Krik? Krak!
by Edwidge Danticat
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 773)
Read in August, 2007
I remember when I was in high school, Edwidge Danticat was one of the new rising literary stars who was getting a lot of attention. It's nice to come back to this collection of short stories and realize that it was completely justified. Krik? Krak! is that rare collection which feels like a novel in its own right -- each story is not only a perfect gem on its own, but connects thematically to the rest of the stories to create a greater whole. The stories are linked by a network of metaph...more
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Read in November, 2007
This book consisted of three different stories of nine woman who live in the same country. Yet, the stories contain a deeper message about woman and the strength that the woman have. For example, the first story was about a girl who was separated from her mother. Although she was young, she was able to continue to strive and maintain bravery in front of her inprisoned mother. She was able to witness her mother slowly die in jail, and even though her mother no longer viewed the girl as her daught...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
immigrants, teachers
author - Edwidge Danticat
Ms. Danticat is a Haitian-American author - born in 1969 in Haiti, she arrived in the USA at the age of 12. She writes BEAUTIFUL work! I've read at least a half dozen of her books - this was an early one I'd missed.
The title comes from the oral tradition of story telling. The children say "Krik?", meaning "Do you have a story for us?" and the story teller - usually an older woman - says "Krak!" which then means, "Yes I do!&quo...more
Ms. Danticat is a Haitian-American author - born in 1969 in Haiti, she arrived in the USA at the age of 12. She writes BEAUTIFUL work! I've read at least a half dozen of her books - this was an early one I'd missed.
The title comes from the oral tradition of story telling. The children say "Krik?", meaning "Do you have a story for us?" and the story teller - usually an older woman - says "Krak!" which then means, "Yes I do!&quo...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
EVERYONE!
I first read this book for a class I was taking, and I re-read it this summer because it is so beautifully written, in my opinion a really emotional and truthful depiction of very important social problems told from a very personal perspective. It is so moving, so honest and so amazing, I keep handing it to my friends and telling them I won't speak to them unless they read it.
I have read others by Danticat and I think she is all around gifted but this one is my favorite. It's very focused o...more
I have read others by Danticat and I think she is all around gifted but this one is my favorite. It's very focused o...more
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Read in September, 2007
I felt Danticat was very successful in bringing her readers into the intimate Haitian community she writes about. The desperation and pain of living in a country that turns its citizens against each other is conveyed with subtle, moving prose. The characters' lives cross in ways that make sense, underscore the culture's interconnectness, and never appear contrived. She also effectively captures the divergent experiences that immigration creates. None of these stories are ordinary though they ...more
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This collection gives an emotional center to both life in Haiti and as an immigrant in the United States, but I think the strongest stories are thosed rooted in the longings and contradictory lives of the immigrant. I also found the ones told in the first person to be the most compelling, in particular the first story, "Children of the Sea" and the last one, "Caroline's Wedding," which is followed beautifully by "Epilogue: Women Like Us". The stories in between ar...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to LALOVELYTEE by:
teacherrecommends it for: Anyone who is interested in other cultures
This book is about people in Haiti/Haitians and their struggles. The book tells short stories of what it like to live there. Through struggles and hard times some of the stories also tell what it's like living in America and some of the other struggles they had to face. At the end of each book it has a metephorical meaning that makes you think outside the box and think of what it's really like.
In my opinion i thought the book was boring because although it showed struggles of people from ot...more
In my opinion i thought the book was boring because although it showed struggles of people from ot...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommended to Midley by:
Humanities teacherrecommends it for: People who want to learn a few informaton about Haitian women back in the days.
This book is about all the struggles Haitian women go through, in Haiti and Brooklyn, New York. There are many rules they have to follow, such as learn how to cook and clean; never bother to learn to read or write and they always marry a Haitian man, but with their parent’s permission. If the women do not follow these rules, they are punished, such as raped and beaten or thrown into jail. I didn’t really like the book, because sometimes it was boring and I didn’t agree with many of the thi...more
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Read in December, 2007
i liked this book alot. this book isn't like any other book i have read in my life. this book is a but a girl how has a dream being a writer. she has a srory for a of her family members. She has hard times and bad times with her mother. She likes being with her morther at night caues her mother have been telling her stories since she was a lil girl. she wants to be a writer but her mother won't let her her cause women back then wasn't able to do any kind off writing and the mother just wants he...more
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Read in January, 1999
A Haitian story by a Haitian-American. I just found out (3/08) that crik crak was used in 1880s France, at least on the Seine near Paris (and maybe more generally, but I don't know) as a boater's greeting. I suppose that one boater said Crik! and the other replied Crak! I read this in The Luncheon of the Boating Party, by Susan Vreeland. Her book is a historical fiction about Auguste Renoir's painting of his masterpiece by the same name as the book title. Excellent novel, by the way; it really ...more
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Read in October, 2006
a friend gave me this book during rather a difficult time in my life - witnesses have said that my eyes were pointing in different directions, whatever - and what i remember appreciating most is the fact that they were short stories, so i could set the book down at regular intervals.
but. then i started reading it. and the stories, they were wonderful. touching, enigmatic (but that might not have all been the stories), and written in a crystalline style that i have always appreciated. the...more
but. then i started reading it. and the stories, they were wonderful. touching, enigmatic (but that might not have all been the stories), and written in a crystalline style that i have always appreciated. the...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommended to Christopher by:
my teacherrecommends it for: the community who would find it interresting to read same storys in different points of view
i learned alot from this book. such as that it had to with the haitian resolution time. not in the same time peroid but like right around. also that all or most of the stories are the same. for example this story call night women who is about this girl that comes out at night go for her job. and the other story call day women who comes out in the morning the dayy time. she goes to the park and like babysits this kid that isnt heres. but most of all this story is ok if your in to the same story o...more
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The Book Krik Krak contains 9 stories of hatian ladies.?The Story that was most interesting to me was the story with the mother and the daughter.The story was about a daughter who did not know anything about her mother.The daughter thought the mother was always home and never left brooklyn.She did not know the mother had a job as a baby sitter. she found out one day when she was spying on her mother.i Can connect to this story a little bit because i dont know a lot about my mother.
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to ¤ ♥ X-TINA ♥ ¤ by:
my teacher sydneyrecommends it for: anyone in school or people who like to read because it s intresting and also serious at times.
i really actualy liked this book, it was intresting and fun to read at times. basicaly this book is about the hatian revolution and fictional stories on hatians and how people are.also how the hatians act towards going out to a place they never seen before.This book can actually relate to what is happening in life now but not alot though. I would let people know that this is a good book to read if your in history class if your learning about the haitan revolution.
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Read in October, 2006
recommends it for:
women
Krik? Krak! was one of the most beautiful books I have read to date. It is broken up into about 9 stories of Haitian women who show their strength through adversity. While the stories are about 9 completely different and unrelated women, the last story brings these unknown women together.
Some stories are explicit in the sense that one women is a prostitute. But all of these moving stories show how strong women are.
Some stories are explicit in the sense that one women is a prostitute. But all of these moving stories show how strong women are.
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My good friend Mark tried to get me to read this book a long time ago and so he bought it for me. I could not appreciate it then...but after he passed away I was drawn to it and understood why he wanted me to read it. It's about strength, and softness...about doing what you have to do to satisfy that ache in your heart even if it means dying...several stories that make no sense alone but together speak volumes..
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Edwidge Danticat is my favorite author. I love her writing slyle, and have also had the priveledge of hearing her read once, when the Dew Breaker came out. This is a book of short stories...an insight into Haitian culture and it's struggles. I just read this book for the second time. Seni, I think you have my original copy, signed by the author. Hope you have read it by now. If not, get busy!
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within the lesson that i was taught while reading this book it gave a taste about haiti atleast what it could be. Each short story had a struggle. But the one that has stuck with me the whole time was the 1 about the women and her child and how she killed her self by jumping off the ship. After knowing her invant died in her arms, it reminded me of a scene in "Aminstad"
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I really love Danticat's sparse but poetic style in her stories of Haitians and Haitian-Americans. It's like she has boiled down the experiences to the essentials but kept the flesh of it all. Her eye for life is crystal clear. I found myself crying at the end of the first story -- when the story ended, I felt like my heart had been shot. It was that kind of impact.
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I agree with Jim Gladstone's review, that these tales of Hatian women and families "take on the resonance of folk art." A lot of folk art is two-dimensional, right? Something about Danticat's writing style reminds me of this... it's missing a dimension, but not in a bad way. The complexity is found in the histories of the characters and the struggles they represent.
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.05 (773 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.88 (8 ratings) number of reviews: 102popular shelves
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quote
"No, women like you don't write. They carve onion sculptures and potato statues. They sit in dark corners and braid their hair in new shapes and twists in order to control the stiffness, the unruliness, the rebelliousness."
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