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I picked up this book at a vendor table while at the 2013 Harlem Book Fair . I had never heard of the author and the cover wasn’t particularly attractive but, after reading the back, I checked the price. I figured for $3, it was worth it. It was.I enjoyed this book from the beginning, but about half way through “the slaughter” begins and the book really takes off. Killings are described in graphic detail, but the story is written in a way that it’s not too much. All the characters find themselve...
'Misery won't touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of.'This story tells the masacre of Haitains in Dominican Republic in 1937. These two countries are divided by a river, a borderline easy to cross by thousands of peasants looking for work harvesting the sugarcanes. Here is where we find Amabelle, a young Haitian who works in the house of Señora Valencia since she was a child, becoming an orphan as
As much as there's solace to be derived from bestowing much needed attention on non-white-male authored narratives which speak of the ones snubbed callously by literature, on no grounds can poor story-telling be excused. As if page after page of oblique but trite commentary on ethnic conflict, colonialism, slavery and racism lathered on to the bare bones of a plot was not enough, Danticat makes the task of finding redeeming aspects even harder with her stilted, cardboard cutout characters whose
Edwidge Danticat has written a work of literary fiction centered around the 1937 massacre of Haitians who were working in the Dominican Republic. This was done under the direction of the Dominican dictator Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo. The island of Hispaniola is divided by a river into two countries--the Dominican Republic which had been colonized by Spain, and Haiti which had a mix of people of French and African ancestry. Tensions ran strong between the two small Caribbean countries.The narr...
I bought this book from a guy on the street for a $1. It had no cover and no description except for a handwritten inscription which read, "Ben, know I am your Amabelle and you my Sebastian. Here's to holding on tight in the middle of the night. I love you, Sarah". Being a complete sucker for open declarations of love, I bought the book.Farming for Bones is absolutely not at all the sappy love story I thought it would be. It is a beautifully written story that follows a group of Haitians through
Sad, but stunningly beautiful, FARMING OF THE BONES is a powerfully written evocative account of the horror of the genocide committed in 1937 against poor Haitian cane workers and others by the Dominican General Rafael Trujillo. Through the voice of a young orphaned Haitian woman, Amabelle Desir, we follow the lives of desperate Haitian exiles working the Dominican cane fields in deplorable conditions with paltry wages and sparse living conditions. Danticat is a master storyteller and her prose
“The slaughter is the only thing that is mine enough to pass on.”Beautifully written historical fiction about the 1937 Haitian massacre in Hispaniola. Haitian workers had emigrated to the Dominican Republic, many to serve as sugar cane cutters. Protagonist Amabelle Désir, a Haitian orphan, is a domestic servant to a wealthy Spanish family. She has formed a relationship with one of the cane cutters, Sebastién, and they plan to marry. She fulfills the role as preserver of memories, and this story
Wow, I read this years ago and it still echos in my mind. The characters were challenged by great terror and yet, they did not sacrifice their love for one another but fought like only those with a great purpose will.Set aside an entire day (depending on how quickly you read), this will be a book that demands to be completed from the time you read the first page. Ms. Danticat has phenomenal talent and I think it is best showcased in this particular story.
"I immediately sank my teeth into the mango, letting the thick, heavy juices fill my mouth" (p. 21). So describes the experience of reading this book.
An awesome and inspiring book. Danticat demonstrates how language can move a person and can describe the most horrific circumstances YET keep the reader from turning away. I could not and will not turn away from her stories or her writing. In her TED piece, someone described her writing as "healing by wounding." Yes!Her writing is absolutely gorgeous...I finished yesterday, picked up two new books and could not read neither much because the lingering impact of Farming will not fade.The only reme...
In 1937, Amabelle, an orphaned Haitian woman working in the Dominican Republic, dreams of returning to Haiti with her lover Sebastien, a sugarcane cutter (the scar-inflicting “bones” of the title). Instead, they are both caught up in the racist anti-immigrant furor stirred up Trujillo, and the killing, which will be latter be known as the Parsley Massacre, or El Corte, begins. Amabelle flees, separated from Sebastien, and tries to forge a new life that is nothing like the one she dreamed of.This...
