A review by 3littlewordz
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It can be challenging to capture humanity in massacre and devastation. It can sometimes come across as macabre… too focused on the gore. Edwidge Danticat masterfully captured beauty, pain, violence, and death within a massacre in The Farming of Bones. She didn’t shy away from descriptions of violence, nor did she seem to glorify the brutality that was inflicted upon the Haitian population targeted in the 1937 Parsley Massacre. Danticat also movingly explored ache: the ache of the loss of parents and children, the ache of poverty, and the ache of dreams deferred and never realized. Through Amabelle’s eyes, we see the dichotomy between the Haves and Have Nots; those in power and those subjugated. Though this is a work of fiction, I learned so much about the Trujillo regime that I knew nothing about prior to reading this novel. In fact, I never knew that the US occupied Haiti for several decades! The Yanki occupation was also mentioned in this work, which sent me down another rabbit hole of research. This is a heavy heavy book, but I highly recommend.  Another great novel about the Trujillo dictatorship is In The Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Between these two novels, I’ve gained a much better understanding of that time period in history. 

 
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