Dec 26, 2009

Breath, Eyes, Memory | Social Concerns

Oprah Winfrey's selection of Edwidge Danticat's first novel to her Book Club in May of 1998 attests to the young, Haitian born author's interest in both the burdens and the joys of womanhood. Like Beloved, one of Oprah's first Book Club selections, Breath, Eyes, Memory's primary social concern is the complexity of relationships between mothers and daughters. Danticat tells a story of four women: Sophie Caco, the narrator; Martine, her mother; Atie, the aunt who raises Sophie to the age of twelve; and Ife, Sophie's grandmother. Though Sophie leaves Haiti to join her mother...