The Farming of Bones

Danticat's debut with BREAT, EYES, MEMORY was more than impressive; it was magical and eloquently resonant. It was the voice we'd all been waiting for. But with THE FARMING OF BONES, what we have is Danticat's finely-tuned clarity of vision reaching the heights of authentic folk art. This novel is unforgettably vibrant in every regard. Entire seminars and workshops have rightfully been organized and presented around this literary icon. Edwidge Danticat is the single topic of scholarly discourse everywhere you turn, whether nationally or internationally. In THE FARMING OF BONES the author has masterfully returned us to a particularly shameful and hideous moment in the history of the neighboring countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic (sharing the Caribbean island called Hispaniola). Dominican Dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo in 1937 ordered the slaughter of an estimated (historically documented) 40,000 Haitians and Domínico-Haitians living and working in the Dominican Republic. This historical incident is virtually unknown to outsiders and to most people not of that era. Danticate has thankfully unearthed enough skeletons form the unknown graves to awaken the interest of today's generation, wherever they reside. But this is also a profound love story like no other you've read. The young protagonists Amabelle Desir and Sebastian Onius allow themselves to experience an all-powerful love in a land where love itself had been vanquished by brutal terror and unbridled hatred. This is truly a novel that rewards he reader over and over with the message of a people's suffering and unbelievable courage. If you haven't read this novel, you are denying yourself a genuine literary treasure.

This short novel was a real eye opener for me, before I picked it up I'd never heard about the government ordered massacre of approx. 30,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic in 1937. Danticat is truly a gifted writer. The story, told by an orphaned Haitian servant is as lyrical as it is tragic and is definitely worth picking up.

Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory, has written another heartbreaking novel. This time in The Farming of Bones, she takes us to the 1937 Dominican Republic where Trujillo decides to rid his country of the many Haitians who work in the cane fields. We understand the terror, persecution, and despair of those who are maimed, slaughtered. or deported. Amabelle Desirt, a young Haitian girl orphaned at age eight, is rescued by a Dominican family in whose home she is raised with their daughter, Valencia, and later becmes her maid. When Senora Valencia marries Pico, a colonel in Trujillo's army, Amabelle is the one to deliver her first child. Amabelle has promised herself to Sabastian, a cane worker on a nearby farm, and when she fears that he has been take by Trujillo's army, she gathers her few belongings and begins the long trek over the mountains in hopes of meeting him across the Dominican/Haitian border. What follows is a story of heartbreak, horror , and despair. It is a story of man's savagery in the face of prejudice and hate; it takes us to an unimaginable place where racial cleansing once more emerges to make a civilized person sick and ashamed of the human race. We follow Amabelle as we sympathize and empathize with her plight. We admire her spirit and mourn her losses. More than anything though, we suffer with her and applaude her endurance. Danticat writes beautiful, descriptive language that invites us to share the beauty of her native land as well as to experience the ravages perpetrated by Trujillo. Although written from the Haitian perspective, The Farming of Bones reminds us of Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies; both books reveal the injustice and terror of Trujillo's reign and only knowing of his death lends any justice at all.

Edwidge Danticat is a powerful writer who economizes her words but not her emotions. Her descriptions of life love and death are short, and poignant. Amabelle, the main character in this short novel lives in you. She takes you into a complex uncomfortable world where good does not follow good and where your destiny is out of your control. The interaction between the characters is very well presented. It creates tension and anticipation. You know that what is coming is not going to be pretty and you are not disappointed. . This novel is not for the faint of heart. It is a harsh story told in excellent style. Danticat gets an "A" for the Story and an "A+" for her writing. Danticat is already a mature writer who tells the true story of the massacre of thousands of Haitians at the "Bloody River". First, you cannot put the book down till it's over and then, you are so sorry that it has ended. It will be hard for Danticat to best " The Farming of the Bones" This book should be required reading for Haitians and Dominicans. This is History told in a Powerful Novel. P.S. I also loved Esmeralda Santiago's "America's Dream" Andre from Chappaqua, NY

The rhythm of the author's words ring with the cadence of the Caribbean and her voice is clear, wise and poetic. Written in the first person, the young woman, Amabelle, uses simple and deep cutting words to tell her story. Her words are sensual when describing her man, wise as she helps deliver the baby of the wealthy Dominican woman for whom she works as a servant; and deeply cutting as she flees from the slaughter and bears witness to the events going on around her.I was moved and horrified, and was right there in her emotions as she simply told this story which takes place during the dictator, Trujillo's regime. Dominicans who tried to fight this madness met the same fate as the Haitians as their world, too, crumbled about them. Reading this book, I felt as deeply for the Haitians as I do for the sufferings of the Jews in the Holocaust, or the Cambodians who died on the killing fields.I must say though, that in spite of the horror, the book is a pleasure toread because it is a little gem of good writing. It also opened my mind to a period in history that I had no knowledge of and raised the kinds of issues that need exploring.