Memory, Eyes, Breath

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat is a novel about a young Haitian girl who is summoned from her comfortable, if impoverished, life living with her aunt (Tante Atie) and grandmother Ife in Haiti to live with her mother in New York City. I found the book to be rather boring and told in a matter-of-fact style. I am sure it will appeal to people from Haiti or who have an interest in that country, qualities that I do not possess. The young girl, Sophie, is summoned by her mother, Martine, to come to live with her. Martine suffers from nightmares resulting from having been raped in a sugar cane field in Haiti and the pair live together in an unsettled harmony until Joseph, a musician almost as old as Martine, moves in next door and the two fall in love and eventually get married despite Martine’s disapproval. Marc, her mother’s boyfriend, floats in and out of the story. The book wends it way back and forth between Haiti and New York until its climatic ending.

The book does provide some insights into Haitian life and Ms. Danticat creates some colorful characters. She provides a clear, if narrow, picture of this difficult nation. In the end in my view the novel has a limited appeal to those with an interest in this country and lacks the universal qualities found in an outstanding work. It is also one of Ms. Danticat’s early works and her later ones may be better.

My local library sponsors a "Black Voices" book group which offers the rare opportunity to read novels exploring black culture in the United States and throughout the world. The group's most recent book was "Breath, Eyes, Memory", (1994) the first novel of the Haitian writer Edwidge Danticat (b. 1969) who has subsequent to this book established a substantial reputation. This is the first novel I have read about Haiti and my first book by Danticat. Oprah Winfrey featured "Breath, Eyes, Memory" on her show.

Danticat's book helped teach me about Haiti and about the life of Haitian immigrants to the United States. The book shows the growth in self-understanding and in freedom of a young Haitian woman, Sophie Caco, who narrates the story. In the course of the book, the scene shifts several times between two Haitian villages, Croix-des-Rosets and Dame Marie, about five hours apart driving on poor roads, and New York City.

At the outset of the novel, Sophie is a young girl of twelve who lives with her unmarried Aunt Atie in Croix-des-Rosets and is excelling in school. Sophie's mother, who had moved to New York years earlier under mysterious circumstances, suddenly sends her daughter a plane ticket to join her. Sophie lives under the protective wing of her mother, who works menial jobs, through high school before meeting an older man, a musician named Joseph, and running off from her mother to marry him. Gradually, Sophie learns about her mother's past, especially the brutal rape which resulted in Sophie's conception. Concerned for her innocence, Sophie's mother subjects her to a humiliating series of examinations of her private parts designed to protect her purity. After Sophie's marriage, which alienates her from her mother, and the birth of her own daughter, Bridgette, Sophie travels back to Haiti to try to come to terms with herself and to work through her lack of interest in sexual relations with her husband.

Sophie generally speaks in a simple, flowing style. The book is at its best in the Haitian scenes as the author describes the local people, the troubled political situation and Sophie's family, particularly her aunt and her grandmother. The book describes the local folk religion and the heaven, called Guinea, which awaits people after death. The book is full of stories of various lengths which are fascinating in themselves and which illuminate Sophie's search to come to terms with herself. One of the key stories involves the origin of the family surname, Caco, which derives from the caco bird. As Aunt Attie explains to Sophie:

"Our family name, Caco, it is the name of a scarlet bird. A bird so crimson, it makes the reddest hibiscus or the brightest flame trees seem white. The Caco bird, when it dies, there is always a rush of blood that rises to its neck and the wings, they look so bright, you would think them on fire."

Although the book offers many insights into Sophie and into Haiti, I found it deeply flawed. The story gradually shifts away from Sophie and becomes gendered and polemical. Sophie becomes less a person than a symbol of the sexual and economic woes that the author finds pervade the lot of women, in Haiti and everywhere. The litany includes, besides the rape and emotional fridgidity that are central to the story, breast cancer, incest, abortions, and much else. The reader tends to lose track of Sophie and of a shared humanity amidst the welter of women's issues. The author herself expands and loses the focus of the book. In a concluding passage, the author speaks in her own voice to address the character she has created:

"I write this to you now, Sophie, because your secrets, like you, like me, have traveled far from this place. your experiences in the night, your grandmother's obsessions, your mother's 'tests' have taken on a larger meaning, and your body is now being asked to represent a larger space than your flesh. You are being asked, I have been told, to represent every girl child, every woman from this land that you and I love so much. Tired of protesting, I feel I must explain."

Danticat's explanations notwithstanding, Sophie's story is weakened immeasurably when it forgets about a woman and becomes a symbol for everywoman. When the author allows Sophie to speak as an individual and to come to peace with her mother and with herself, she largely succeeds. As a symbol, the story fails. Danticat's first novel was a book of promise, marred substantially by its movement from a person and a place to a gendered symbol.

Robin Friedman

I rarely put a book down without finishing it, but this one came close. However I am glad I persevered. The story was good. The characters were okay. The storytelling style was difficult for me. I now understand that the writer was, first of all, young herself when she wrote this and also that the language in the beginning was meant to reflect a fifteen year old immigrant girl's halting and simple language skills. This however made it difficult for me to engage. I wanted a picture painted of Haiti and her life there, that I never got. Although the idea of the story was intriguing and held great promise, the character development and dialogue were lacking for me. I was hoping for poetry, emotion and resolution. This read more like a documentary to me. The redemption was in the story, however drily told, which was profoundly sad and deeply human.

“Breath, Eyes, Memory” is a book about the women in the Caco Family, generations of grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and daughters having the same fear, and living the same nightmares because of the corrupted, male dominated culture that they lived in. The sea between Haiti and New York was not enough distance to run away from the evil spirits, pain, and suffering that plagued these women.

We meet Sophie, a 12 year old girl that was raised by her Aunt in a small village in Haiti, who was sent for by her mother that had immigrated to New York City years earlier, after her mother had been the victim of a vicious rape by a corrupt government worker. Never putting a face to her father, Sophie had soon learned secrets about her past and the past of the female generations prior. Into adulthood, purity and chastity was a belief to success and freedom, although freedom was false, because Purity meant honoring your mother. “Your mother is your true friend”, the Coco family has passed on the obsession of being pure and chaste (Danticat 154), a fear of abandonment, and an accepted cultural form of sexual abuse called, “testing” for virginity, along with other mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, alcoholism, suicidal thoughts, self-mutilation and bulimia.

I recommend that a person approaches this book with an open mind, a box of tissues, and compassion for those who suffer from mental illnesses and post-traumatic stress disorders. Not everyone that has been abused have suffered in this great of an intensity, but living in a culture that teaches through stories and song, one can see that strength and resilience that can only be seen through harsh conditions and adversity… and the women of the Caco Family has demonstrated their strength through five generations in this novel.

“Breath, Eyes, Memory” is a book about the women in the Caco Family, generations of grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and daughters having the same fear, and living the same nightmares because of the corrupted, male dominated culture that they lived in. The sea between Haiti and New York was not enough distance to run away from the evil spirits, pain, and suffering that plagued these women.

We meet Sophie, a 12 year old girl that was raised by her Aunt in a small village in Haiti, who was sent for by her mother that had immigrated to New York City years earlier, after her mother had been the victim of a vicious rape by a corrupt government worker. Never putting a face to her father, Sophie had soon learned secrets about her past and the past of the female generations prior. Into adulthood, purity and chastity was a belief to success and freedom, although freedom was false, because Purity meant honoring your mother. “Your mother is your true friend”, the Coco family has passed on the obsession of being pure and chaste (Danticat 154), a fear of abandonment, and an accepted cultural form of sexual abuse called, “testing” for virginity, along with other mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, alcoholism, suicidal thoughts, self-mutilation and bulimia.

I recommend that a person approaches this book with an open mind, a box of tissues, and compassion for those who suffer from mental illnesses and post-traumatic stress disorders. Not everyone that has been abused have suffered in this great of an intensity, but living in a culture that teaches through stories and song, one can see that strength and resilience that can only be seen through harsh conditions and adversity… and the women of the Caco Family has demonstrated their strength through five generations in this novel.

Danticat writes in a clear style that makes it easy to read and encourages you to continue with the story. I could have read this book in one sitting. Aside from the clarity of the writing I was immediately drawn in by the subject matter of the story. I am partial to novels that give me a glimpse at another culture from multi-generational perspectives. Maybe others will enjoy this story for the same reason.

I do want to offer any new readers a bit of caution. You should read this novel with as much objectivity as you can. If you are too set on using your own lens to examine the storyline you might find it confusing and the characters somewhat flat. I think understanding the depth of the characters comes through more if you are willing to accept dissimilarities between the cultural backdrop and your own.

With that said, I think that no matter your personal point of view, a reader could relate to the idea that families inherit both physical traits and cultural behaviors from those that rear them. This is evident in the lives of the novel’s women: Sophie, her Tante Atie, Grandmother Ife and Mother Martine. These women exhibit a familial and cultural cycle that has defined their beliefs on feminine sexuality and family duty. For young women such as Sophie, especially in light of their daughter’s birth, they may question accepted family practices and find a way to reconcile family, culture and the future.

Just be aware that this story is as hauntingly sad at times as it is beautiful.

Read my complete review on my blog, Honey Lemon Tea. [...]

Interesting story of a young girl born in Haiti living with her aunt but "transplanted" to live with her mother in New York. The background story about Haiti and its culture were interesting. The emotional story of this girl and her family relationships was sad. A strong start but it seemed to go in too many directions later in the story and thus lost focus.

Sophie has been raised by her aunt in Haiti. They are very close, although her aunt always holds Sophie at a bit of a distance, reminding her that her real mother lives in New York. When Sophie gets to the age of twelve, her mother sends for her. Abruptly, the girl's life changes. She's never left Haiti, and her life with her mother isn't all that she imagined. Her mother has some psychological trauma that bleeds into Sophie's life, and she soon finds living with her mother to be suffocating and unbearable.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of Haiti and the relationships among the family members. Sophie and her mother's relationship was tenuous in a realistic way, and I liked the way that Sophie's problems affected her marriage. It was interesting to watch the way that this child grew up, and I enjoyed the glimpses back into life in Haiti. I wished I could have seen more about how Sophie's life turned out.

Rooted in tradition, torn by political strife, Haiti is a place where "breath, eyes and memory are one, a place where you carry your past like the hair on your head."

Edwidge Danticat, like Sophie Caco, the narrator of her first novel, left Haiti and joined her parents in America when she was 12. Wrenched from all she knows and loves, Sophie is sent to New York, to the worn "scrawny" stranger who is her mother, Martine, a woman beset by nightmares.

Baldly, Sophie learns she is the child of rape. Resembling no one else in her family, Sophie realizes she looks like her anonymous father.

The story skips six years, to Sophie's first real boyfriend, a Creole her mother distrusts. Martine institutes the old Haitian tradition, mother to daughter, of keeping the daughter pure by testing for virginity, a test that echoes rape. Sophie puts an end to it in an act that leaves her scarred, and runs off to marry.

Part Three finds Sophie returning to Haiti, searching for the peace she hasn't found in marriage. Haiti's "cult of virginity" has left her sexually dysfunctional. But, her grandmother explains, "If a child dies, you do not die. But if a child is disgraced, you are disgraced."

There are no simple solutions. The rape of Martine colors her life and drives her to her death. The tradition of women's honor, a hated humiliation, is nonetheless, perpetuated by women. Danticat's novel is many layered, touching on tragedy, violence and fate, sometimes at the expense of character development and story. But hers is a powerful, lyrical voice.

This is a wonderful book, and I enjoyed looking into the culture of Haiti, which I knew very little about. It educated me to the fact that Haiti views the treatment and roles of it's women, to be of very little importance. I found it strange, that the mothers of Haiti are so obsessed with their girls remaining virgins, but they do nothing to protect them from being raped by grown men, from genaration to genaration. Sophie Coco was a result of such a raped. At a young age her mother was raped, being mentally scarred, she was sent to New York leaving baby Sophie in the care of her mother and sister Tante Atie. At age twelve Sophie leaves Haiti and moves to New York to live with a mother she doesn't know. She finds out for the first time, that her mother was raped when she was a teenager. She realizes that her mother has never gotten over her ordeal. This causes her to be very protective and obsessed with Sophie staying a virgin untill she is married. Her mother testing her to see if she was still a virgin, causes Sophie to have psyhcological problems about her own sexuality. I recommened this book to anyone, who like me, knows very little about the culture and political unrest in Haiti. Danticat brings to light in this book the issues of genital multilation, incest, rape, frigidity, breast cancer and abortion.

The book really grabbed me from the start. I got it because it was an Oprah Book Club book but the story really flows. For a first book, it was a really enjoyable read. I learned a little about Haiti and a little about the author's life which was also weaved into parts of this book. A really enjoyable read as it flows well.

I thought the book had great potential, but it skipped too much and left too many blanks. That is probably why it was such an easy read. I had questions that never got answered, like how old was Joseph? What was the terrible secret that Sophie was going to find out in New York and how come we didn't hear about it again in Haiti? I understand that being "tested" was such a crucial and demeaning process in their lives, but I didn't consider it a secret. The book left many gaps like Sophies teenage years, her marriage to Joseph, her birth of her daughter, how she developed bulimia from being married and not being able to perform sexually. I was more miffed about how she and her mother could become confidants after not speaking and having no contact for how ever many months or years. And then after such a huge revelation in their relationship,.............. I just wish more was explained and then it would have been a real worthwhile story about another culture.

This first novel adapts a simple, understated tone that is almost too sparse in places and also verges on highly emotional purple prose. But the content delivered is highly charged, narrated by Sophie, the common thread through which is woven the lives of four generations of Haitian women: Sophie's colorful and ancient grandmother, who spends her time in a small village in Haiti preparing for her glorious funeral and telling stories, Sophie's mother and aunt, who suffer from ghosts and irrevocable violence done them, Sophie, who we learn has been traumatized by her mother, and Sophie's baby, Brigitte, who represents the untouched hope of the future. The struggles and lives of these women, except for Brigitte, are permeated with real emotion, heartache, and sorrow, originating with cultural traditions and the violence men have done them, and then self-perpetuated. This is a very interesting portrait, not just of Haiti, but of the lives of damaged people, among which we just about all can count ourselves a part.

Other titles readers of this book might find of interest are "Beasts of No Nation," by Uzodinma Iweala, which portrays the desperate life of a child warrior in an unnamed African country, and "The Comedians," by Graham Greene, which presents Duvalier's Haiti and the horror of the Macoutes, who also haunt this book.

While Edwidge Danticat is obviously a talented writer, this book left a lot to be desired. Breath, Eyes, Memory is a story about a young Haitian girl's relationships with the other women in her family, particularly her relationship with her Aunt, and her relationship with her mother which did not really begin untill adolecence. This book is also about the ritual sexual abuse that the mothers in this family and presumable in Haitian culture inflict upon their daughters and how this abuse effects the daughters physically and psychologically. This book could have been excellent, however, both the story and the characters were poorly developed. The book read like a list of events instead of an descriptive story about a woman's life. Danticat jumped from one event to another without much detail about how these characters came to the events in their lives and how these events shaped their lives and emotions afterwards. While this book has a very important story to tell, it was not told well, and I was left feeling very detached from the story and it's characters.

This novel, written like voice of one's old, Hatian grandmother weaving a sad fairy tale, is about many things. It is about the clash of cultures and language that all imigrants encounter. It's about being removed from the only mother one has known, to be raised by the woman who is. It is about the legacy of abuse that can circulate, even in a family of women. But most importantly, "Breath, Eyes, Memory" is about what happens when we have a family tradition that we find hurtful, but find ourselves simultaneously unable to break away from participating in. I was intrigued by the legacy of pain in this novel, which travelled through the slave roots of the Caco Family and through the two generations of Papa Doc's and Tonton Macoutes which have haunted the people of Haiti. This novel is moving and powerful. No other has shown me how easily practices of incest and violence can infect generation after generation, if no one stops to question it, or to declare very simply, that it stops here.

Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat's first novel, is a stirring story of Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora. Sophie, the main character, has much in common with her native country: confusion about her parentage, difficulty adjusting to different people's rights of sovereignty over her, violence in her past, duty in her present, and hope in her future. As one reviewer below has said, the characters are dysfunctional. That's kind of the whole point: in a nation such as Haiti (set just before the fall of Baby Doc), where terrorism and poverty reigned, it's impossible for the majority of people to be fully "okay" psychologically and/or physically. Leaving for what one hopes will be a better life in the United States in many cases only adds to the sense of dispossession felt by immigrating Haitians. Read this book not to find the psychological connection between rape and sexual dysfunction, but instead to find the balance of fear facing the people of Haiti, both at home and abroad. Pay attention near the end and catch a "cameo" by Aristide while he was still just a rebel priest. Note: If you have read Danticat's The Farming of Bones, you will find this novel to be much more mainstream in its narrative structure. This may be a better first book to read by Danticat, as The Farming of Bones is less straightforward.

Ms. Danticat's vision is extraordinary. Stylistically, Danticat sometimes weaves a narrative of utter simplicity; however, the simplistic nature of her composition along with her understanding of human relationships are precisely what make this novel a success. Many reviewers have found fault in this novel due to its simple nature, but like Hemingway, Danticat forces a reader with an acid eye to realize the difficult nature of this deception. "Breath, Eyes, Memory" is an emotional rollercoaster ride--informative, climatic, and emphatically conclusive. Like many other Oprah selections, "Breath, Eyes, Memory" deals with several feminist issues, but the universality of family relations and the importance of multiculturalism are the enduring foundations for this book. Edwidge Danticat has the tools, and many great novels can be expected from her.

"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.

As sociology, this book succeeds, as it provides a perspectiveon women in a war-torn country. As a novel, it was pretty weak. Whilethe main character, Sophie's plight is interesting, she is not the least bit interesting as a person,and we do not get to know her at all. Her progress through life isn't believable. She comes from a family of hard working women, yet never holds a job herself, but marries young to an older man who mysteriously is also free from the need to work. Just not believable. The book is also ridden with victim-coincidences -- people always get pregnant after one instance of sexual intercourse, people always go crazy after getting raped (even though it's very common in that sad landscape) etc., etc. etc. I personally can't have much sympathy with a heroine who has never worked but always been dependent on other people, taken care of her whole life.
This was a really amateurish book. Obviously, publishers are eager to find multicultural material and make a star of someone. Dandicat benefitted from this trend. But as a writer who delivers a believable, fully developed story with characters the reader can care about, she fails miserably.

This book deals with Haitian life, traditions and wisdom. The major theme is the mother/daughter relationship but there are other themes such as the nightmare of rape and child abuse.
The novel is a series of events in Haiti and USA showing the relationship between Sophie and her mother Martine, Sophie and her Aunt who mothered her and also Aunt Atie and her mother Ife.
Sophie the protagonist is a sad character who identifies with the pain and nightmare of her mother's rape. She grows into a fearful adult who suffers from bulimia and sexual phobias. She seeks help to break the cycle of abuse practised by Haitian mothers on their virginal daughters. The mothers in this novel are obsessed with keeping their daughters pure and chaste.
The metaphors are colorful and the picture of Haiti seems authentic but this is not my kind of novel. The language seems stiff and unnatural like a translation from one language to another. This was probably deliberate but surely the dialog between the American schooled Sophie and her African American husband should have been more "natural".

I found this book to be positively exquisite. With the recent proliferation of trash in the genre of popular African American fiction, it was heartwarming to read a piece like this. Popular fiction has its place but my true thirst is for literature by talented black writers.
I am not sure if I was more mesmerized by the story or the skillful prose. It takes a REAL writer to create imagery. It takes skill, study and a very special gift. Though the subject matter was not what I expected, the mother/daughter/aunt/grandmother bond truly represented a family tree. If one had any empathy at all, they were able to see and feel each point of view. Sophie's painful acceptance of her mother as a person who did the very best she could with the cards she was dealt should be a lesson to all adult children to stop blaming and for parents to stop feeling guilty.
I had to put down Krik-Krak because I found it too sad at the time. I will go back to finish it and anxiousl! y await the next novel.

What a startling book! 12-year-old Sophie leaves her dear Aunt Atie and her grandmother in a miserable, impoverished macout-run Haiti, at the bidding of her mother who has `made it' in the US (New York metro area). Her life in the US with her mother is not a bed of roses and as she learns more about her mother's terrible past and is, herself `damaged' by it, the book ripens into a powerful, heartbreaking tale. The young author has managed to portray the sociologically abused Haitian woman as survivors and her tale of love and loss and the bonding of these generations of women is overwhelming. Largely a matter of her background, the author also does a splendid job of transmitting, through her words, the feel, tastes, smells, and even the fear of both her Haitian and her American settings. A tragic, beautiful book - another testament to the resilience of humankind.

Breath, Eyes, Memory. Edwidge Danticat. New York.: SoHo Press, 1994. 234.

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat is a powerful fictional story about the life of a young Haitian girl named Sophie who lived with her Aunt for twelve years and suddenly her life turns upside down when her mother sends for her to come live in New York City. From then on we see Sophie’s new life with her mother, Martine, and her attempt to be a mother to her after missing her first twelve years of life. Like many books about immigrants, Breath, Eyes, Memory highlights the struggles of getting acclimated to life in a new and different world and the adversities that come with growing up with a culture much different from that of Sophie’s new life. Sophie is forced to get along and be raised in her teenage years by a women who says to be her mother but one that Sophie does not see as such. I would recommend this book as it is a great read for anyone who has a passion for a novel about young people who learn to find their way in this world and overcome hardships presented along the way.
Sophie has lived with her Aunt, Tante Atie, since she was born, and the book starts when she is twelve years old. She loves Tante Atie very much and thinks of her as her mother, which is why she makes her a mother’s day card at the beginning of the book and presents it to her, but she’s crushed when Tante Atie doesn’t accept it because as she says, “Sophie, it is not mine. It is your mother’s. We must send it to your mother.” This confuses Sophie because she does not consider her actual mother her mother because Tante Atie raised her. This is why it came as more of a shock when Tante Atie told her she is going to America to live with her mother.
First meeting Martine, Sophie was understandably quiet, saying very little to her. She eventually opens up and they begin to live a life together and it’s around this time that Sophie learns of her mother’s night terrors first hand. Around this time she also meets her mother’s love interest, Marc and this brings up the conversation of love and marrying and “testing”. This was what Martine and her mother and her mother before her referred it to, a horrible way to see if her and her sister were virgins. Then came the reasons for her mother’s horrible nightmares and an end to the testing, which is also how Sophie was conceived: Martine was raped for by a mystery man in a field in Haiti when she was a young girl. Sophie learned to hate the testing at an early age and decides to hurt herself in a way that will cause her to fail the testing which enrages her mother and causes her to get thrown out and into the arms of her lover, Joseph. Many years later, Sophie has a child and runs off to Haiti for a few days to see her grandmother and aunt, Tante Atie. This worries both her husband and her mother who eventually comes for her and brings her home. After Sophie’s return, Martine opens up about being pregnant suddenly to Sophie, which throws her back as she was so opposed to sexual activity with anyone after being raped for so many years. This baby though drove Martine to insanity, bringing her to take her own life one night. Sophie and Marc (resented by Sophie) sent Martine back to Haiti for a funeral with her family and to be buried there like she always wanted.
This book taught me a lot from lessons as explicit never giving up on your dreams on succeeding your goals, to morals as blunt as spend the time you can with your family and loved ones because they won’t always be around for you. These are some of the things I liked about the book, it was a story that you couldn’t put down but at the same time it taught you about family and overcoming hardships in a new world. On the other hand I didn’t like the ending. I get not all books can have happy endings but this was just morbid and ruthless. Killing off Martine by death of mass self-mutilation because she heard voices from her unborn baby. That just did not sit right with me at all and I would have much rather it ended more peacefully instead of leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Other than that I would recommend this book to just about anyone, especially people with families or families in other countries who aspire to come to America and live a new life.

I enjoyed the first part of the book. The author's depiction of Sophie and her life in Haiti brought brought everything to life. I got to know her, Tante Atie, Grandma Ife, Sophie's mother, Martine and the colorful Haitian culture. I admired the way Danticat accomplished this without the customary description of height, weight and eye color. It broke my heart when Sophie, then 12 years old, left her beloved Aunt for New York and came to live with her mother in a rundown apartment. The second part of the book dealt with the grown up Sophie. We were never told of any problems between Sophie and her mother throughout the adolescent years. It seemed they lived agreeably with each other during those years which I found quite extraordinary considering MY teenage years. The rift started when Sophie's mother began "testing" her. I cannot imagine going through that horrific experience on a regular basis! Later on, we find Sophie married to the only man she has ever known and has a 6 month old daughter. She developed bulimia and is also sexually dysfunctional. We were also informed that her mother had breast cancer. This is the part where everything got thrown in the mix. What was wrong with Atie? (Drinking problem, maybe?) She was much changed from the very wise woman of part one. The ending was sad but I hope Sophie found her peace. Ms. Danticat is a very good weaver of tales. I look forward to her next one.

Breath, Eyes, Memory. Edwidge Danticat. New York: SoHo Press, 1994.

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat is a story following the life of a girl named Sophie, who was born in Haiti and lived with her Aunt Atie there for the first 12 years of her life. The book follows Sophie and her journey as she moves to New York where she reunites with her mother, meets a man, and goes through many struggles in order to find herself. This book showed a great deal in the way that Sophie not only has to deal with the struggles of immigration and adjusting to a new home, but also how her mother’s past and current life has a huge role on the way she is treated and viewed. There are many real life issues presented in the story and I would really recommend reading it for a strong a powerful piece of writing.
The book begins when Sophie is 12 years old, where she lives in a small village in Haiti with her illiterate Aunt Atie, who is taking care of her while her mother is attempting to start a better life for them in New York, and eventually sends Sophie a plane ticket. In preparation for the trip Atie works extra hours to send Sophie off with a beautiful dress. On the plane, Sophie sits next to a boy who is moving to New York after his father died and that is where all the family he has left is.
Upon arriving in New York, Sophie is greeted by her mother, Martine, and brought to a very poor neighborhood where they live, where Martine explains to Sophie that the only way to have a chance is through academic success. The next day Sophie is taken out with her mother by her mother’s boyfriend, Marc, and sees a separation: she is her mother’s past life, and Marc is her mother’s future. Eventually Sophie meets a boy Joseph who she begins to hang out with and really like, and he proposes to her. They elope in Rhode Island.
2 years later, Sophie takes a trip to Haiti where she eventually reconciles with her mother. When going back home, Martine tells Sophie that she has become pregnant with Marc’s baby, and the nightmares are becoming worse, to the point she is hearing the rapist’s voice in her baby. With the pressure becoming too much, she plans to abort the baby by stabbing her stomach, and ends up committing suicide. After this, Sophie begins to take classes to deal with her own nightmares, which had evolved from the testing her mother used to perform. At her mother’s funeral, Sophie finally becomes free after running through the fields where she always had nightmares of being chased.
In the story I very much liked the writing style and symbolism that the author used. He made sure to make great use of color such as the red of Martine’s blood, or the cloud of red dust that followed the taxi as Sophie was leaving for the airport to visit her mother for the first time. This symbolism and the use of colors allowed for somewhat imagination in the reader, which I really enjoyed. Red is generally a color used to portray death or violence, and in this case it could be seen that way, but it could also be seen as the start or beginning of something new caused by the ending of something else. Second, I really liked the language that the author used in the book as it was not to intricate and made the book easy to understand and enjoyable to read, making it even more of a page turner than it already was. The only negative thing that I would have to say about this book, is although it was a page-turner, at times it was almost too much. With all of the struggles that the characters were going through all at once or in a short period of time, it made it feel over-done and like it was never going to end up okay. Through the novel, I learned a lot about the different cultures, and also was given another insight into the immigrant experience, and experience that I know little to none about, especially not first-hand.
I would definitely recommend this book to any readers that are looking for something to draw them in, and something that they will not put down until they are finished reading it. This book packs a punch by showing the author tons of different symbols and ideas to follow, allowing the author to become a part of the character and live through the struggles that they are facing, and seeing how each character comes out on the other side. This book is a definite need-to-read!

I read Breath, Eyes, Memory when it first came out. The book is rich with female experience and generational interconnectedness. At the time I read the book, I was taking a graduate literature course. Because Danticat's text was so engaging, I persuaded my professor to let me include Breath, Eyes, Memory in the paper I was writing for his class. I really wanted to be one of the first to write about this author because I knew she was going to be an important writer, both for her emphasis on women's issues and for her treatment of multicultural concerns. To be so young, Danticat has wonderful insights. I have also read Krik Krak and stand firm on my belief that Edwidge Danticat is going to be one of the most important emerging writers of the 21st Century.

Breath, Eyes, Memory is a book by Edwidge Danticat that tells the story of a girl named Sophie, who was born in Haiti. Sophie lives with her aunt since her mother is absent. Sophie then decides to head to New York, where her mother resides, where she encounters many problems with her mother and her culture. Sophie’s mother, Martine, had a rough life and in return she treats Sophie harshly. Sophie must not only struggle to adjust to a new country and culture but she also struggles to keep culture alive through the way her mother practices it. This book is not only well written but it also opens the reader up to immigration and cultural issues one does not normally think about.

One of the main themes in this book was the language of inheritance. Inheritance can be manifested physically and Martine believed that Sophie’s face was a manifestation of her rapist. Another way inheritance can be manifested is through the mind. Sophie seems to have inherited her psychological burdens since Martine has only left her with phobias and fears because of the testing. Testing has caused Sophie to become ashamed of her body and has kept her from having a satisfactory sex life with Joseph. Another important thing to point out is the symbolism of the color red throughout the book. The color red could be seen as the representation of the struggles and burdens both Sophie and Martine had to face because of past incidents.

I highly recommend this book. Aside from being very well written it really helps the reader visualize everything with great detail. It is as though you can build a personal connection with the characters and feel their pain. This is a book opens the reader up to issues that are often not addressed. Very good read!

While the first part of this novel appeared to hold great promise, I admit to being disappointed overall. Although I know I was supposed to feel great empathy for the main characters, I never got there. Much of the character development was woefully lacking, and the vast jumps in time (practically just pages between the childhood and adulthood of Sophie for example), did not make getting to know these people any easier. This novel needed to be considerably longer, with much more detail as to the motivations for the characters actions. The ending felt hurried to me; a plethora of social ills dumped again into a few short pages. All this said, I believe the author does possess talent and as I understand this is her first novel perhaps that skill will emerge more clearly as she matures as a writer.

Breath, Eyes, Memory, is told through the eyes of Sophie. Sophie is a young girl growing up in Haiti, by her aunt, not knowing why her mom left and went to the US. Suddenly her mom sends for her to come to New York where she is staying, so Sophie leaves everything she know to go stay with a mother she never knew. Sophie find's out the horrible act that sent her mother from her homeland. All the women in Sophie's family have to go through a check by their mom every night to make sure they are still virgins, which Sophie hates. Sophie ends up marrying a much older guy, to her mother's disapointment. I throught this book had strong family values, but it also was very sad with what the women went through. You don't want to miss this one, it is the best in my opinion that Oprah has picked.

Edwidge Danticat tried to discuss too many issues in the book: rape, violence, cancer, abortion, sexuality (or lack of), child abuse, so on and so forth. I felt that some of the chapters were totally irrelevant to the story. For example, when Sophie went back to Haiti, she thought that her daughter was coming down with a fever but the thermometer was broken and she couldn't check her temperature...and that was the end of it! The characters were way too complicated, and for the most part they were dealing with too many emotions.
There was a great effort put into the book, but I think it could have been better had the author covered less issues. There were also some grammatical errors, but they did not disturb me too much.

Breath, Eyes, Memory is the story of the suffering of three women bound by family ties. It was strongly emotional with some heavy themes. The repercussions of rape, the cultural value of virginity and how mothers routinely sexually abuse their daughters in order to preserve their honor were all covered in great detail. The descriptions of Haitian culture both in Haiti and in the United States were fascinating.

The book flowed well and held my interest much more than I expected. The ending was filled with sadness and quite unexpected. Breath, Eyes, Memory was not my usual fare, but it was very good and more than a little eye-opening.

While the imagery of Haiti and its topography are very vivid and stimulating, Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory was not one of the best picks for Oprah's Book Club and was certainly not a best pick for me. This book left me feeling as if Danticat lost control of the story in the middle of the book. Her exploration of the trauma that "testing" for female purity and chastity was nowhere near as powerful as I believe she meant it to be. As an African American woman raised in the 70s and 80s, I cannot imagine how traumatic a situation like that could have been, but Danticat doesn't give you anything to go on either. It is shallow in its attempt to unearth the real scarring and suffering that accompanies this type of personal violation. As far as the relationships between the women in the story go, for them to be kin, I found their lack of connection disturbing. With the exception of the severed ties between Sophie and her mother, the lack of connection between Tante Atie and the grandmother is almost too much to be believed. I understand that the lack of trust in one's word regarding chastity and virtue contributes to the chasm, but the utter disregard for their familial ties is too overdone (loyalty to one's kin out of duty). As I stated in my title, Breath, Eyes, Memory is truly "Gasping, Blind, and Forgetable".

This tranquil novel has a delicacy and peacefulness in its tone and expression, yet underneath the simple sentences and serene language, is a tormented, turbulent novel.
Set in Haiti, New York City, and Providence, Rhode Island, the female protagonist, Sophie, lives in perpetual sexual paranoia and is tormented by ancient ghosts of sexual intimidation. Quiet Sophie, gentle Sophie, she watches her mother, her aunt, her grandmother struggle as females in a patriachal society. She decides to torture her own body as a means of liberation, but does this really free her?
For Feminist Literature, this sensible tale has a distinct tone of serious, dangerous struggle for survival, in spite of the loses. She will carry on the human chain, but there will be loses.

When learning about a culture, especially through literature, one rarely gets the opportunity to experience a true inside perspective on its more gritty details. Certain aspects are often glorified while others fall under the radar. What remains is a stereotyped shadow of the true culture; a thin, watery solution filtered through a biased sieve. "Breath, Eyes, Memory" deviates from this common problem, delivering a powerful, moving story through the eyes of a young girl. It successfully delivers a multitude of messages while also painting a picture of Haitian culture through the unique perspective of one who sees it through a native lens. The result: the reader absorbs the story's lessons and walks away with an understanding of the underbelly of Haitian culture; the horror as well as the beauty.

Our story opens with a young Sophie Caco coming home from school to the aunt she lives with, Tante Atie, only to discover that her absent mother has mailed her a plane ticket and she is to be sent from her native Haiti to New York to live with her mother. Sophie, distressed by the fact that she's to be sent to a strange country to live with a woman she's never even met, is further upset when her departure is complicated by a violent riot. The world she arrives in, a poor district of New York, seems drastically different to the reader than the community in Croix-des-Rosets, Haiti, we just left. Upon finally meeting her mother, Sophie notes that seems to be a shadow of her former self; the woman who only existed, smiling, in photographs. What hope and ambition existed for a new and happy life full of education and success starts to crumble at the edges when Martine introduces Sophie to the traditional Haitian mother-to-daughter concept of "testing" by describing the way her own mother tested her until she was raped. This rapist is revealed to be Sophie's biological father. Here, the author inserted a large time jump, and the reader misses most of Sophie's pre-college education in America. What we do not miss, however, is how close Sophie has become to Joseph, her older neighbor. When she comes home late the night after he proposes to her, Martine suspects foul play and immediately subjects her to testing, the very same act she, herself described as being terrible. After weeks of testing, Sophie is unable to cope and, in a fit of despair and desperation, she forcefully breaks her own hymen on a spice grinder and is consequently thrown out of the house. After another time jump, the reader finds Sophie returning to Haiti with a daughter, Brigitte. Upon reuniting with her family and friends, she finds them to be in a worse state than when she left them, particularly Atie. Sophie is battling demons of her own, however, as she struggles to come to terms with her own self-loathing and inability to have a normal sexual relationship with Joseph. This return trip is complicated when Martine shows up after being summoned by Sophie grandmother in hopes that they will make amends after not speaking for two years. They do, although once Sophie and Martine return home, it is revealed that she's pregnant with the child of Marc, her lawyer lover. Unable to cope with her inner demons, Martine confesses that she's been having increasingly worse nightmares of her rape and has even heard her baby speaking to her in the voice of her rapist. She ultimately decides to abort the child by stabbing herself in the stomach, and dies. Because she was a native Haitian, her funeral is to be held in Haiti. Sophie travels there with Marc, and we, the reader, watch an extremely powerful scene in which Sophie runs wildly into the sugarcane fields driven near-mad by the sight of her mother being buried and beats a cane stalk, slowly coming to terms with the fact that she has been freed form the vicious cycle of sexual violence perpetuated by Haitian female culture.

It's difficult to put into words everything there is to be learned from the book. The most obvious example is the various aspects of Haitian culture, especially the practice of testing. I've seen in other cultures how important virginity is to women. It represents a certain divine level of purity highly desired by women and the men who lust after them. What I have never experienced, however, is a culture who obsesses over this concept enough to have invented a form a sexual abuse to ensure chastity and then made this abuse traditional and seemingly normal. Mothers abuse their daughters who then, in turn, abuse their own daughters. It's no individual's fault, but it's a stark example of the cycles of violence that exist in this and every culture. It also shows us a side of Haiti that few aside from native ever see. Another thing I learned was how the scars of sexual abuse can seriously affect an individual later in life. In the weeks in which Sophie was tested by Martine, she was so traumatized that she was unable to have sex with Joseph without mentally distancing herself. She eventually began to heal through therapy, but only through the death of her mother did she truly and definitively, feel as if she had been "freed" of this burden. One thing I loved about this book was the author's use of a clear-cut, no-nonsense style of writing to speak very directly to the reader about what was happening. It helped me to step into Sophie's perspective because it read much like one's inner monologue. I also noticed her use of time jumps paralleled the Haitian concept of "doubling", although I wish I could have experienced a little of Sophie early schooling years in New York. One thing I didn't like about this novel was its extremely graphic descriptions of certain violent events. I know they're necessary for driving the point (no pun intended) home and that the novel needed them, but it certainly made me uncomfortable as a reader. In reflection, though, that's really the purpose of such scenes; to take the reader out of their comfort zone. So Danticant actually succeeded in her purpose by making me dislike those scenes. Another thing I disliked was something I previously mentioned as liking; the short, simple narrative style. In the above circumstances, it works, but in extremely emotional scenes, it hinders the reader's understanding. One specific example is the final scene in the cane field. A scene that could have been drawn out for a few pages to really explain Sophie's train of thought was crushed into a few paragraphs. In some instances, we can understand Sophie perfectly. In others, we're left guessing. Perhaps this is Danticant's will, as is Sophie herself doesn't quite understand her own emotions.

I second Oprah Winfrey in highly recommending this book to anyone who wishes to not only see a commonly overlooked culture through a native's eyes but also see how sexual violence can impact the lives of the people who experience it, and how a cycle of violence can be extremely difficult to break. Readers be warned, however, this is a book that will require a decent amount of introspection after reading. You may not look at your culture, or yourself, the same way.

During an Immigration Literature class I was talking for school, I was assigned the novel Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat, the author of Krik? Krak! Knowing next to nothing about the book, other than that Boston Globe referred to it as "vibrant, magic... wraps readers into the haunting life of a young Haitian girl," I was rather intrigued at first glance.

The premise of the book revolves around Sophie Caco, a Haitian girl who moves to America when she is twelve to live with her mother, a woman who fled Haiti when Sophie was born. While it does document her early life in Haiti, it primarily deals with her young adult life in America, and the relationship she has with her mother, aunt and grandmother as well as a trip she takes back to Haiti once she is a mother of her own.

The story goes as follows. Sophie, who lives with her Aunt in Haiti, is summoned by her mother to move to America to be with her. Destined to have a better life then the one Haiti can provide for her, she arrived in New York to live with a mom she doesn't know. The book bypasses her teen years until she is about to go college when she falls in love with her neighbor, Joseph, an older musician. It documents their romance and then jumps ahead to their life together. In an attempt to not spoil everything this book has an offer, the end of the book deals closely with the relationship between Sophie and her mom as well as the same struggles they have both faced (although not entirely together.) The entire book focuses on Sophie's battle with how her past is constantly defining her present/future, regardless of whether she wants it to or not. Shrouded by depressing and self-mutilating acts, it's hard to feel anything but pain for Sophie, but you cannot help but rooting a joyous and peaceful life down the road.

While this book definitely doesn't qualify for the feel-good book of the year, it does leave the reader incredibly humbled and probably better off. While highlighting the struggles Sophie and her family have faced, it reminds the reader to be thankful of what they have everyday. Although the internal battle Sophie's mom was waging everyday was beyond depressing to read about, the book did a night job on shedding light on a issue that sometimes falls by the wayside. The high value placed on family was a nice motif that really held the book together, and probably my favorite part.
While I wouldn't recommend this book to younger children, I do believe that this is a good book for older teens and adults. The issues this book deals with, both emotionally and physically, paint a vivid picture that may not be suitable for a younger audience and require a sense of maturity to fully understand. I wouldn't refer to this as immigration literature as I would as a well-written coming of age story about a girl who just happened to move to America. While her family ideals may be rooted in her heritage, it essentially just paints the picture of any girl whose ancestral traditions ( and whether they should have ever been implemented in the first place, which is a completely different issue) don't coincide with a modern day society.

The most important thing about the true identity of a great writer is to read what isn't often said about them. To be able to trace the identity of a person through hir/her work is an ability one most have in reading. I have been able to connect and relate to Danticat through her memorable breath taken Story. who is to say only those who've been there can explain how it was like. A suffering soul never reveals his/her pains. As the pain continue to grow, it expands the mind to more possible cure. Being able to bring an UGLY past to life is not the idea behind a writer's mind. But the best way to learn and understand why somethings happen is by making people aware of their existence. It's good to remember a tragic past. But how you remember it and explain it makes all the difference. One thing I could not understand is that, reading something like that makes you think about the way people were back then. They didn't have a voice, but they had guidelines that should have served her well. Needless to say, Sophie's story is very touchy, but yet questionable. Her life story will effect the rest of her life, but still, this is an option. There is very little we can do when we are young, why carry the burden if we are unable to repair the wound? I applaud the writer, but such a story needs more life into it. It's a combination of self experience, drama, and tales, which puzzles everyone who have not lived it or aware of this type of life. This Story can bring a lot of criticisms towards Haitian women, Which Im sure Edwidge predicted. Phychologicaly speaking, no one knows how to get over a bad situation and move on. We can pretend it didn't happen ,we can ignore that it ever happened, or we couldn't care less, but to know that you will be reminded of it one way or another is a scare that can never be disguised.

I truly enjoyed the first third of this book. Edwidge Danticat is a talented writer whose lyrical prose effectively transports the reader into the rhythms Haitian life. The imagery is powerful and can be profoundly moving. Unfortunately, I found that this promising start was irrevocably marred by the overblown ending. Issues that Danticat addresses in the last half of the book include rape, sexual abuse, bulimia, abortion and breast cancer. Any one or even two of these issues would have given the story the dramatic punch the author was looking for. Two very marginal characters - one with genital mutilation and one with a history of incest - read like they were added to the story just to cover all the bases of female degredation. There are so many ingredients in this stew of suffering that the reader is unable feel completely sympathetic to the victim of any one. My predominant response to this book was disappointment that it didn't live up to its promising beginning.

While I felt that the plot was pretty decent, the characters were not fully developed. We never learned the true motivations for Tante Atie. Nor did we get a true look into the Mother's nightmares. I think character development is a problem because we are looking at the story from the main character's point of view. However, I believe that Arthur Golden did a much better job with "Memoirs of a Geisha". With "Memoirs" Golden's character showed tremendous insight, while with "Breath, Eyes, Memory" we are just getting a very distant view of the characters.

If a Martian arrived on Earth and read this novel right away, it would deduce that women are tormented beings, while men walk around perfectly content. This may be a simplistic summary of the novel, but tell me i'm wrong! What starts with some rather beautiful depictions of life in Haiti ends up being a collection of tortured life accounts. The common thread is that all the tortured characters are women. In the eyes of the author, this suffering saga started generations before, and it is being perpetuated along with every new woman that is born. The ones that are abused keep abusing, and do not know the way to escape that vicious circle. Grandma Ifé was just the recipient of years of superstition and servitude, Aunt Tatie a spinster with a collection of unrequited love stories, Martine the abused/abuser and ghost fighter, Sophie the inadequate daughter and frigid wife... What about the men? They are too cool and composed, too perfect, too understanding (especially Joseph, Sophie's husband). This book moves fast, years go by in a matter of three pages, and the pace is never slow. However, it is depressing, there is no resolution to any conflict, no redemption of any kind. The best parts are the vivid descriptions of Haiti, in all its poverty and grace.

All women have coming of age stories that must be told. This is true whether we continue the cultural practice of oral storytelling ,or we pass our lives on to future generations in print. For the next generation to understand themselves, they must know something of the women who walked and rocked before them. With pure poetry we are enchanted by Danticat's tale of childless mothers and motherless children. Sophie's distance from herself and her mother is bigger than the bodies of water that separate them."As a child, the mother I had imagined for myself was like Erzulie,the lavish Virgin Mother. She was the healer of all women and the desire of all men.She had gorgeous dresses in satin,silk,and lace,necklaces,pendants,earrings,bracelets,anklets,and lots of French perfume.She never had to work for anything because the rainbow and the stars did her work for her.Even though she was far away,she was always with me.I could always count on her,like one counts on the s! ! un coming out at dawn."We are stricken by Tante Atie's two time loss-Monsieur Augustin and then Sophie. We wish for better outcomes for all parties involved but, this is not that kind of fairy tale.

I liked the strong connection of these women in the story--Sophie, her mother, her Aunte Atie, and her grandmother. It is amazing for 4 women in one family to have so much in common and yet be such different people. The customs, traditions and folklore of this Haitian family were so primary as to almost be characters in the story themselves.
I found this book to be so charming and eloquent as to distract me from its flaws. My only major disappointment is that there couldn't have been a more positive way for Sophie and her mother to escape the ghosts of their pasts.

Thank you for weaving together the story of generations. I knew what was going to happen and couldn't tear myself away. Anyone who struggles with a mother, sister, daughter, she should read this book. There is nothing that could be changed to make it better, nothing that takes one out of this story that flows so deeply through time.

Danticat's novel on loss, memory and the kinship between women, is missing the thread connecting the reader to the page. I would have rated the book as a two star read, but, she does have a strength in her writing: there's an ability there to carry the reader along that I think might come out better in a more cohesive piece. A story mainly about displacement and pain, Danticat loses out by not establishing a richness in her characters. The book is filled with traumatic, painful moments, but it was difficult to churn up any feeling because I felt like I didn't really know the character's, nor did I care much about them.

"Reading this novel really made me think and expand my mind to the outer limits of the world. It made me think about other cultures and how good I really have it. The only reason I stared reading this novel was because my mother gave it to me to read because for my english class I needed to a ISU. Im so glad she gave it to me I couldn't put it down, Im going to make sure that everyone in my english class knows that it's a outstanding novel. And that I can't wait to get my hands on another one on Edwidge Danticat's books."