Scan barcode
A review by bougainvillea
Haiti Noir by Edwidge Danticat
2.0
I really feel like the stronger pieces were at the beginning of the collection. With a lot of the ones at the end, I was left thinking "what was the point of that?". I did not enjoy the David Ball translations at all. They were all awkward and choppy. Large's piece seems to have been written in English originally, with mixed results. A lot of the pieces didn't really seem like Noir to me, but I'm no expert on the genre.
My favorites: Danticat's piece --very powerful and the end just sneaks up on you. "The Harem", "Odette" by Patrick Sylvain did make me cry although I didn't love it. I enjoyed the pieces by Mars and Trouillot as well. Some of the other stories were well written, but I couldn't see how they qualified as noir and it bugs me when essential elements of the short story structure are missing, although that's just the teacher in me talking. I'll try to shut her up.
My favorites: Danticat's piece --very powerful and the end just sneaks up on you. "The Harem", "Odette" by Patrick Sylvain did make me cry although I didn't love it. I enjoyed the pieces by Mars and Trouillot as well. Some of the other stories were well written, but I couldn't see how they qualified as noir and it bugs me when essential elements of the short story structure are missing, although that's just the teacher in me talking. I'll try to shut her up.