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A review by jennyyates
The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat
4.0
This woman writes really beautifully. This collection of linked stories explores the relationship between hunter and prey, during the dictatorship in Haiti. The main protagonist is one of the hunters, a man who commits terrible atrocities before he makes a mistake in following an order, and has to run from his masters. At first, he changes his story, so that it’s believed he was a victim of the regime, but eventually he has to confess – and the first story in this book is his confession to his grown daughter.
The protagonists of these stories are the many people who surround this man – his victims and their survivors, the people who fight against the dictatorship, the ones who abet it, and the bystanders. Danticat moves artfully through time and space - through this shadowy time in Haiti, among immigrants in the US, and sometimes back to Haiti in search of answers. There is the truth of what happens, and then there are the tales that people tell, the ways they live with the roles they’ve played.
The protagonists of these stories are the many people who surround this man – his victims and their survivors, the people who fight against the dictatorship, the ones who abet it, and the bystanders. Danticat moves artfully through time and space - through this shadowy time in Haiti, among immigrants in the US, and sometimes back to Haiti in search of answers. There is the truth of what happens, and then there are the tales that people tell, the ways they live with the roles they’ve played.