My favorite book of personal essays. So well done. ( )

"Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. This is what I've always thought it meant to be a writer. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them. Coming from where I come from, with the history I have - having spent the first twelve years of my life under both dictatorships of Papa Doc and his son, Jean-Claude - this is what I've always seen as the unifying principle among all writers."

What a powerful way to look at being a writer!

Create Dangerously is Edwidge Danticat's collection of essays about her Haitian roots She struggles internally with living in the U.S. and writing about Haiti, even though her roots are strong and her trips back seemingly frequent. She sees a duty to write, and the alternative unthinkable, but nonetheless is "anguished by my own sense of guilt." The guilt seems to stem from her ability to live well elsewhere, and benefit from her writing, while so many in her country suffer. Yet she sees her duty as bearing witness to them, and her country.

The book begins with the 1964 firing squad executions of CIA-supported Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin, who had hoped to overthrow Papa Doc. Her fascination with those two, and the way they are remembered in Haiti, threads throughout the book. They both had lived comfortably elsewhere, but came back to help Haiti. Exile, diaspora, and return, are central themes in the book. Her passion is compelling on every page. When she returns to Haiti, her visits are vivid for the reader. For example, she (arduously) and her cousin and uncle (easily) climb a picturesque mountain and visit her aunt in an isolated remote village that is filled with daily beauty and small miracles, e.g. making coffee, grinding corn, the noisy hens and roosters. She re-enters peaceful rural life, and for a while, the country's turmoil is forgotten.

She is so transparent here, this book is like talking to her directly. She has a profound mind, and gave me many new perspectives on Haiti (including the 2010 earthquake) and Haitians. Many thanks to Ellie for sending this my way. ( )

Danticat's memoir of her journey and work as an artist, and her thoughts on artistry as they are related to conflict and exile, are well worth reading for any individual engaged in the creative process or working with student writers from diverse backgrounds. The simplicity and the power of her language runs through each section, dealing with everything from natural disaster to perceptions of artists and the ways in which they affect the world. Deceptively straight-forward and conversational, the work is full of both humor and heartbreak, as well as historical and artistic understanding.

Absolutely recommended. ( )

Fabulous new work by Edwidge Danticat, author of 'Brother I'm Dying.' Powerful yet written with straightforward simplicity, Danticat's essays portray a stunning testimony to the spirit of resistance, art, and the role of the immigrant. An image of Haiti through luminous words. SH ( )

These essays are about Haiti and Haitians in exile. The author is a native, who moved to the USA as a child. She writes about her relatives in a deeply personal in insightful way. She also instructs on the history of her native country, its political troubles and natural disasters. The last story is about the recent earthquake and it gave me an understanding of what it was like to live through and survive that in a way that I had not gotten through the news media, probably because I was not paying close enough attention before.

I have read the authors novels, which I thought were great, which is what lead me to this book. It is a quick read, I read it all in one day, while traveling from NY to LA. ( )