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sjgrodsky's review against another edition
1.0
This book earned accolades from the literati. And I just could not stay with it. The narrative jumps from one character to the next. I sensed (or maybe hoped) that all the different stories would consolidate in the end. But I didn't have the patience to read that far. If the author could just have stuck with the semi-orphaned Claire and her overwhelmed dad I would have stuck with her. But the narrative wanders off into the story of the fabric shop owner, and then the teenager with aspirations to be a radio personality. I think I wanted an old fashioned story with a recognizable beginning, middle, and end.
ang_soko31's review against another edition
3.0
Had to read this for one of my English classes and I was kinda disappointed with the way everything ended. However the writing style was very good and I liked the way the author gave us bits of information here and there to make the audience think. I just wished the climax of the story was better because it felt like each story was building up to some big revelation and it never came.
mikelchartier's review against another edition
4.0
Colloquial stories around a small girl who's being given up by her destitute father in hopes of giving her a better life. While each story involves many of the same characters, none of them really contribute to a larger narrative.
That isn't a bad thing. All these stories add up to more than the sum of their parts due to the soaring prose found throughout (which contributes more to the rating than the story itself). So don't let the amount of time it took me to read it convince otherwise, Danticat is definitely worth your time.
That isn't a bad thing. All these stories add up to more than the sum of their parts due to the soaring prose found throughout (which contributes more to the rating than the story itself). So don't let the amount of time it took me to read it convince otherwise, Danticat is definitely worth your time.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
3.0
Mixed. The opening & closing chapters were too precious for my taste. But the book really takes off in the far-more gripping middle chapters. I loved the interconnected narratives & the fully imagined setting -- a Haitian Winesburg, Ohio. But, for me, the magical lyricism beats were hard to take.
mellabella's review against another edition
4.0
Claire of The Sea is told from different voices and different points of views in a small Haitian town. Claire herself is 7. We don't hear from her until the end of the book. Her father is trying to "give her away" to the (well to do) woman named Gaelle who sold fabric. Gaelle's own daughter died a few years earlier. Claire's mother died while giving birth to her. Her father is a fisherman. The sea has just claimed the life of a friend of his as the book is opening. It was beautifully written and interesting to learn a little about life in Haiti. Edwidge Danticat never disappoints.
freddie's review against another edition
3.0
The non-linear narrative works quite well with the concept of the story. It plays around with the linearity of time. The writing is poetic, evoking contrasting imageries between violence and beauty, and also life and death. However, I find the characters a bit dull and not very memorable.
avkesner's review against another edition
5.0
I almost didn't get through this because the first chapter was so tough to read as a mother, but in glad I stuck with it. Powerful story telling.
meghan111's review against another edition
5.0
The structure of this novel is so cool - especially the first section starting on Claire's seventh birthday, then working backwards to her sixth birthday, fifth, etc. until her birth. Somehow this manages to pull the story forward even though her age is getting younger and younger.
My first instinct was to give this book 4 stars, but it had great writing, setting, and characters. A story set amid the vast gulf between rich and poor in a small coastal town in Haiti, featuring several people whose lives intersect, is told in a confident, beautiful way.
My first instinct was to give this book 4 stars, but it had great writing, setting, and characters. A story set amid the vast gulf between rich and poor in a small coastal town in Haiti, featuring several people whose lives intersect, is told in a confident, beautiful way.
courtneyajw's review against another edition
4.0
As a teenage, Edwidge Dannicat was one of my favorite authors. I must have read [b:Breath, Eyes, Memory|5186|Breath, Eyes, Memory |Edwidge Danticat|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1401207512s/5186.jpg|459447] and [b:The Dew Breaker|31116|The Dew Breaker|Edwidge Danticat|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388240903s/31116.jpg|2901] a hundred times each. [b:Claire of the Sea Light|16280051|Claire of the Sea Light|Edwidge Danticat|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367256761s/16280051.jpg|22381420] reminds me of what I love so much about her writing style, her stories and her characters. Danticat writes with a delicacy that is rare now. Her stories are never over written, there is no long, heavy prose to follow for pages on end without punctuation. The writing is sweet and light. The story tells itself, the characters let us learn about them slowly and gradually. There's no dump of description of emotion even when a revelation comes suddenly.
This is the story of a small village by the sea - Ville Rose. The inhabitants range from the destitute and poor like Claire and her father Nozias, to the wealthy like the school owner Max Ardin Senior and his son Max Ardin Junior. All of the characters are linked together in various ways and depend on each other in other ways. Claire has spent the seven short years of her life trying to get to know who her mother was and her father has spent the same time mourning his dead wife and attempting to give Claire a better life by giving her away. There is the sad story of rape and the child produced by it. A scorned woman who has little to combat her former lover who wields a masculine hand to make her life difficult and humiliate her. It's the story of death - falling prey to the gangs and easy pay off of the police. Surviving loss. Attempting to prove that men are men above all.
The intertwined stories are all sad and uplifting at the same time. I would definitely recommend this and anything else by Danticat.
This is the story of a small village by the sea - Ville Rose. The inhabitants range from the destitute and poor like Claire and her father Nozias, to the wealthy like the school owner Max Ardin Senior and his son Max Ardin Junior. All of the characters are linked together in various ways and depend on each other in other ways. Claire has spent the seven short years of her life trying to get to know who her mother was and her father has spent the same time mourning his dead wife and attempting to give Claire a better life by giving her away. There is the sad story of rape and the child produced by it. A scorned woman who has little to combat her former lover who wields a masculine hand to make her life difficult and humiliate her. It's the story of death - falling prey to the gangs and easy pay off of the police. Surviving loss. Attempting to prove that men are men above all.
The intertwined stories are all sad and uplifting at the same time. I would definitely recommend this and anything else by Danticat.