What I found to be lacking in this novel, however, was a feeling of connection to any of these women. Certain traditions that are passed on are simply shocking and perplexing. The bonds between women – sisters, mothers, daughters, grandmothers – are also explored and are fascinating, complex and often heartbreaking. What I loved most about Breath, Eyes, Memory were some of the lyrical descriptions of Haiti and its people. But when pain begets further pain in a relentless cycle, Sophie will need to return to her roots to discover the truth and begin the slow process of healing. Otherwise, the American students would make fun of me or, even worse, beat me." Sophie will need to adapt quickly, and learn about her mother and her mother’s demons that torment her dreams each night. "My mother said it was important that I learn English quickly. Not only that, she is also faced with the challenges of immigrating to a foreign country. She does not know this mother and she will be leaving behind the one she has always thought of as her mother. "We come from a place, where in one instant, you can lose your father and all your other dreams." When her mother finally sends for Sophie, Sophie does not want to leave but has no choice. Sophie has led a reasonably happy life for a child living in a poor country rife with political unrest and violence.
Sophie’s mother, carrying a shame she could not bear, fled to New York to escape a past that haunts her. Sophie has been raised in Haiti by her Tante Atie for the first twelve years of her life. These memories are carried within the women of this story and are passed through the generations where they persist and wreak havoc on the psyches of both mothers and daughters. The characters are weighed down with such misery and heartache as they shoulder the burden of nearly unbearable memories. "I come from a place where breath, eyes, and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head."
0 kommentar(er)
