The Farming of Bones begins in 1937 in a village on the Dominican side of the river that separates the country from Haiti. Amabelle Desir, Haitian-...
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Mar 16, 2009
Dusty
rated it: 
A diasporic novel in line with Coetzee's The Life and Times of Michael K and McCarthy's The Road. Which is to say, it follows people trying to escape turmoil, in this case Amabelle and other Haitian workers as they try to escape the Dominican Republic during the "Parsley massacre" of 1937—called such due to the shibboleth used by the Dominican soldiers to determine a person's heritage. (They'd hold up a sprig of parsley and ask, "What is this?" and if you answered in the Hait
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Dec 17, 2009
Jen
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This one is keeping me awake at night. It is beautiful, even in anguish.
(later)
Ok, I finished. While I was waiting to get on an airplane at 9 a.m. I was waiting in line and reading and crying and handing the airline man my boarding pass and crying and finding a seat between these two nice ladies and crying. It was so sad...but also lovely.
(later)
Ok, I finished. While I was waiting to get on an airplane at 9 a.m. I was waiting in line and reading and crying and handing the airline man my boarding pass and crying and finding a seat between these two nice ladies and crying. It was so sad...but also lovely.
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Sep 19, 2008
Savvy Suz
rated it: 
Sad, but stunningly beautiful, FARMING OF THE BONES is a powerfully written evocative account of the horror of the genocide committed in 1937 against poor Haitian cane workers and others by the Dominican General Rafael Trujillo.
Through the voice of a young orphaned Haitian woman, Amabelle Desir, we follow the lives of desperate Haitian exiles working the Dominican cane fields in deplorable conditions with paltry wages and sparse living conditions.
Danticat is a master st More...
Through the voice of a young orphaned Haitian woman, Amabelle Desir, we follow the lives of desperate Haitian exiles working the Dominican cane fields in deplorable conditions with paltry wages and sparse living conditions.
Danticat is a master st More...
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May 27, 2011
Jeanette
rated it:
Two-point-five stars
This book really wants to be "literary" fiction, but it lacks the necessary warmth and depth. The characters are flat and underdeveloped, such that it's hard to feel sorrow for their suffering. The only way I could work up any kind of caring was to remind myself that these characters had real-life counterparts who did in fact suffer the atrocities inflicted by Trujillo.
The author seems to assume a lot of prior knowledge on the part of the reader about t More...
This book really wants to be "literary" fiction, but it lacks the necessary warmth and depth. The characters are flat and underdeveloped, such that it's hard to feel sorrow for their suffering. The only way I could work up any kind of caring was to remind myself that these characters had real-life counterparts who did in fact suffer the atrocities inflicted by Trujillo.
The author seems to assume a lot of prior knowledge on the part of the reader about t More...
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Dec 12, 2011
Ensiform
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In 1937, Amabelle, an orphaned Haitian woman working in the Dominican Republic, dreams of returning to Haiti with her lover Sebastien, a sugarcane cutter (the scar-inflicting “bones” of the title). Instead, they are both caught up in the racist anti-immigrant furor stirred up Trujillo, and the killing, which will be latter be known as the Parsley Massacre, or El Corte, begins. Amabelle flees, separated from Sebastien, and tries to forge a new life that is nothing like the one she dreamed of.
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Aug 11, 2011
Aleeda
rated it:
Historical fiction is probably my favorite genre of book. Setting fictional (and some non-fictional) characters in story with a backdrop of chronoligcal events takes quite a bit of imagination. As much as I think I know about a subject, these intimate peeks into these historical events add even more to my knowledge. Edwidge Danticat draws on not only her life, but stories relayed to her by family members, weaving stories of Haitian life into her fiction. The story of the 1937 Massacre ( has
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Jun 10, 2011
Barbara
rated it:
In this chilling novel, set in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in 1937, Edwidge Danticat tells the story of Amabelle, a Haitian child rescued on the day her parents drowned in the river separating the Dominican Republic and Haiti . She has spent her life in the Dominican Republic with the family who saved her. The young woman of the family is married to an officer in Trujillo's army, and though Amabelle is loved by those who rescued her, she realizes that the situation in the country is becom
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Feb 08, 2011
AdultFiction
rated it: 
TETON CO LIBRARY CALL NO: F DANTICAT
Marisa's rating: 3 stars
Interesting, if not haunting novel by Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat. The plot surrounds the 1937 massacre of 17,000 Haitians living in the Dominican Republic - ordered by the then dictator, Trujillo. The main character, Amabelle, is conflicted as she is forced to leave her love, Sebestien behind to escape back to Haiti. While Amabelle begins the novel as naive, she is forced to see the harsh reality of the world aroun More...
Marisa's rating: 3 stars
Interesting, if not haunting novel by Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat. The plot surrounds the 1937 massacre of 17,000 Haitians living in the Dominican Republic - ordered by the then dictator, Trujillo. The main character, Amabelle, is conflicted as she is forced to leave her love, Sebestien behind to escape back to Haiti. While Amabelle begins the novel as naive, she is forced to see the harsh reality of the world aroun More...
Aug 11, 2010
Hillary
rated it:
"I close the door and lock out the tame night breeze that barely reaches my bare body, naked because Sebastien has made me believe that it is like a prayer to lie unclothed alone the way one came out of the womb, but mostly because I am hoping to feel the sweat gather between the cement floor and the hollow in my back, so that when I rise up, there will be a flood of perspiration to roll down over my buttocks, down the front and back and between my thighs, down to my knees, shins, ankles, a
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Jun 06, 2010
David
rated it:
The Farming of Bones. By Edwidge Danticat. 310 pp. New York: Penguin Books. $14.
Hope On the Edge of Death
Death, struggles, love, birth, misery, happiness—one word cannot capture the flurry of emotions and issues that Edwidge Danticat brings forth in one novel. Danticat’s, The Farming of Bones is both compelling and surprisingly a fast read at the same time.
The book is mainly about the struggles of a young woman during the 1937 massacre. A Haitian woman More...
Hope On the Edge of Death
Death, struggles, love, birth, misery, happiness—one word cannot capture the flurry of emotions and issues that Edwidge Danticat brings forth in one novel. Danticat’s, The Farming of Bones is both compelling and surprisingly a fast read at the same time.
The book is mainly about the struggles of a young woman during the 1937 massacre. A Haitian woman More...
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Apr 16, 2010
Giedra
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This was like Gabriel Garcia Marquez-lite. It reminded me a lot of Love in teh Time of Cholera, but was a much easier and enjoyable read (much less philosophical). Very sad subject matter--deals with Haitians living in the Dominican Republic in the 1930s, who mostly work as domestics and in the cane fields (although some are wealthier), and how they were forced to go back to Haiti by the threat of violence under the dictatorship of "the Generalissimo" (Trujillo). Many Haitians died
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Aug 07, 2009
Kate
rated it:
The Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic of this story are socially and linguistically marked. As immigrants, their language is a source of scorn, and their lives and stories have no bearing in the colonial world the Spanish have built. What, then, do they have but their bodies as evidence of their existence? The author provides a markedly physical account of an underrepresented historical event. Her title references the slave-like physical abuse of a marginalized people and the backbreak
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Aug 08, 2011
Teri
rated it:
I know about the tragic historical event that features prominently in this novel, so i am reading it with trepidation, gritting my teeth, as it were, because slaughter is always awful. Yet, when Danticat read from some of her work and spoke to us AP English readers in Louisville in June, i liked her so much as an individual, i wanted to read more of her work. Her writing is poetic, lively with Haitian patois and atmosphere and culture, more so in this novel than in some of her other work.
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Jan 14, 2008
Jen
rated it:
I had no idea there'd been a Haitian genocide, so this book was good for me as a history lesson. I like how Dandicat gives us glimpses into both cultures before the Massacre. As for the Massacre, she gives enough detail so we get the gruesome picture, but does not hammer the reader with graphic descriptions, as some books do. She tells her story simply but effectively.
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Oct 05, 2011
Layla
rated it:
I bought this book from a guy on the street for a $1. It had no cover and no description except for a handwritten inscription which read, "Ben, know I am your Amabelle and you my Sebastian. Here's to holding on tight in the middle of the night. I love you, Sarah".
Being a complete sucker for open declarations of love, I bought the book.
Farming for Bones is absolutely not at all the sappy love story I thought it would be. It is a beautifully written story that fo More...
Being a complete sucker for open declarations of love, I bought the book.
Farming for Bones is absolutely not at all the sappy love story I thought it would be. It is a beautifully written story that fo More...
Jun 30, 2011
Marcy
rated it:
Haitians who live in the Dominican Republic, farmers cutting sugar cane, women servants, loyal to their masters...Amabelle, one of those women, her parents drowned in the river, taken as an orphan to befriend and serve Senora Valencia, the wife of an army colonel who honors and fights for Generalissimo Trujillo, president of the republic. Amabelle loves a sugar cane cutter. The Dominican soldiers and civilians make war upon the Haitians. In the Great Massacre, Amabelle's love of her life dies,
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Aug 20, 2009
Mera
rated it:
Danticat lays bare the little-known Parsley Massacre of 1937 in the Dominican Republic (where between 20 to 30 thousand Haitians were slaughtered under the orders of the Dominican President) through the eyes of Amabelle, a Haitian servant to Dominican sugar plantation owners.
Danticat has a poet's way with words but her prose is direct - you get the sense that she's gone over her manuscript repeatedly with a fine tooth comb, getting rid of all excess in the writing. The only problem More...
Danticat has a poet's way with words but her prose is direct - you get the sense that she's gone over her manuscript repeatedly with a fine tooth comb, getting rid of all excess in the writing. The only problem More...
Apr 04, 2010
Katy
rated it:
The Farming of Bones traces the life of a Haitian servant living in the Dominican Republic in 1937, the year of the tragic massacre of thousands of Haitians in the border river between the two countries. the protagonist, Amabelle, tries to flee and is captured and tortured, and lives the rest of her life finding peace amongst the turmoil that the massacre resulted in.
This work has been my favorite that I've read thus far for this class. Perhaps because I am especially interested More...
This work has been my favorite that I've read thus far for this class. Perhaps because I am especially interested More...
Oct 28, 2010
Mordena
rated it:
This is a lovely book about horrible things. Beautiful, evocative, thought-provoking, it shows people who have been living side by side erupting into violence and genocide. This is really more like 4 1/2 stars for me -- withholding the last half-star because the main character is a little bit of a blank. I completely understand why -- her past is taken away from her, she has no family and nothing to root her in life. Still, it made the reading experience just a little bit removed. I probabl
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Jul 18, 2011
J
rated it:
(FROM JACKET)It is 1937, a dangerous year in the Dominican Republic, where Haitian laborers are useful, rather than welcome; tolerated, but not trusted. Amabelle, a young Haitian woman orphaned at the age of eight, is a faithful servant to the young wife of an army colonel, living n the household where the two women grew up together. Amabelle's lover Sebastien is an itinerant sugarcane cytter, a handsome man despite the scars on his face, the calluses on his hands.
There are rumors that in More...
There are rumors that in More...
Aug 08, 2011
This was one of those books that I started and couldn't figure out *why* I kept reading. While it got off to a slow start, I later realized that much of what Danticat wrote about was setting up the state of events in the Dominican Republic before the slaughter of many Haitian laborers.
The story follows the life of Amabelle, a Haitian house servant for a wealthy Dominican family, who is in love with a cane worker named Sebastien. When the slaughter starts, though, they're separate More...
The story follows the life of Amabelle, a Haitian house servant for a wealthy Dominican family, who is in love with a cane worker named Sebastien. When the slaughter starts, though, they're separate More...
Jan 04, 2012
Matthew
rated it:
Perfection. From the introductory quote of the "shibboleth" passage in the Bible, through the Parsley Massacre in the Dominican Republic, to the frantic return to Haiti, this book is history, tragedy, thriller, and inspiring story all wrapped into one. Haitian American Edwidge Danticat knows how to weave a soulful tale. I read this book before traveling to Haiti with a joint medical/divinity school team from Duke University. If you're traveling to Haiti and want to better understand th
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Sep 28, 2011
Mr. Woodnal
rated it:
This intensely sad piece of historical fiction centers on the bloody 1930s genocide of Haitian workers in the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic. While much of the story lacks a central unifying focus and Danticat's lyrical prose is at times soporific, the final sixty pages provide a swiftly paced resolution for what precedes them. This final portion of the novel isn't enough to provide the heart and soul that fill Breath, Eyes, Memory, but Danticat's voice is still an important one i
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Jul 14, 2011
Topher
rated it:
Read this book in Zambia and gave it to a teacher at Chikumbuso to read. It is a sad book about genocide in Haiti and the DR. The characters suffer and make choices that hardly seem possible. Through it all, though, the book makes a strong case for the seemingly collateral damage of hatred that actually is the primary devestation. Many parallels between the poor of Haiti and the poor of Africa. When you boil it all down (even though there is no history of genocide in Zambia, there is many exampl
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Feb 14, 2009
Elizabeth
rated it:
the farming of bones references the cutting of sugar cane and this book centers around the 1937 massacre in the dominican republic of mostly haitians, a lot of whom were cane cutters. this book is lilting, in only a way language from the carribean can be. it is also full of shadows. the main character, amabelle, watches her parents drown and this is only one of the many very sad moments in her life. everyone is scarred in this book both on the inside and outside, the descriptions of both are
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Jun 04, 2008
Monika
rated it:
this book was amazing! i'm planning on reading all the books that this author is reading. She is a terrific writer. though the story line was sad at some times, the book was great!
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Jan 18, 2011
Barbara
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1937 - Haiti and the Dominican Republic - Amabelle, a young Haitian woman who was orphaned @ 8 when her parents drowned crossing the river, grew up in the Dominican Republic with Senorita Valencia - now Senor, wife of an army colonel under the leadership of the Generalissimo. Amabelle is in love with Sebastian, a fellow Haitian she has met in the Dominican Republic - and they dream of a life together back in Haiti. BUT Haitians are being persecuted, killed and they must flee - and the journey
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Jul 08, 2009
Andrea
rated it:
This book, which centers around the massacres of Haitians in the Dominican Republic in 1937 under the Trujillo dictatorship, blew my mind. Danticat's prose is graceful and spare, as are her characterizations - you get the know the characters slowly, through meaningful details and reflected reactions. Danticat lays out their stories carefully and deliberately, just as they live their lives amidst a tense & terrifying dictatorship. Even when she is describing events of unimaginable horror, there i
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Mar 02, 2009
Mereke
rated it:
A beautifully written book about the massacre of haitians in the DR in the late 1930's and though it takes place long ago pretty much all of it feels like it could be about right now in many parts of the world (and I understand that Haiti/Dominican relations to this day are quite strained). I was shocked to read about these massacres - how could I not have known of this before? Additionally, the interactions of all the main characters are so completely real, human, fresh and vivid - they left
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Mar 20, 2010
Jessi
rated it:
An exploration of one woman's story (fiction) of what happened to her during the Parsley Massacre in Dominican Republic, October 15, 1937. Amabelle is a maid to a young wife of a colonel who is rising in the Dominican army. She is warned of the impending massacre and runs.
Orphaned at age eight, Amabelle is somewhat closed off from the world, at least that is how I interpreted the writing. It was hard to connect to this character because she was so cut off.
The whole book was just ho More...
Orphaned at age eight, Amabelle is somewhat closed off from the world, at least that is how I interpreted the writing. It was hard to connect to this character because she was so cut off.
The whole book was just ho More...
