David Beagle

Edwidge Danticat’s visit to our campus to discuss the first year common reading provided some wonderful insight into her memoir Brother, I’m Dying.  She opened the discussion by reciting five Haitian proverbs, explaining the meaning of each and how they related to the themes present in her book.  For example, the final proverb was “When you see an old bone on the road, remember it once had flesh on it”.  The saying’s message was a caution against looking down upon those in a worse condition than yourself, as they could have once been the same as you.  This, of course, relates to her two father figures, who were left in incredibly unfortunate situations toward the ends of their lives.  The event continued with a reading by Danticat, who chose two excerpts that dealt with life and death, prominent themes in Brother, I’m Dying.  The first was about when she began the “transition” stage of labor.  Danticat likened the separation of a child from it’s mother during birth to other times of significant separation in life and theorized on there being a similar stage when one exits life as opposed to entering it.  The second reading was a folk story she included in the memoir about a daughter mourning the loss of her father.  The daughter, terribly upset over her father’s passing, is unwilling to go to a wake celebrating his life.  A village elder, though, convinces her otherwise, imparting the lesson that it is “not our way to let our grief silence us”; a lesson that Danticat herself must have come to terms with before writing Brother, I’m Dying.

Before book signing began the discussion was ended with a question and answer section.  Danticat answered many different questions concerning both the book and herself.  Some of which revealed that she was able to begin writing soon after her father died, and that the process was cathartic, but did not provide full closure.  It was this section of the book discussion that most reminded me of the previous author reading we had attended: Jonathan Foer’s reading of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  Both of these events revealed a lot about the authors and their works, but I preferred that of Edwidge Danticat.  Though Foer was witty and intelligent throughout the interview and Q&A, there was something of a “pretentious artist” attitude present that rubbed me the wrong way.  Danticat, on the other hand, was very down to earth, humble, and even calming to listen to.