chicks review:
The Farming of Bones

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The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat PB list price $12.95 Penguin USA (September 1999) ISBN:0140280499 312 pages Other editions: HB average review: average review: Reviews: This gets: a from eryka: Eh. The plot is interesting, the subject matter new and different, and the writing mostly gorgeous, but I found it difficult to care about the characters due to the somewhat aloof style. Go figure. From the back cover: It is 1937, the Dominican side of the Haiti border. Amabelle, orphaned at the age of 8 when her parents drowned, is maid to the young wife of an army colonel. She has grown up in this household, a faithful servant, even delivering the senora's babies in an emergency and supporting her in her grief at one infant's death. Sebastien is a field hand, an itinerant sugarcane cutter. They are Haitians, useful to the Dominicans but not really welcome. There are rumors that in other towns Haitians are being persecuted, even killed. But there are always rumors, jealousies, fears. Amabelle loves Sebastien. He is handsome despite the sugarcane scars on his face, his callused hands. She longs to become his wife and walk into their future. Instead, terror enfolds them. But the story does not end here: it begins. The Farming of Bones is about love, fragility, barbarity, dignity, remembrance, and the only triumph possible for the persecuted and the innocent: to endure. eryka.com scale: So good you just can't stand it. Almost that good. Sort of good. Generally a waste of time. Destined for the recycler. If you'd like to review this book, or another, click here Similar books by category: women writers | african-american fiction | caribbean fiction Go home | Go to reviews home © 2002 eryka.com. All rights reserved.