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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Really enjoyed this!
Stories of heartbreak and longing and political strife that I didn't always understand the history of...nevermind because under each tale is a strong current of hope (and in many cases, love). I was impressed by this collection of short stories, and I'm pretty sure I had encountered Between the Pool and the Gardenias in a textbook somewhere. The stories, all of them, left me breathless as each topples just above the crevice of devastation, the end of the main character or, in some cases, entire families. I normally read story collections out of order, picking the order by how much I like the story's title, but I read this one in order and was glad I did because some of the stories reference others and when those characters appear, it's like being greeted by an old friend. Lovely work.
a vida é linda e triste, e esse livro é exatamente isso.
challenging
dark
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:
Yes
"I think it would break my heart watching some little boy or girl every single day on this sea, looking into their empty faces to remind me of the hopelessness of the future in our country. It's hard enough with the adults. It's hard enough with me." ('Children of the Sea', 5)
For me Danticat's books are going to be similar to Morrison's, I know going in that the endings are not going to be happy and there will be a great deal of trauma, beautifully written, along the way. I tried to cast a somewhat more critical eye, this being my second Danticat but I once again found her writing to be flawless. I'm greedy when it comes to short stories but this collection left me satisfied. I would have happily stayed in the world of each story but Danticat does a fantastic job concluding each story so that I didn't feel cheated even with a few of the stories having ambiguous endings (like the first story UGH). The characters are riveting, the settings vivid and the writing stunning. I did wonder if all the stories were interconnected, I made a few loose connections and my buddy read pals helped me find a few others but I'm not confident that EVERY story was connected. I would be curious to read the evidence proclaiming that to be the case although I'll be paying more attention during an eventual re-read. Once again many of these stories focus on mother-daughter relationships but Danticat also writes about men and daughter-father relationships. Echoing BREATH EYES MEMORY Danticat once again reaffirms the idea that Haiti is a matriarchal society (even if the women aren't respected by men) and those are the bonds that will transfer over in the afterlife, "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. Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil for we are always with you" ('Epilogue: Women Like Us, 222). I find that idea so beautiful and it emphasizes how interconnected the generations are via their matriarchal lineage (which is also how one of the stories connects to another story).
Danticat is once again nimbly exploring themes of identity, separation, suffering and trauma. Her characters are also poor or working class, fleeing oppression of some kind or another (whether political or familial). The ramifications of American intervention also reverberate, "The Americans taught us how to build prisons. By the end of the 1915 occupation, the police in the city really knew how to hold human beings trapped in cages, even women like Manman who was accused of having wings of flame." ('Nineteen Thirty Seven, 35) more explicitly here than in her first novel. It's very subtle and impressively written. We are also back in Ville Rose, I find it interesting that she has created this fictional town and uses it once again, it grounds the reader and is so richly described that it feels real (I say this as someone who's never been to Haiti so take that with a grain of salt). I'm eager to see if Ville Rose emerges in her next book and any other previously mentioned characters.I also loved that many of the stories contained different structures, they are all short but some are shorter or longer."Night Women" reads like a vignette while "Caroline's Wedding" could be a novella. Some of the stories are told in an oral style, one is in epistolary form. It feels like Danticat is experimenting with her craft and it gives me hope that her other short story collection (which I own) will be even better.
KRIK? KRAK! is a devastating collection of short stories that reflect harsh realities while being juxtaposed with hope and joy. The stories are written in a melodious style and can be read in one sitting even if the connections are tenuous at best. They all contain similar themes and characteristics that are well worth exploring through literature. And while the themes may be comparable the plots of the stories are vastly different as is the structure. The varying structure and plot points force the reader to keep paying attention and not dismiss these stories as merely being about the same basic things. Offhandedly, I kept wondering why Danticat doesn't get as much praise as Zadie Smith given her age when she started writing. I'm definitely a Danticat fan and look forward to her next book as part of the Danticat Pals Buddy Read.
Other favorite lines:
"I just want to know that when you dream, me and the boy, we're always in you dreams." ('A Wall of Fire Rising', 73)
"The night is the time I dread most in my life. Yet if I am to live, I must depend on it." ('Night Women', 83)
"When you write, it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your fingers have still not perfected the task. Some of the braids are long, others short. Some are thick, others are thin. Some are heavy. Others are light. Like the diverse women in your family. Those whose fables and metaphors, whose similes, and soliloquies, whose diction and <i>je ne sais quoi </i> daily slip into your survival soup, by way of their fingers." ('Epilogue: Women Like Us, 220)
"When she was done she would ask you to name each braid after those nine hundred and ninety-nine women who were boiling in your blood, and since you had written them down and memorized them, the names would come rolling off your tongue. And this was your testament to the way that these women lived and died and lived again." ('Epilogue: Women Like Us, 224)
For me Danticat's books are going to be similar to Morrison's, I know going in that the endings are not going to be happy and there will be a great deal of trauma, beautifully written, along the way. I tried to cast a somewhat more critical eye, this being my second Danticat but I once again found her writing to be flawless. I'm greedy when it comes to short stories but this collection left me satisfied. I would have happily stayed in the world of each story but Danticat does a fantastic job concluding each story so that I didn't feel cheated even with a few of the stories having ambiguous endings (like the first story UGH). The characters are riveting, the settings vivid and the writing stunning. I did wonder if all the stories were interconnected, I made a few loose connections and my buddy read pals helped me find a few others but I'm not confident that EVERY story was connected. I would be curious to read the evidence proclaiming that to be the case although I'll be paying more attention during an eventual re-read. Once again many of these stories focus on mother-daughter relationships but Danticat also writes about men and daughter-father relationships. Echoing BREATH EYES MEMORY Danticat once again reaffirms the idea that Haiti is a matriarchal society (even if the women aren't respected by men) and those are the bonds that will transfer over in the afterlife, "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. Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil for we are always with you" ('Epilogue: Women Like Us, 222). I find that idea so beautiful and it emphasizes how interconnected the generations are via their matriarchal lineage (which is also how one of the stories connects to another story).
Danticat is once again nimbly exploring themes of identity, separation, suffering and trauma. Her characters are also poor or working class, fleeing oppression of some kind or another (whether political or familial). The ramifications of American intervention also reverberate, "The Americans taught us how to build prisons. By the end of the 1915 occupation, the police in the city really knew how to hold human beings trapped in cages, even women like Manman who was accused of having wings of flame." ('Nineteen Thirty Seven, 35) more explicitly here than in her first novel. It's very subtle and impressively written. We are also back in Ville Rose, I find it interesting that she has created this fictional town and uses it once again, it grounds the reader and is so richly described that it feels real (I say this as someone who's never been to Haiti so take that with a grain of salt). I'm eager to see if Ville Rose emerges in her next book and any other previously mentioned characters.I also loved that many of the stories contained different structures, they are all short but some are shorter or longer."Night Women" reads like a vignette while "Caroline's Wedding" could be a novella. Some of the stories are told in an oral style, one is in epistolary form. It feels like Danticat is experimenting with her craft and it gives me hope that her other short story collection (which I own) will be even better.
KRIK? KRAK! is a devastating collection of short stories that reflect harsh realities while being juxtaposed with hope and joy. The stories are written in a melodious style and can be read in one sitting even if the connections are tenuous at best. They all contain similar themes and characteristics that are well worth exploring through literature. And while the themes may be comparable the plots of the stories are vastly different as is the structure. The varying structure and plot points force the reader to keep paying attention and not dismiss these stories as merely being about the same basic things. Offhandedly, I kept wondering why Danticat doesn't get as much praise as Zadie Smith given her age when she started writing. I'm definitely a Danticat fan and look forward to her next book as part of the Danticat Pals Buddy Read.
Other favorite lines:
"I just want to know that when you dream, me and the boy, we're always in you dreams." ('A Wall of Fire Rising', 73)
"The night is the time I dread most in my life. Yet if I am to live, I must depend on it." ('Night Women', 83)
"When you write, it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse strands and attempting to bring them unity. Your fingers have still not perfected the task. Some of the braids are long, others short. Some are thick, others are thin. Some are heavy. Others are light. Like the diverse women in your family. Those whose fables and metaphors, whose similes, and soliloquies, whose diction and <i>je ne sais quoi </i> daily slip into your survival soup, by way of their fingers." ('Epilogue: Women Like Us, 220)
"When she was done she would ask you to name each braid after those nine hundred and ninety-nine women who were boiling in your blood, and since you had written them down and memorized them, the names would come rolling off your tongue. And this was your testament to the way that these women lived and died and lived again." ('Epilogue: Women Like Us, 224)
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.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Police brutality
Moderate: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Slavery
Minor: Ableism
Outdated language
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have not been in the groove for reading short stories in a very long time and I was unaware that these were short stories until after reading further. As a short story collection, this has to be the best I read. Everything is here and belongs here, nothing really is a throw-away, even though as is the case with collections, we don’t always resonate with certain tales the same way we do with others. This book made me look up information about Haitian history in the 20th century, made me actually buy more books by Dandicat--it was that good.
There is a poetry in these stories, but it seems organic like Dandicat doesn’t really have to try and that is very hard to describe. Her stories are about journeys and they do focus on quite frequently on mother/child relationships and how those bonds play. In the “Missing Peace,” one of the characters proclaims that a girl “becomes a woman when she loses her mother,” and the stories play on this idea of what it means to grow up with or without a mother or a parental figure around. Dandicat also focuses on these in-between spaces, these watery boundaries where people are floating between life and death, waking and sleep, two countries, two names, two lives. It was honestly so well done. The first story, “Children of the Sea” was horrifying and so vivid, but the way Dandicat shifted perspective felt, once again, so authentic--not gimmicky, not an excuse to deviate from the narrative when she had written herself into some sort of hole. She showed so much control in all of these. I also lovedthe story “Caroline’s Wedding,” and the whole discussion about the sacrifices made for a piece of paper--an American passport. It captures the struggles of immigration so succinctly and poignantly.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No