Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

Edwidge Danticat

Danticat is the author of several books, amongst which are Krik?Krak!, Farming of Bones, Butterfly's Way: Voices From the Haitian Diaspora in The United States. Breath, Eyes, Memory is her first novel and is an essay of her early years in Haiti and relocation to New York.

She lives in the Unites States with her husband and daughters.

Published; April 1994, Genre; Realistic Fiction, pages; 234.

Plot/Synopsis
Set in two cities, Haiti and New York, Breath, Eyes, Memory is the  moving story of a young Haitian girl named Sophia, who was left as a baby with her aunt in Haiti by her mother who found her way to New York to make what she believes is a better life for herself and flee from the tortuous memories of her past that make her suffer constant nightmares and low self esteem from being raped and impregnated as a young girl of 16.

History however repeat itself in the life of her daughter, Sophie, when she goes to join her mother in New York at age 12. Although, her mother tries to make sure she focuses on her education and not men, Sophie goes ahead and  falls in love with their neighbor, Joseph who is a musician and when she gets caught by her mom one night, her mother out of fear that she was about to go down the same path she did, begins to test her periodically to check that she's still a virgin and her virtue is intact. Sophie in depression and anger decides to use her mother's pestle on herself so she will fail the virginity test. She fails the test the next time her mother tests her and she is sent out of the house. She runs off with Joseph and they get married.

Although she is now married and is expected to have sex with her husband, Sophie from the mental scars inflicted by her mother's constant testing of her vagina, finds sex repulsive and develops a phobia for it, and is unable to make love to her husband except she pretends she really isn't there. Her relationship with her mother also deteriorates from the  period of the testing when she lived with her.  Her marriage to Joseph suffers as she begins to feel frustration and confusion and decides to go back to Haiti away from Joseph. She runs away to Haiti with her baby and  soon after her mother also comes to Haiti. Not since the night she threw her out for failing the virginity test had they seen or spoken and Sophie has a lot of anger and bitterness at her for inflicting those tests on her. In time, however, they reconcile and move back to New York together but their union is short lived as her mother kills herself when she discovers she's pregnant for Sophie's fiancé.


Review 
It is quite an easy read, written in first person narrative by Sophie Caco and is filled with lots of Haitian thoughts and mentality conveyed in the grandmother's  songs and stories. The 3 generations of women and the bonds-both broken and strong-between them is conveyed very simply by Danticat in a clear and easy prose.

I've found that most family history has a way of repeating itself in children and grandchildren and this inheritance of experiences often leads to frustrations and depression in many young people. It is a constant battle which many, such as our heroine, Sophie try to fight daily and grow into insecure adults that in turn, make up a fractured society.

Danticat may not write in the literarily complex manner of some others (she was only 25 at the time this was published anyway) but I thoroughly enjoyed her straightforward style of writing and simple flowing lines. Yes, it was a bit choppy in places but that's to be expected in a short story such as this.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston

She is an American anthropologist and author of four novels and over fifty short stories, play and essays. Their Eyes Were Watching God was written during her fieldwork in Haiti with the Guggenheim Foundation. 

Genre; Fiction, novel. Publisher; J.B. Lippincott. Pages; 256. 

 
After hearing so much about this book and seen the film like twice already, i decided to read it and put it up under Black History Month as it is written by a African-American writer and has some interesting history to it..

It was published in September 18, 1937, a time when blacks were facing racism, being largely persecuted, lynched, faced massive unemployment and political disenfranchisement. Their Eyes Were Watching God was not originally well received but made a comeback to be amongst the pioneering books of African-American literature,and it was listed in 2005 by TIME in its 100 best English language novels. 

The book has been adapted into several plays, a film in 2005 which was executive produced by Oprah Winfrey, directed by Darnell Martin and starred Halle Berry, Michael Ealy and Terrence Howard. It was made into a radio play in 2011 for BBC World Drama. The film and cast have gotten awards and nominations in the Golden Globe and Emmy amongst several others awarding bodies.

Plot 

Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20s and inspired by some real life events e.g. the hurricane at the end of the novel, the tumultuous relationship with Tea Cake.

Excerpts

“Two things everybody’s to tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.” 

”You sho loves to tell me whut to do, but Ah can’t tell you nothin’ Ah see!”

“Dat’s ‘cause you need tellin’’ Joe rejoined hotly. “It would be pitiful if Ah didn’t. Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves.”

”Dey gointuh make ‘miration ‘cause mah love didn’t work lak they love, if dey ever had any. Then you must tell ‘em dat love ain’t somethin’ lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.”

"The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume; then her pugnacious breasts trying to bore holes in her shirt. They, the men, were saving with the mind what they lost with the eye.”

Synopsis
Told with wit and wisdom, it's a southern love story told by a woman who evolves from a teenager to a woman through three marriages and a difficult life. 

The lead character is a forty-something year old woman named Janie Crawford who tells her life story in a flashback that is compartmentalized by her three marriages to three men.
Janie is a product of rape; her grandma; Nanny, was a slave who was raped by her owner, and gave bith to her ma who was also raped by her school teacher. Janie's ma becomes a drinker and eventually runs away leaving Janie to be cared for by her grandma. In a bid for a better life for Janie, her grandma marries her off to an older man and farmer, Logan Kilick whom she believes will take care of her and give her a life that she can not give herself. Janie however has ideas of what a marriage should be (that of love and partnership from an early memory where she sees a bee pollinating a pear tree) and they do not correspond with Logan's who wants a helper rather than a lover. Janie's  grandma dies and very lonely and unhappy, she runs off with a smooth talking young man;Joe Starks, to Eatonville.
At Eatonville, Starks quickly recognizes the needs of a forming town and gets himself a piece of land, opens a general store and gets himself to be appointed as mayor by the people. He soon begins to treat Janie as a trophy wife/property and controls her movements and activites in order to curtail other men looking at her and her body. 

He controls and tries to mold her into what he thinks is the ideal image of a wife for his position as mayor and forbids her from engaging in certain social activities and even instructed her to cover up her hair always. Joe dies from a failing kidney but not before Janie forces herself to confront him and tell him what the town really thinks of him and who she really is that he would not see or let her be.
After Joe dies, Janie is left in charge of his wealth and the store and finds herself a target of lots of suitors all of whom she turns down. Because of her wealth and their age difference, she is hesitant to a gambler, Tea Cake, who shows her kindness and treats her nicely, but she soon falls in love with him, sells the store and they move to Jacksonville and get married. Janie soon realizes that this is the love marriage she always wanted, even though theirs is a tumultous love affair and it's not long before they start having problems in their marriage with mutual jealousy. The part of town they move to (the muck) gets hit by a hurricane and while Tea Cake is trying to save Janie from drowning and a rabid dog, he gets bit by the dog and contracts a disease. Janie shoots and kills Tea Cake who had become increasingly jealous in self defense one day with a rifle while he was trying to shoot her with his pistol and she gets charged for murder. At the trial, Janie faces an all-white jury but she is saved from being charged guilty by a group of local white women and she holds a lavish funeral for Tea Cake. Janie decides to return to Eatonville and the story ends here, with her telling her story to her friend, Phoeby.

Rating: 4 stars