short story collection is fabulous! I love the writing, and even though this is a short story collection, I felt like I really got to know the characters well enough nothing felt too short or too openended.
You can really tell how great a writer is based on how they write a short story, and Edwidge Danticat definitely can write!
My favourite two stories in this collection are Sunrise, Sunset about a woman dealing Alzheimers and not accepting it, and the final story, Without Inspection a mans life flashing before his eyes as he falls to his death.
These two stories really resonated with me, and I just connected to them on such a personal level, I just had all the feelings when reading these two especially.
A major theme in each story I noticed yes I actually noticed something! was death, either literal or figuratively, But its not as depressing as that might sound, Sure, its sad, but its much more than that, I dont really know how to explain it,
If youve read this far in my review, I guess I dont need to tell you that this is a great book, and a mustread Reeses book club picks are either major misses or major hits for me, and this one is a HUGE hit! I pick up an Edwidge Danticat book to dive deeply into quiet, painful emotions endured bravely and this latest collection delivers on that expectation marvelously.
Loss and reconciliation haunt every page, and while not as gutwrenching as, say, her memoir Brother, I'm Dying, the eight stories presented here all leave you wounded in the best possible way.
Danticat's true genius is in the way she hold back information without it feeling like a gimmick, This technique is at its best in what is perhaps my favorite story in the whole collection, "The Gift," which recounts the tale of two former lovers reuniting in the wake of the tragic Haitian earthquake.
I won't spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that the stakes shift dramatically throughout, The rest of the stories do a version of this as well, We meet ghosts and travel to unnamed islands seeped in personal and national tragedy parents and children do their timeless dance of support and neglect death plays a large role.
In each instance, the core of the experience is buried, only to be elegantly unfolded after Danticat has acclimated the reader to the quotidian circumstances present in each story.
It's in this way that with Everything Inside Danticat seems to be arguing that the most important moments aren't the marquee onesthe ones that we'll recount for years to come.
Real life happens around those moments, and it's these quieter moments that weand the characters throughout this collectionhave to learn to inhabit and endure.
Still, some of the stories seemed to keep their distance, which made it difficult for me to fully connect, At times, I wanted to see a little more vulnerability from the various protagonists and a little less stoicism in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
A lot of these stories occupy the space of a recent tragedy, and that's always going to be a tough spot to write about.
I'd liked to revisit these characters a few years down the line to see what they've learned in
the interim and how they've changed.
Overall, though, I greatly enjoyed this collection and can't wait to recommend it to all my friends,
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on sitelinkGoodreads for more reviews! Stellar, This is exactly what I'm looking for in a collection of short stories, Poignant, compelling, sliceoflife stories woven around similar themes/motifs without being repetitive,
If I were to distill this collection down to one idea it would be 'longing, ' The yearning for something elsewhether that's a lost loved one's impossible return or a new homeland, Through this Danticat brings together stories of deceptions, misunderstandings, severed ties, and the human capacity to persist in the face of loss,
My favorite stories were "In the Old Days," "The Gift," "HotAir Balloons," and "Sunrise, Sunset" but truly ALL of these stories are great examples of what a short story can do: put you inside of another character's experience for a brief moment to see the world in a new way.
They have enough resolution in the end to make a satisfying read without tying up everything nicely that you have nothing to ponder,
This is a masterwork in crafting not just great short stories but a cohesive collection where the stories build on one another in a satisfying way while avoiding redundancy.
Can't recommend enough! I just adore Danticat and her writing, She zeroes in on those torn between Haiti and their homes in the US, Families and death, scars inside or out, living with what they've seen in the past or experienced in the present when visiting Haiti, Things that have changed their lives, in big or small ways, Emotions they carry inside themselves,
Eight stories and I loved them all, Some were more intense than others, but many seem to hinge on a decision that they either make on the spot or have made in the past.
The author has such an insight into families and of course into Haiti, its current political climate and its past, Her stories are always interesting and give one a glimpse into a cou try that many don't know about,
ARC from Edelweiss, Danticat is one of those writers the establishment doesnt seem to know how to place, Apparently a lot of Haitians dont see her as a Haitian writer because she writes in English and not in French or Creole, and in the American scene shes often seen, even if not directly labeled, as an immigrant writer.
When will we stop choosing this OR that and start saying this AND that Shes an American writer and an immigrant writer and a Haitian writer.
Shes a multihyphenate queen. And it all serves to make her work that much more interesting and distinctive, I loved this collection, and every story in it was strong, its own complete thing, though they speak to each other, Theyre made in that crafted, artful way that makes the short story such an exciting and aesthetically satisfying form to me, I enjoyed the architecture of these stories, And I loved Danticats clean, lucid prose style, the strength of her sentences, They tell about love in its varying guises, friendship, home, identity, how much we dont know but try, and the ways people struggle in close proximity while being worlds apart.
Its intimate and compassionate in an unambiguous no nonsense way, There is plenty of sentiment, these are stories to be felt and pierced by, but its not sentimental or romantic, Theyre sad but theyre more than that, They have more breadth than that, Ill definitely read Danticat again, sitelink blog sitelink tumblr sitelinkkofi
½ rounded up because I listened to the audiobook which is brilliantly narrated by Robin Miles
“The difference between her and them was as stark as the gulf between those whod escaped a catastrophe unscathed and others whod been forever mutilated by it.
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This was such a wonderful and poignant collection of short stories,
In a interview on sitelinkLitHub Edwige Danticat said that one of the reasons why she loves the short story form is that it allows her “to magnify smaller moments and to linger on these small epiphanies in the smaller interactions that mean so much”, and indeed each one of her stories seems to prolong a particular moment in her characters' lives.
Given the brevity of her stories Danticat doesn't wast any words, And yet, while her writing could be described as both economic and simple, her prose also demonstrated a richness of expression that resonated with the feelings and scenarios experienced by her characters.
Through the wide range of her narratives Danticat examines similar themes in very different ways, Within her stories Danticat navigates the way in which bonds are tested, broken, or strengthened in times of crisis, Most of Danticat's narratives are concerned in particular with the diasporic experiences of Haitians in America, and she emphasises the feelings of longing, loneliness, and displacement experienced by those who are forced to adapt to a new country and a different culture with poignancy and clarity.
They are never reduced to the status of 'outsider', and while their shared heritage does mean that they may have had similar experiences, each one of them has a distinctive voice and a particular relationships with the countries they currently inhabit.
With seeming ease Danticat imbues her characters with their own history and personalities, so that within a few pages we would feel as if we'd know them personally, so much so that to define them as characters seems almost an injustice.
Within these narratives the ordinary moments that make up everyday life can carry both enlightening and tragic overtones, These stories centre on the characters' anxieties, hopes, and fears they may harbour for themselves or their loved ones,
In “Dosas” Elsie, a nurses assistant, is betrayed by her husband and her own best friend, Months later her now exhusband calls her and begs her to help pay the ransom for his kidnapped girlfriend, who happens to be Elsie's former friend.
His increasingly desperate calls threaten to disrupt the course of her life,
In “The PortauPrince Marriage Special” a woman who has returned to Haiti to run a hotel with her husband is confronted with her own privilege when her young nanny is diagnosed with AIDS the woman has to reconcile herself with her own misjudgement regarding her nanny's mother and with her preference for a white doctor over a local one.
In “HotAir Balloons” we observe the bond between two young women, one of which has started to work for Leve a women's organisation in which she witnesses the most brutal aspects of humanity.
Still, even when we are presented with these stark accounts of abuse or suffering the story maintains a sense of hope in the genuine relationship between these two women.
Another story that examines the bond between two women is “Seven Stories”, After publishing a short story a writer is contacted by her childhood friend Callie, the daughter of the prime minister of an unnamed island.
After her father's assassination Callie was forced to flee from the island and years later our narrator is invited by her friend who has by now married the islands new prime minister.
“I didnt have to think too much about this, I already knew. I am the girlthe womanwho is always going to be looking for stability, a safe harbor, I am never going to forget that I can easily lose everything I have, including my life, in one instant, But this is not what I told her, I told her that I was going to be the kind of friend she could always count on, ”
The characters in Danticat's stories are often confronted with impossible choices, Within their realities they are forced to contend against betrayal, illnesses, the devastating earthquake of, medical malpractice, kidnappings, and the risks that come with being 'undocumented'.
They are made vulnerable by their status or haunted by the knowledge that the world can be a terrible place, Still, while there were many moments of unease, the stories always maintain a vibrancy that made them hard to put down, Her characters demonstrated empathy, love, and compassion so that her stories never felt bleak or hopeless,
I can't recommend this collection enough, These stories were both upsetting and moving, and within each narrative we follow how a certain 'change' forces each character to reassess their own existence.
The crisis they experience are depicted with subtlety and consideration, Danticat interrogates serious themes identity, mortality, grief whilst focusing on ordinary moments, Phone conversations and dinners become the backdrop for larger debates, Her narratives illuminate the complexities faced by those who are born, or raised, in a country that is now in crisis,
A heartrendering collectionlt of stories that provided me with a lot food for thought and which I will be definitely reading again,
nd reading:
I have now read it again and I found as compelling as the first time, This may be the first collection of short stories I've ever reread and it surprised by how many details had stayed with me from the first reading.
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