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The Dew Breaker (Paperback)

by Edwidge Danticat (Author) "My father is gone ..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 210 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus (6 May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0349117896
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349117898
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.7 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 431,870 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'Danticat is a writer of great force with still more potential' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Extraordinary ... Danticat is a young and genuinely fresh voice. The story she tells is worth a whole shelf of feminist theory' TIME OUT 'Unforgettable ... a joy to read' NEWSWEEK

Los Angeles Times

'Riveting... Dandicat leads her readers into the underworld. It's furnished like home.'
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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
My father is gone. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "Atonement...was possible and available for everyone.", 18 Aug 2004
By Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
Author Danticat introduces her story of Haitian immigrants and the lives they have escaped in Haiti with the story of Ka, a young sculptress whose parents think of her as a "good angel," her name also associated symbolically with the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Ka is in Florida with her father to deliver a powerfully rendered sculpture to a Haitian TV actress. Ka's father, who served as the model for the sculpture, however, destroys it, confessing tearfully that he is not the man his daughter has always believed him to be, and admitting that the disfiguring scar on his face was not the result of torture in a Haitian prison. He was "the hunter," he says, and "not the prey," one of the "dew breakers," or torturers, who as part of the Tonton Macoutes, committed political assassinations and inflicted unimaginable tortures on orders of dictators Francois Duvalier and his son "Baby Doc" between 1957-86.

In a series of episodes which resemble short stories more than a novel in form, Danticat illuminates the lives of approximately a dozen Haitian immigrants as they remember this traumatic period "back home." As the "novel" alternates between past and present, it is told from disparate points of view--those of Ka's mother and father, a young man visiting Haiti after ten years to see his blinded aunt, a wedding seamstress in New York, a Haitian-American reporter investigating a possible "dew-breaker," a man remembering a Haitian friend's long-ago disappearance as he awaits his son's birth in New York, and a popular Haitian preacher whose arrest affects lives for many years.

The novel gains much of its power from the horrors of vividly described torture and the overwhelming fear engendered by the Tonton Macoute militia. By calling up such emotionally charged memories and presenting them in a series of episodes, the author can let the personal stories unfold without having to order events so that they lead to a grand climax. What distinguishes this "novel" from a short story collection, however, is the repeating motifs that appear throughout these seemingly separate episodes (a man's widow's peak, a woman's fear of cemeteries, for example), and by the end of the novel the connections among all the characters become obvious. A vivid documentation of many of the worst human rights abuses of the century, Danticat's novel is a moving testament to the Haitians' resilient spirit and a celebration of their survival. Mary Whipple

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars There Are Some Things that can Never be Forgiven, 29 April 2004
By Sophie Cacique Gaul (Austin, Tejas) - See all my reviews
Ka Bienaimé, daughter of Haitians who have immigrated to New York,couldn't have known the secrets that would be revealed when she wasworking on the mahogany sculpture of her father, depicting him as a victimof Duvalier's terror. Dark secrets. When she shows it to him, he snaps,destroys it, claiming he's unworthy. Then he tells her about his past,about how he really got the rope-like scar on his face. He was a torturerof men back in Haiti in the 1960s, the scar, he tells her, was the resultof an attack by his last victim.
Her father had been a member of the dreaded Tontons Macoute, enforcers ofthe dictator François Duvalier. They were called dew breakers because theyusually came "'before dawn, as the dew was settling on the leaves" tosnatch their victims away from their homes in the name of Duvalier.Victims that were tortured, many killed, many never heard from again, manywho were innocent of any crime, many not even political.
From this horrific revelation the novel moves to chapter-long looks at thelives of the people Ka's father had tortured, lives he'd ruined, liveshe'd changed. The chapters move back and forth through time, letting ussee the dew breaker from the points of view of his family, friends and hisvictims.
Ms. Danticat has written a troublesome novel about a subject many wouldchoose to ignore and that, I suppose, is the problem. For too long in thisworld torture has been ignored, because good and decent people shudder atthe thought of it. And even though Ms. Danticat does a superb job makingthe Dew Breaker at times seem sympathetic, I couldn't find any sympathyfor him in my heart. Forgiveness for men like that, if there is any,should come from their maker, not from us in the hear and now, not fromme. That said, this is a wonderful book, just simply wonderful.
Sophie Cacique Gaul
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific story, 24 Feb 2005
By Edward Tem (Manchester, UK) - See all my reviews
The Dew Breaker is a very educational book with unique contradictions in the characters in the story. This is a story about the haunting tale of a man who left Haiti for New York, and still could not leave behind his memory of victimizing. I enjoyed this book to the very end.
I recommend it along with DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE and DISGRACE
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A Disjointed Look at Evil in the Duvalier Era
Haiti has always struck me as a place with fascinating history, and since my grandparents lived there from 1967-69, I've been curious to learn more about that particular period... Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars A collection of cleverly interwoven short stories
Having enjoyed Ms Danticat's previous 2 books, I had to search for a while to find this one. It was worth the wait. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2006 by MaryAnne

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful - shows the growth an important writer
This is my favorite Danticat book to date. I wasn't as much of a fan back in the days of Breath, Eyes, Memory. Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2005 by Ondre

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