Breath, Eyes, Memory
by Edwidge Danticat

In this is a powerful and compelling novel, Danticat captures her readers with her emotional story of a young Haitian woman's struggle in life. Her writing style brings the story to life. Danticat delivers a believable, fully developed story with characters the reader can empathize and perhaps identify with.

The story in Breath, Eyes, Memory, unfolds when young Sophie discovers that she is about to leave the only home she has ever known in rural Haiti to live with her mother in New York City. The early chapters are set in Haiti, and reveal the beauty of the countryside and the simplicity of the lifestyle. The novel also subtly evokes the tender, and painful relationship between the mother and the daughter both of whom are separated by a huge body of water.

Danticat uses these early chapters to limn a vibrant portrait of life in Haiti from cups of ginger tea and baskets of cassava bread served at community potluck to folk tales of a "people in Guinea who carry the sky on their heads." Danticats succeed in contrasting the life in a Haitian rural area to the life in New York City. She makes this comparison through her physical descriptions of both places. Above all she paints a beautiful picture of a good relationship young Sophie has with Tante Atie in Haiti compared to a relationship that she develops with her mother in New York, whom she barely knows. Not only is Sophie's transition to New York challenging, but her life becomes difficults when she discovers that she was conceived when her mother was raped as a teenager in Haiti.

Breath, Eyes, Memory tells a story almost "out of breath" covering a broad and singular landscape of a girl's painful journey from Haitian girlhood to womanhood in New York City. The growth of the character, Sophie in the novel travels along with the voice, and at the end, the reader and the character connect. They both become stronger and resilient to all the hardships that occur in the story. The journey Sophie takes is a bumpy one, with ups and downs, changes and turnarounds, and experiences that affect the rest of her life. She learns that life is can be cruel, rough and mean, but she takes what she has and moves on. As she makes strides, she never forgets her roots, and their legacy. She always carries the past with her.

Breath, Eyes, Memory is a very interesting and well written book. It provides a perspective on life that may be unfamiliar to individuals raised in privileged societies. Today, several people feel the need to live their lives as unique individuals, but the novel reveals that the bond between a mother and daughter is a strong and universal bond if nurtured. The intensity of this bond in the novel is seen through the nightmares and hopes that the mother and daughter share.

Reviewed by Velile Notshulwana
June 2000