Review
Edwidge Danticat dedicated her
breakout novel,
Breath, Eyes, Memory, to "the brave women
of Haiti," whom she honored by transforming her own
childhood, in which she was raised by her aunt while
her parents made a new life in New York, into a
haunting novel that ranges from the supernatural to
the political.
Brother, I'm Dying takes that
same raw material, the childhood of a girl separated
from her parents for eight years, and does something
very different. This is a memoir, deeply scored with
harsh facts, and it is about the beloved men in her
life.
On the same day that she learns she is pregnant,
Danticat learns that her father, Mira, is dying of
pulmonary fibrosis. He lives long enough to hold her...
Beyond the Book
A Short History of Haiti
The Republic of Haiti occupies
about one-third of the island of
Hispaniola (the second largest
island in the Carribean;
map); the remainder being
the Dominican Republic (Hayti
means
mountainous land in
the native Arawak* language).
In 1697, the French colonized
the island and imported African
slaves to work the lush coffee
and sugar plantations. As in
other colonial environments, the
two-tiered society of elite
whites and subordinated blacks
fostered unsustainable tension....
