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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
This is about a 4.5 rating for me. This is the first time I've read anything by Danticat and I'm now curious about her other works. A book club pick I went into this one completely blind with no knowledge of what I would be reading. Needless to say, by the time I got to the 2nd chapter I felt like I was reading another story which in fact I was as this book can be read both as a novel and a short story collection. I wasn't sure I would like the structure of the book but when I started seeing the connections in each of the stories, things started to make sense which made me eager to continue reading. Because of the number of characters and to have a better understanding of who was who & what was transpiring I started making notes, putting the pieces together as well as the characters & eventually I got the rhythm of things and what surfaced was an amazing story. There were definitely several aha moments and Danticat's smooth writing made this a wonderful read. I personally feel she has a very unique writing style, one I'm not used to and it worked well with this story. The characters, while there were quite a few, were likable and I was genuinely interested in what was happening to each of them. Would definitely recommend this as a group read because I'm sure it will garner a lot of good discussion.
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture
Versions of this and my other reviews from this year can be found on my blog, drinkingandink.
Popsugar 2016 Reading Challenge: A book about a culture you're unfamiliar with.
There are plenty of cultures out there I’m unfamiliar with. I don’t know a heck of a lot about Mongolia, for example, or Cote d’Ivoire, or Estonia. I also don’t claim to be an expert on countries with more name recognition in the U.S., such as Korea, or Venezuela, or Poland. Heck, sometimes large swaths of the U.S. confuse me (mostly the South). But I knew pretty early on that I wanted to read about Haiti. I have a very limited knowledge set about Haiti: I know people from there, have worked with patients and families with Haitian background. I know that centuries of racism have affected not only Haiti, but Haitians in the neighboring Dominican Republic. I know: slave rebellion. Duvalier. Earthquake. Also Hurricane Matthew, and P.S., consider donating to Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, or another nonprofit with a proven track record in Haiti.
So as you can see, I don’t know that much about Haiti. I decided to read The Dew Breaker partly because it was the only Edwidge Danticat not on Oprah’s book list and that’s another item I have to find a book for. I was also intrigued by the plot.
This is a Good Book, the kind that’s got Literary Merit (but not in a pretentious way). The format threw me for a while: I got distracted trying to figure out who these people were and how they were connected to the father in the first story. By “The Book of Miracles” I was feeling slightly more comfortable, and the connection between that one and the subsequent “Night Talkers,” one of my favorites of the stories, was a little more obvious. My other favorite story was “The Funeral Singer;” unlike the slightly mythical quality of the rest of the book, the friendship between the three women felt utterly real.
This was a Good Book, for sure, and I’d recommend it for people who like Good Books. I read it quickly enough. The characters seemed real. But I didn’t love it. I blame the format, mostly: I don’t do well with short stories. As soon as I would get invested in a character, his or her story would end, and I’d be jumping right in with another stranger. But well-written, gosh, yes, and beautiful, and harrowing. And yes, you will learn things about Haiti that you didn’t know before.
Popsugar 2016 Reading Challenge: A book about a culture you're unfamiliar with.
There are plenty of cultures out there I’m unfamiliar with. I don’t know a heck of a lot about Mongolia, for example, or Cote d’Ivoire, or Estonia. I also don’t claim to be an expert on countries with more name recognition in the U.S., such as Korea, or Venezuela, or Poland. Heck, sometimes large swaths of the U.S. confuse me (mostly the South). But I knew pretty early on that I wanted to read about Haiti. I have a very limited knowledge set about Haiti: I know people from there, have worked with patients and families with Haitian background. I know that centuries of racism have affected not only Haiti, but Haitians in the neighboring Dominican Republic. I know: slave rebellion. Duvalier. Earthquake. Also Hurricane Matthew, and P.S., consider donating to Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, or another nonprofit with a proven track record in Haiti.
So as you can see, I don’t know that much about Haiti. I decided to read The Dew Breaker partly because it was the only Edwidge Danticat not on Oprah’s book list and that’s another item I have to find a book for. I was also intrigued by the plot.
This is a Good Book, the kind that’s got Literary Merit (but not in a pretentious way). The format threw me for a while: I got distracted trying to figure out who these people were and how they were connected to the father in the first story. By “The Book of Miracles” I was feeling slightly more comfortable, and the connection between that one and the subsequent “Night Talkers,” one of my favorites of the stories, was a little more obvious. My other favorite story was “The Funeral Singer;” unlike the slightly mythical quality of the rest of the book, the friendship between the three women felt utterly real.
This was a Good Book, for sure, and I’d recommend it for people who like Good Books. I read it quickly enough. The characters seemed real. But I didn’t love it. I blame the format, mostly: I don’t do well with short stories. As soon as I would get invested in a character, his or her story would end, and I’d be jumping right in with another stranger. But well-written, gosh, yes, and beautiful, and harrowing. And yes, you will learn things about Haiti that you didn’t know before.
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
These interconnected stories weave an intricate web of the lives impacted by one man: a prison torturer in Haiti. In many ways this book is about haunting, an inability to escape the past. It is also about coping, how people deal with the inescapability of the past.
The beginning was slow for me because I missed out on the subtler connections. Once I got further into the stories, previous connections started to dawn on me, and I was able to appreciate the genius and hard work that went into weaving this tale.
The importance of angles, skew, and biases are key here. For example, the narrator of the first story sounds nothing like the way her mother depicts her in a later story. It’s all about perspective, all about who is telling the tale.
A great read. A feat of storytelling.
The beginning was slow for me because I missed out on the subtler connections. Once I got further into the stories, previous connections started to dawn on me, and I was able to appreciate the genius and hard work that went into weaving this tale.
The importance of angles, skew, and biases are key here. For example, the narrator of the first story sounds nothing like the way her mother depicts her in a later story. It’s all about perspective, all about who is telling the tale.
A great read. A feat of storytelling.
This book is somewhere in-between a short-story collection and a novel. The structure reminded me a lot of both [b:The Tsar of Love and Techno|23995336|The Tsar of Love and Techno|Anthony Marra|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428086934l/23995336._SX50_.jpg|43596056] and [b:The Things They Carried|27972006|The Things They Carried|Tim O'Brien|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448506116l/27972006._SY75_.jpg|50787330]. Thematically was similar to the latter, as they both deal with the aftermath of trauma and grappling with grief. This novel was beautifully written, and I underlined several passages. This book never attempts to give easy answers to difficult questions about grief and forgiveness, and yet it wasn't afraid to tackle those questions head-on. All the stories contributed something meaningful to the story of the dew breaker and his victims, and they all tied into the main themes of forgiveness, trauma, and grief.
Other reviewers have likened this book to a puzzle, and I think I would agree, in that the connections between characters in this book are often quite loose and require attention to notice (I still haven't quite figured out all the relationships even upon finishing). Some might find this a chore, but I found it engaging, and I think even the characters whose relationship to the dew breaker was less clear added something worthwhile to the story.
This story took my breath away multiple times, and I'm excited to have discovered a potential new favorite author.
Other reviewers have likened this book to a puzzle, and I think I would agree, in that the connections between characters in this book are often quite loose and require attention to notice (I still haven't quite figured out all the relationships even upon finishing). Some might find this a chore, but I found it engaging, and I think even the characters whose relationship to the dew breaker was less clear added something worthwhile to the story.
This story took my breath away multiple times, and I'm excited to have discovered a potential new favorite author.
Michiko says it's "Remarkable." I liked The Farming of Bones a whole lot more. The Dew Breaker is a collection of loosely connected short stories. I'm not a great fan of the short; or maybe not of this short? I spent my time with the book overly concerned with how the stories connected, rather than with the characters, writing, themes of the book.
This book's rating is mostly for the final, titular, story, almost a novella, that takes the accumulated strands of those that came before and barrels them over you with a weight of horror and pain.
Each story has an individual power: Seven is particularly striking, and while not perfect, with an almost clipped prose, their combined effect makes this greater than the sum of its parts.
Dislocated in time and place, the capture of a traumatized diaspora is effective and drew me in despite doubts. By the time it's over you're left baffled and defeated with a glimmer of comprehension for lives and stories and horrors and adaptations beyond your own.
Each story has an individual power: Seven is particularly striking, and while not perfect, with an almost clipped prose, their combined effect makes this greater than the sum of its parts.
Dislocated in time and place, the capture of a traumatized diaspora is effective and drew me in despite doubts. By the time it's over you're left baffled and defeated with a glimmer of comprehension for lives and stories and horrors and adaptations beyond your own.
http://www.literaryfeline.com/2015/12/bookish-thoughts-dew-breaker-by-edwidge_21.html
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 4
Plot: 3
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 4
Overall rating: 3.75
Writing: 4
Plot: 3
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 4
Overall rating: 3.75