| Brother, I'm Dying |  | Author: Edwidge Danticat
Publisher: Vintage
Category: eBooks
In Stock
Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 12,160
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
 An unforgettable book June 23, 2010
Joyce Gubelman (San Francisco)
This book broke my heart and opened my eyes to the reality of the US Immigration & Customs Department. Edwidge Danticat writes beautifully about her family in Haiti and New York. I felt connected to her, her father, and her uncle.
Merci Beaucoup May 13, 2010
Kevin A. Shelby (Austin, TX)
I have enjoyed a great many of your books. I today finished Brother I'm Dying. My sister and I lost our father to cancer just over a month ago. My wife thought the read would be of some comfort. I have since added it to my list of tough yet necessary reads, alongside A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest J. Gaines.
One side of my father's family emigrated from Guyana (or British Guiana as his grandparents had known it); my wife's family is from the Bahamas. While the storyline touches on many things, in part paying tribute to your Caribbean heritage, imparting insight into the Haitian/Haitian-American experience as do many of your works. Brother I'm Dying largely centers on the loss of your father, your uncle. Today it is that shared experience of losing someone so dear, two fathers according to the account so eloquently portrayed in the book, which inspired me to write.
It is not part of my culture, a native tongue inherited from one or the other of my parents. Enfin, je parle francais. Pa creole, je regrette. Mais francais, un peu. En votre langue, je tiens a vous dire - Merci, beaucoup.
Sister, My Heart is Breaking March 30, 2010
V. Nunez (Bronx, NY)
I first read an excerpt from this book in a 2005 edition of the New Yorker. I was intrigued by the tender story of Danticat's cousin, Marie Micheline. An older sister figure for Danticat, Marie's difficult path into adulthood began with an unplanned pregnancy that was tragic but not heartbreaking. I was uncertain how that excerpt would fit in a broader book that, from the start, seemed to address the illness and death of Danticat's father. But the book is so much more than a recounting of her father's death, or even the passing of the older generation in her family who reared her in a community style. Part of Danticat's masterful style is that she layers so many stories into one book and the book stands as a cohesive whole. This is a memoir of raising children in the Haitian diaspora, it is a tribute to her Uncle Joseph and Tante Denise, the side of her family that chose to stay in Haiti. But it is also a book that follows the sad descent of Haiti into violence and chaos in the early twenty-first century. At times the tone is that of a sweet nostalgia for the past, at other points it is of suspense, and finally, it rests at a point of tragedy. Read from the perspective of 2010, after the devastating earthquake, it reminded me that the suffering and disorder which plagues Haiti in the present is not a recent phenomenon. The tragedies suffered by Danticat's family are personal, but they are not unique. I recommend this book because it is beautifully written, and it will bother the conscience of Americans. The book did not get broader acclaim the year it was published, i believe, because it appears to address mundane themes, the relationships between family members, it is fundamentally somber and it addresses a part of the world that is small and evokes little sympathy or interest (think Afghanistan pre-Obama and pre-Charlie Wilson's War). Indeed, my heart felt broken by the end of the book. But I'm ok if my heart is broken for a good reason.
Excelent Read January 24, 2010
K. Carter (Baltimore City)
If she writes it, I read it. I have learned so much about the Haitian and Haitian-American experience from her books. In this continuing memoir, you felt the love between the the brothers so vibratantly that you felt you were part of the family.
 A glimpse inside Haiti December 7, 2009
TropicalDoc (Coeur d'Alene ID USA)
I am a fan of Ms Danticut and enjoyed this deeply personal account of her love for two fathers and their love for each other. It allows a personal look inside the life of the Haitian exile and a deeper look inside the struggle of those that stayed in Port-au-Prince. I am thankful for that revelation. I could hear the noise and taste the smoke and grit of that smoldering city. The love and commitment between brothers is palpable and to be admired. I do not think this the authors best work as it lacks the whimsical though serious flow of her other works. I think it deserves our attention though and I would recommend it to others.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
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