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A review by sucreslibrary
We're Alone by Edwidge Danticat
4.5
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this collection of essays! it was a totally random pickup from the library and now I'm very interested in reading more from Danticat. her writing is very accessible but still informative, and she has a great way of expressing emotion that could really sneak up on me and surprise me with its impact.
fave essays were "They Are Waiting in the Hills" (about some of her favorite authors, traveling with their stories, and reminiscing on them as people, especially Toni Morrison with whom the author knew personally. her passion for writing as well as her love and respect for these authors is apparent, and it gave me newfound appreciation for them), "This Is My Body" (about many things, but the parts I enjoyed the most had to do with incarcerated populations and those tortured at Guantanamo, and how something as intimate as food can be weaponized, both by people in power and by people taking ownership of their body in situations where they have little power over anything else), and "Wozo, Not Mawozo" (about different aspects of Haiti, the people that live there and their resilience, as well as the people that have taken advantage of both them and their country, framed around a gang that kidnapped Christian missionaries in 2021).
I appreciated how much Haitian history was in these essays, and it's a collection I'll likely pick up myself to reread and mark up and use to further my own research.
fave essays were "They Are Waiting in the Hills" (about some of her favorite authors, traveling with their stories, and reminiscing on them as people, especially Toni Morrison with whom the author knew personally. her passion for writing as well as her love and respect for these authors is apparent, and it gave me newfound appreciation for them), "This Is My Body" (about many things, but the parts I enjoyed the most had to do with incarcerated populations and those tortured at Guantanamo, and how something as intimate as food can be weaponized, both by people in power and by people taking ownership of their body in situations where they have little power over anything else), and "Wozo, Not Mawozo" (about different aspects of Haiti, the people that live there and their resilience, as well as the people that have taken advantage of both them and their country, framed around a gang that kidnapped Christian missionaries in 2021).
I appreciated how much Haitian history was in these essays, and it's a collection I'll likely pick up myself to reread and mark up and use to further my own research.