad I read it and I would recommend for "lighter" fare.

I’m glad to hear that Gail! I was hoping you’dsay it was. Little lighter since I noticed it was a Scholastic.

I did finish Brother, I'm Dying and it was just really good. She tells her story, her country’s story, and her family saga really all in one memoir. I will say that this book started and ended very emotionally draining for me. At one point, I think maybe 10% in, I considered just setting it aside because I was just emotionally drained by this author lol. It’s my fault for not pacing her books I guess? Anyways, I took a couple days and read some other things before delving back in, and by that point the story had moved on anyways. Towards the end, we know the end is coming. It’s in the title. No spoilers. But the way her Uncle Joseph eventually perishes is so heart wrenching. I don’t like to bring politics to the group, but it’s in a lot of the material we read. This one is so timely for what’s happening in the USA right now, it has left me pained to be intrinsically linked to the international view of American. Anyhow, the way her Uncle passes is truly inexcusable- though it has been and continues to be excused as the same treatment of immigrants and refugees is perpetuated right now. It’s just ramping up even now. This isn’t what her book is about, but obviously happening at the end it sticks with the reader.

She writes wonderfully, her stories are important and moving. I will absolutely read more by her and have enjoyed everything of hers I’ve read so far. I loved this story and the way she shared it.

Anita wrote: "I will say that this book started and ended very emotionally draining for me. At one point, I think maybe 10% in, I considered just setting it aside because I was just emotionally drained by this author lol. It’s my fault for not pacing her books I guess?"

Thanks for sharing this Anita.

I have that one as my next to read from Danticat. And for many of the reasons you've listed, I've been procrastinating. I usually dive right into the Author Focus and read back-to-back books, but this is one that's hitting a little too close to home politically right now, so I'm going to space them out a bit.

I appreciate your comments on this one and will still probably choose it next... but will be (mostly) prepared emotionally.

Ok, so I accidentally requested the wrong book through Hoopla. So, my next book by Danticat is actually The Farming of Bones.

I'm about 15% in so just getting into the story but enjoying it so far.

Read Claire of the Sea Light, my first book by Edwidge Danticat. I loved this book of interconnected stories.

Sonia wrote: "Read Claire of the Sea Light, my first book by Edwidge Danticat. I loved this book of interconnected stories."

Glad to hear that, Sonia. I’m glad for the prompt to read some more (at least one more) Danticat for this challenge… maybe a couple more if I space them out.

I think Danticat was a good pick. I really liked her writing, and hope to read more from her.

I started Brother, I'm Dying last night. I am enjoying it, but I think I will need to spread it out because it's heavy.

I’ve also really enjoyed reading her work this year. I just read Behind the Mountains, which is about the immigrant experience and geared towards younger audiences so much easier on the heart than her other works.

Misty, you’re right, that book is heavy but it has really stayed with me. It’s a memorable and important story. In fact that was the last of hers I read before taking a little break from her myself.

Misty wrote: "I started Brother, I'm Dying last night. I am enjoying it, but I think I will need to spread it out because it's heavy."

I have that one on my list next. But you're right, her books are heavy. Well worth the read, but I've been trying to space mine out a bit as well.

My last Danticat was The Farming of Bones, about the ethnic cleansing of Haitians in the Dominican Republic in the 1950s. It was very good, and I thought she didn't lean into the tragedy, just told it as it was (which was still quite heavy), but very well done.

I was curious about that one, Lindsey. Glad to hear those comments about it, thanks for sharing.