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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
These stories didn't give me the emotional experience I thought was in store. A few brief tugs on the heartstrings here and there, but at the end of the book I thought, "That's it? That's all she's got?" My suspicion is that these stories have more going on beneath the surface, and if you can decipher the symbolism you'll get a lot more bang from this book. I'm more of a surface reader - I enjoy the actual story being told and am not willing or able to look for extra meaning in a river or a cat or a cloud - and so this book didn't give me much enjoyment at all.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This impressive set of short stories that are deftly woven together through shared characters, we learn of the plight of women in Haiti. Their loves, their losses, their fears are all revealed through stories about situations they faced in various political upheavals, and relationships, both traditional and unconventional. I always appreciate a window into a culture I would otherwise never be truly invited into or exposed to in realistic ways.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"Pretend that this is the time of miracles and we believed in them. I watched the owner for a long time, and I think I can fly that balloon. The first time I saw him do it, it looked like a miracle, but the more and more I saw it, the more ordinary it became." — from “A Wall of Fire Rising”
TITLE—Krik? Krak!
AUTHOR—Edwidge Danticat
PUBLISHED—1995
PUBLISHER—Soho Press
GENRE—literary fiction, short stories
SETTING—Haiti
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—stories as memory—memory as inheritance, Haitian history, immigration & refugee experience, parenthood, Caribbean folklore, matriarchal legacies, great/grand/mother-daughter-sister family relationships, soucouyant, funeral & death rituals & traditions, love, colonialism, vodou & mission Christianity, dreams, Creole language, riddles
“They say behind the mountains are more mountains. Now I know it's true. I also know there are timeless waters, endless seas, and lots of people in this world whose names don't matter to anyone but themselves.” — from “Children of the Sea”
My thoughts:
This was a perfect short story collection. I absolutely loved how all of the stories were connected to each other through the characters in all of the other stories and how that played into the theme of the way stories connect us all and especially diasporic families and cultures. It was just such a powerful reading experience to see some of the most upsetting topics and imagery all written with such a deep tenderness and compassion. I already want to reread it.
I loved all of the stories but my especial favorites were: “A Wall of Fire Rising”, “Seeing Things Simply”, “Caroline’s Wedding”, and “Epilogue: Women Like Us.” I was surprised to find that the stories that started out being the hardest for me to read ended up becoming my favorites.
I would recommend this book to readers who love elevated, classics-style literary writing (which some might consider slow) about deeply human, emotional topics. This book is best read with a box of tissues. 🥺😢🤧
Final note: Can’t wait to read more from Danticat!
“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.” — from “Caroline’s Wedding”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Season: Summer
CW // violence, death, child death, prison, lots of upsetting imagery & themes, suicide, rape animal death & cruelty (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)
Further Reading—
- BLUE by Emmelie Prophète
- TELL MY HORSE by Zora Neale Hurston—TBR
- ANNIE JOHN by Jamaica Kincaid
- THE CHARM BUYERS by Lilian Howan
- Toni Morrison
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, War
Summer book bingo-Wanted to read for more than a year
This beautiful collection of short stories are primarily about the women of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Heartbreaking and bittersweet, there is a glimmer of hope that shines through each of these stories. The strong female characters help us to look beyond the poverty and political oppression we often associate with Haiti and help us to understand the rich and beautiful Haitian culture.
This beautiful collection of short stories are primarily about the women of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Heartbreaking and bittersweet, there is a glimmer of hope that shines through each of these stories. The strong female characters help us to look beyond the poverty and political oppression we often associate with Haiti and help us to understand the rich and beautiful Haitian culture.
“The women in your family have never lost touch with one another. Death is a path we take to meet on the other side. What goddesses have joined, let no one cast asunder. With every step you take, there is an army of women watching over you. We are never any farther than the sweat on your brows or the dust on your toes.”
KRIK? KRAK! is a short story collection set primarily in the fictional Haitian village of Ville Rose, as well as Port-au-Prince, New York, and Miami. Danticat is a gifted writer and storyteller, and her sentences are evocative and mystical, almost poetic at times. More than anything, I was swept away by the complex balance of tones of the book: The stories are melancholic and brooding, and they somehow manage to combine a pervasive sense of dread and brutality with a flash of hope. Through these stories, Danticat explores intergenerational trauma and inheritance, the resilience of women, the power and peril of imagination, belonging and identity, and the bonds between mothers and daughters. There are only a handful of specific factual linkages among the stories, but they all flowed so seamlessly—the tonal and thematic coherence really made this feel like a unified collection.
If I have any critique, it is that there is a sameness to the voice of some of Danticat’s protagonists. I struggled to differentiate among the characters, so when a character’s name reappeared later in the book I had a hard time parsing the connection to the earlier story. But I really loved this collection and couldn’t put it down. This was my first Danticat, and it won’t be my last.
I think this book would pair well with Ayiti by Roxane Gay, These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, and Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta.
KRIK? KRAK! is a short story collection set primarily in the fictional Haitian village of Ville Rose, as well as Port-au-Prince, New York, and Miami. Danticat is a gifted writer and storyteller, and her sentences are evocative and mystical, almost poetic at times. More than anything, I was swept away by the complex balance of tones of the book: The stories are melancholic and brooding, and they somehow manage to combine a pervasive sense of dread and brutality with a flash of hope. Through these stories, Danticat explores intergenerational trauma and inheritance, the resilience of women, the power and peril of imagination, belonging and identity, and the bonds between mothers and daughters. There are only a handful of specific factual linkages among the stories, but they all flowed so seamlessly—the tonal and thematic coherence really made this feel like a unified collection.
If I have any critique, it is that there is a sameness to the voice of some of Danticat’s protagonists. I struggled to differentiate among the characters, so when a character’s name reappeared later in the book I had a hard time parsing the connection to the earlier story. But I really loved this collection and couldn’t put it down. This was my first Danticat, and it won’t be my last.
I think this book would pair well with Ayiti by Roxane Gay, These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, and Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
KRIK? KRAK! is a collection of short stories set in Haiti and the U.S. All of the stories are well-written and some are heartbreaking. Danticat's perspective as a Haitian woman shines through as she broaches topics like relations between Haiti and the Bahamas, the pain of memory, the nearness of grief, cross-generational trauma, and long-distance love. Some of the stories were a little slow to me and didn't hold my interest, but a good many of them were moving and interesting to read. I'd recommend KRIK? KRAK! to anyone who enjoys short stories—the collection overall is ambitious and beautiful.
“This is why she wanted to make pictures, to have something to leave behind even after she was gone, something that showed what she had observed in a way that no one else had and no one else would after her.”
“All anyone can hope for is just a tiny bit of love, manman says, like a drop in a cup if you can get it, or a waterfall, a flood, if you can get that too.”
“This is why she wanted to make pictures, to have something to leave behind even after she was gone, something that showed what she had observed in a way that no one else had and no one else would after her.”
“All anyone can hope for is just a tiny bit of love, manman says, like a drop in a cup if you can get it, or a waterfall, a flood, if you can get that too.”