Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Danticat, Edwidge (Vol. 94) - Mary Mackay (review date Fall 1994)

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Mary Mackay (review date Fall 1994)

SOURCE: "Living, Seeing, Remembering," in Belles Lettres: A Review of Books by Women, Vol. 10, No. 1, Fall, 1994, pp. 36, 38.

[In the following positive review of Breath, Eyes, Memory, Mackay praises Danticat for her "extraordinary optimism," "vivid characterization," and "allusive language."]

Edwidge Danticat dedicates her powerful first novel [Breath, Eyes, Memory] to "The brave women of Haiti … on this shore and other shores. We have stumbled but we will not fall." Such optimism is extraordinary, given the everyday adversity faced by the women whose stories are interwoven with that of Sophie, the narrator.

Grandmother Ifé, mother Martine, aunt Atie, and daughter Sophie (and later Sophie's daughter, Brigitte) are rooted as firmly in their native Haitian soil as they are bound to one another, despite the ocean, experiences, and years that separate them. The ties to Haiti, the...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Mary Mackay (review date Fall 1994)
   2. Garry Pierre-Pierre (essay date 26 January 1995)
   3. Richard Eder (review date 30 March 1995)
   4. Joanne Omang (review date 14 May 1995)
   5. Paul Moses (essay date 21 May 1995)
   6. Kimberly Hébert (review date June 1995)
   7. Jordana Hart (review date 19 July 1995)
   8. Edwidge Danticat with Renée H. Shea (interview date Summer 1995)
4. Copyright

1. Edwidge Danticat