Breath, Eyes, Memory (Oprah's Book Club)

Edwidge Danticat, a young Haitian woman, has written a beautiful and heartrenching novel of discovery, cleaning and redemption. Sophie Caco, 12 year old Haitian girl, is sent from her remote village and her grandmother, the only mother she hasever known, to New York City to live with her real mother. Not only is the city a frightening change for her, but the mother she never knew is foreign and distant. Only when she returns to Haiti as a young woman does she learn and begin to understand the tragic circumstances of her birth and the subsequent richness of her early years. The circle of loving women who raised her leave an impression not only of love but also of a cultural heritage that lies deep and sweet inside her. Regardless of the sparseness of her youthful home, it was not lacking in love and security. When Sophie learns about her past, she is able to accept it and go on with her life, secure in herself and those who love her. This is also the story of the richness of a little known culture, the terror that existed during times of political unrest, and the resulting social pheaval of society in general when dictators control one's basic existence

"Breath, Eyes, Memory" is the story of a young Haitian girl, Sophie, whose mother travels to New York when her daughter is very young, leaving Sophie in the care of her Tante Atie. Eventually Sophie's mother sends for her child, and the girl must travel to the United States to start a new life. I thought this book would focus on the struggles of a Haitian girl adjusting to American society, but Sophie's real demons lay with her family's tragic history, which unfolds bit by bit as the years go by. Sophie ultimately breaks away from her mother but is unable to escape from the horrors of her past. She eventually returns to her home country in search of answers and redemption.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The subject matter is difficult to read, but this book depicts a lifestyle that was a reality for so many Haitian women. Although Sophie and her female relatives endure many tragedies throughout the course of this story, "Breath, Eyes, Memory" also celebrates strong family ties and the power that comes with being a woman. This is truly an amazing book.

Danticat is our sage, but I felt uncomfortable as I was reading some parts of this book. It was as though she was revealing things about our community that should remain private. By the end of the book, I was of a different mind. This book is not just about the Haitian experience, this is a book about people, in particular a mother and a daughter, who have to come to terms with the way a cruel world has impacted their relationship. That is everywoman's story, everyman's.

Wow. A pause while I catch my breath...

Edwidge Danticat has written an exceptional and beautifully crafted novel about a young Haitian girl and the family of women that surround her. A somber, spiritual story told with a feverish tenacity that will bewitch you and leave you aching for more from this talented and gifted writer.

After twelve years of being raised in Haiti by her aunt Atie, young Sophie Caco has been summoned by her mother to join her in New York. Sophie is terrified and does not want to go, especially since she does not remember her mother, who left Haiti when Sophie was just a baby. What follows is a painful rendering of horrifying secrets and Haitian tradition that deeply affects Sophie and the way she lives her life. Finally, frantic for justification and healing, Sophie turns to her homeland for the answers and refuge she so desperately needs.

The flow of the writing is smooth and lyrical, like music that rolls off the tongue. There is just enough description to make vivid pictures, but not too much to overwhelm. I do find it lacking in the development of the relationship between Sophie and her mother, although not enough to interrupt the beauty and quality of the story. Readers will be awed at the strong determination of the Caco women and the unbreakable bonds that hold them together. A very poetic and powerful novel that mixes a family, their culture, and a country in the midst of political upheaval. Breath, Eyes, Memory is extraordinary.

BREATH, EYES, MEMORY is the first novel by Edwidge Danticat who, like her protaganist, grew up in Haiti and was raised initially by someone other than her birth parents, and then moves to America to be reunited with her biological parents. In Danticat's novel, Sophie Caco lives in Haiti for the first twelve years of her life, and is raised by her Aunt Atie, the older sister of her mother. She knows no other life than what her Aunt had been able to give her.

At age 12, Sophie's mother instructs that her daughter be returned to her to America. Sophie leaves her distraught Aunt, the only mother she has ever known, and travels to a far away land to live with a stranger. She knows her mother only through cassette tapes of her mother's voice, sent to the family in Tahiti periodically as one sends letters. But as far as she's concerned,her mother is Aunt Atie.

When Sophie meets her mother, she finds that she is not what she had expected. Her mother looks tired. America was not the land of luxury and opportunity that her mother had thought it would be. She works two jobs to make ends meet. She lives in the poor part of town and drives a car that barely runs. She is terribly thin, too thin, and at night she screams at the demons that try to kill her.

Her mother's emotional well-being is tested every day through nightmares and demons of a past that Sophie was never aware of, until slowly she learns of her mother's story: Sophie is the result of a rape, when her mother was a very young girl. Her mother's world is a world of sexual and mental abuse, and it is passed down to Sophie, through "tests" that leave an emotional scar on Sophie, to the point where she too begins to have recurring nightmares.

Sophie learns to resent her mother. She falls in love with the neighbor, an older man who is a musician, and he returns her love. She finally leaves her mother by running away and eloping with Joseph.

Her marraige is not easy, however. Sophie again runs away, this time to Haiti 6 months after the birth of their daugher Brigitte, seeking the only family she has known. Back home again, she is reunited with Tante Atie and her grandmother, who only talks of death. It has been 6 years since Sophie had left Haiti, and she returns as a grown woman and with her first child.

BREATH,EYES, MEMORY is more than just a story of a Haitian girl being uprooted to America. It's a story of discovery of self, and about the recovery from childhood abuse and forgiveness. Young Sophie learns to deal with her past and her mother's history, and we see her grow as a character who eventually is able to break free of the cycle of abuse handed down from generation to generation.

I highly recommend this book. I enjoyed reading about the life that Sophie lived in Haiti, a world totally foreign to me, but at the same time was brought closer to it with the imagery that Ms Danticat painted on these pages. The story of abuse and reconcillation was convincing and real to me. Am looking foward to reading her next novel.