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(More customer reviews)The first thing that came to my mind while reading Edwidge Danticat's collection Krik? Krak! is that it is pure poetry. The first lines in "Children of the Sea", the first short story in the collection, are "They say behind the mountains are more mountains. Now I know it's true. I also know there are timeless waters, endless seas, and lots of people in this world whose names don't matter to anyone but themselves." The lyrical poetic style is consistent throughout all of Danticat's prose, which makes Krik? Krak! an easy and beautiful book to read despite the heavy issues addressed in each story within it. In Haiti a story-teller will say "Krik?" and anyone wishing to hear the story answers, "Krak!" and this is the basis for many of the stories Danticat writes.
And many important themes are dealt with in these deceptively simple stories. Most of them encompass three main issues: Poverty and hard times in Haiti, mother and daughter relationships and the self-awareness brought to each because of them, and the transition of immigrants. In Haiti a story-teller will say "Krik?" and anyone wishing to hear the story answers, "Krak!" and this is the basis for many of the stories Danticat writes. Although each story can be easily summarized, the underlying theme and unexpected conclusions reveal much more about life, especially a life of poverty and despair.
In "Children of the Sea", a young man on a ship from Haiti to the US writes letters to his girlfriend and Haiti and she writes letters to him, although they cannot send them to each other. In "Nineteen Thirty-Seven", a girl visits her mother, who is in prison for being accused of witch-craft. "A Wall of Fire Rising" is in interesting perception of poverty, in which a mother and afather trying to raise their young boy in a happy environment face insurmountable pressures. The central character in "Night Women" is a mother who works as a prostitute in order to support her son while in "Between the Pool and the Gardenias" it is a young sterile woman who greatly desires a child even among the poverty and distress so many young children face in Haiti. A young motherless girl befriends an American journalist during the war in Haiti in "The Missing Peacce" and another young girl is painted naked by a French artist in "Seeing Things Simply". A woman randomly sees her mother walking down the street in New York City in "New York Day Women" and realizes that she has a life unto herself, while in "Caroline's Wedding", the longest and last short story in the book, a daugther gets married to a man her mother disapproves of because he is not Haitian.
Perhaps the most poignant part of "Krik? Krak!" is the epilogue which reveals why Edwidge Danticat, the young author of the book, writes these stories. For her and many other women they represent an oral history passed down from mother to daughter, and from that daughter to her daughter and so on. Each short story in this book is an example of such a rich oral tradition and is a very convincing glimpse into the lives of some Haitians and Haitian-Americans. If you read Krik? Krak! and discover that you like it as much as I did, and are interested in more books dealing with a mother/daughter and/or immigration theme, I also recommend "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan, "Two Novellas: First Love and Look for my Obituary" by Elena Garro, "Our House in the Last World" by Oscar Hijuelos, and "White Oleander" by Janet Fitch. ...
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