Reviews - Breath, Eyes, Memory

518 reviews for:

Breath, Eyes, Memory

Edwidge Danticat

3.9 AVERAGE

bobachel's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

imanisun's review against another edition

4.0

There is quite a bit of unpacking to do for this one. Danticat is such an amazing writer, in ways I was not expecting. Her prose is simple, almost incomparable to books of similar nature or topic that mostly end up convoluted. I do remember Danticat from The Royal Diary series where she had a fictitious account of a Taino princess. I mention that because while this was definitely mature subject matter, there was almost something childlike simple about the writing. I could have picked up the book at the same age I did the aforementioned and have slipped into this beautiful, heartbreaking writing. I am glad I did not because that would be a bit too much for a 14 year old but I digress.

More or less, I think that this book really did provide a window into the grief women can carry despite everything. The women in this story attempted many things to forget their pain and grief - from immigration to another country, to taking their bodies into their own hands. Grief, as the characters realize, follow them everywhere. And there's no pithy lesson in here about learning to overcome the past, or looking forward to the future. Along with all the grief the women in Sophie's life experience, she also encounters some of her own. It's an amazing story, full of emotional depth that I didn't really understand was there until I finished the book.

As for recommended, I do not advise this book be read by children (not that they wouldn't be able to handle it necessarily but because they may not pick up on some of the nuance, which was essential for this one). But I think that it is an important book and one that should be read by anyone that is interested in the culture of Haiti, something which I am grateful to have found more about via this book. I also recommend it for Alice Walker fans.

brutus_io's review against another edition

5.0

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

When reading this all that was playing in my head was the lyric from radioheads song let down “one day I am gonna grow wings” and as we the reader live in Sophie’s mind through her dreams and memories we see the legacy of trauma in her life. As the audience we originally believe it started with her mother but as the story goes on it goes farther back than that and her mother was just the catalyst. There is hope in Sophie and her daughters lives even through all the pain, but there is no final answer we never see if Sophie stopped the cycle or if she wasn’t strong enough to bare it like her mother and grandmother and so on. I hope the god she could though, I hope she grew her wings.

agnesjlopez's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

peytonjcarter's review against another edition

4.0

Beautiful and powerful, this book pulled me in. Occasionally I found myself lost in the imagery and wondered where it was going, but it certainly comes to a head. It certainly leaves much unresolved. Painfully bound to reality.

jjjjafyn409's review against another edition

5.0

Review in hindsight: I thought this book was amazing. Sophie's journey, born in Haiti, moving to America, then returning to Haiti was so emotional for me. It felt like each character in the story tied back to Haiti and its history in a really profound way. A powerful story that addresses history, trauma, and (attempts at) healing.

blessing_aj's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A beautifully written, sad and moving novel, largely centered around some of the terrible things that women experience at the hands of men and how that shapes not just their lives but that of those who come after them.

This is my first Haitian as well as Edwidge Danticat book and she applied language and style with an effervescence that made me marvel. Naturally, I now intend to read more from her.