Anniversary Edition: Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

“The girl she said, I didn’t tell you this because it was a small thing, but little girls, they leave their hearts at home when they walk outside. Hearts are so precious. They don’t want to lose them.”

Breath, Eyes, Memory was Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat’s debut, the book that made readers and reviewers instantly sit up and pay attention: here was a writer to watch out for.

Published in 1994, it is the story of Sophie Caco as we follow her from her native Haiti at 12 to the inevitable culture shock that New York City will be.

The 20th anniversary edition from Soho Press includes an essay about the book by the author as well as an interview with her. The insights Danticat provides in both forums add a depth to an already wonderful book.

“First novels are a lot like first children,” Danticat writes in the afterword. “You lavish all your love and attention on them, but you also make all your rookie mistake on them. First novels teach you how to write.”

And it’s true: Danticat’s novels have become progressively more luminous, sharper, perhaps better defined. But this first? Was pure love, pure raw pain. And it is still so very beautiful. ◊

Fiction: The Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill

Watching a marriage grind to its painful, soul-shattering conclusion should not hold moments of strong wit. Yet Jenny Offill’s shimmering second novel not only manages this, it elevates domestic fiction to its highest possible form.

Slender, tiny (fit it easily in your bag for your daily commute) The Dept. of Speculation (Knopf) is barely a novella in length, yet it packs an epic whallop. It does this by way of emotional miles covered as we follow our nameless narrator through the final days of an unsatisfying marriage and the reawakening of a woman who has been emotionally sleeping through the common catastrophes of contemporary relationships. “The wife’s” marriage is crumbling, her career is stalled, her baby has grown to take over a huge portion of her life. She is unsatisfied, stagnating and -- as it is for all of us -- every day just takes her closer to death.

Like Ian McEwan’s Saturday, Offill takes a topic -- and, truly, an angle -- that is so everyday and puts it under a narrative microscope that reveals what we hoped all along: there are stripes of extraordinary in all of us. And that which on the surface can appear humdrum, doesn’t need to be viewed through a kaleidoscope to have its full colors revealed.

This is Offill’s second novel. Her debut work, Last Things, was lauded, awarded and over 10 years ago. Let’s hope she doesn’t make us wait so long again. ◊


India Wilson is a writer and artist.

New This Month: The River and Enoch O’Reilly by Peter Murphy

In its review of Peter Murphy’s second novel (after his Costa shortlisted debut, John the Revelator) The Spectator evoked the surreal realism that is The River and Enoch O’Reilly (Mariner). “This book is majestic and squalid at the same time,” Aime Williams wrote for The Spectator, “as if the Bible were actually about Elvis.”

The River and Enoch O’Reilly was published in January in the UK as Shall We Gather at the River. Whatever name it is flogged under, the work is assured, poignant and slyly funny.

The title’s Enoch has chosen to pray to Elvis instead of God, though he once set out to be a preacher. In the winter of 1984, Murphy tells us, the rusty river Rua became swollen beyond her normal width. As the book begins:

You will remember it if you were there: clouds gathered overhead like great black cattle, the sun dimmed and the air was charged with augury, a sense of the imminent, the never-heard-tell-all-of-close at hand.

When the water receded two days later survivors discovered the bodies of nine who were less lucky. Their deaths are mysterious. What could have caused them to venture forth of such a night? Nearby, in the basement of the family home, Enoch discovers distressing connections between those who perished the night of the storm and his own lost father and every mystery he himself has ever pondered.

The River and Enoch O’Reilly is magical and Murphy’s is a voice I look forward to listening to again. ◊


India Wilson is a writer and artist.

New This Week: Floating Like the Dead by Yasuko Thanh

In 2009, Yasuko Thanh won the coveted Journey Prize for “Floating Like the Dead,” the title story of her debut collection, published this week by McClelland & Stewart. Like most of the stories collected here, the title piece deals with outcasts, expats and people otherwise outside of the mainstream in some way. Sometimes the distance is emotional, though in the case of “Floating Like the Dead” it’s a physical remove: the story -- strangely moving, distinctly compelling -- is about a leper colony off Canada’s west coast near the beginning of the 20th century.

Thanh’s writing is exploratory, capricious and memorable. And also, for a writer at this stage in her career, it’s quite celebrated. In addition to the $10,000 Journey prize, she’s been a finalist for some of Canada’s most significant awards for short fiction. A novel, Teddy’s Blow-Off Attraction, is complete but no announcement has been made. But the existence of the book is a comfort: once you’ve read Floating Like the Dead you’ll be pleased to know that you’ll be able to hear more of Thanh’s quirky, resonant in the not-too-distance future. ◊

India Wilson is a writer and artist.

New This Month: Ru by Kim Thúy

As I write this it seems likely that you’ve never heard of Kim Thúy, a writer with a gentle voice and a deep and compelling story. But you will.

In Vietnamese, “Ru” means lullaby. In French it is a small stream. And for Ru (Random House Canada) both things are true. And more as well.

The French language edition of Ru, published in 2009, won Canada’s Governor’s General Award, one of the highest honors that can be accorded a book in a publication year. Author Thúy was born in Saigon and arrived in Canada in 1979 at the age of ten. Billed as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer and restaurateur, at this point it seems likely that Thúy’s significant cultural contributions will come through her writing. Though Ru was initially published only in French, since winning the Governor General’s Award it has been sold to 15 countries. The English language edition, translated from the French by Sheila Fischman, is published this month in Canada. Other countries can anticipate being this enthralled over the next couple of years as local editions make their way into your hands. It just can’t be soon enough.

As a child, I thought that war and peace were opposites. Yet I lived in peace when Vietnam was in flames and I didn’t experience ware until Vietnam had laid down its weapons. I believe that war and peace are actually friends, who mock us.

Ru is not a conventional novel, but neither is it, strictly speaking, non-fiction or memoir. In fact, this is something else entirely: a skillful and beautiful poetic portrait that takes us from an enviable life in Saigon to the horrors of a Malaysian refugee camp and, finally, to conflicted safety in Canada. In her narrator’s delicate voice, Thúy describes the fall of Vietnam and one woman’s desperate journey from chaos to peace in a new place. Unforgettable and deeply moving. ◊

India Wilson is a writer and artist.

Holiday Gift Guide: 50 Underwear Questions by Tanya lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

It’s difficult to imagine the child who wouldn’t be tickled by the slightly risque nature and spirited delivery of 50 Underwear Questions: A Bare-All History (Annick). What’s Under a Sari? What is a knickerbocker? What kind of underpants should a superhero wear? And maybe the most fun of all: what might future underwear look like?

50 Underwear Questions is more than just whimsical questions and answers, too. There are underwear facts and histories; underwear jokes and even underwear technologies, all covering the topic in more depth than you might think the subject would warrant.

The book is illustrated by Ross Kinnaird who also illustrated two earlier books in the series for Annick Press, both all by Lloyd Kyi: 50 Burning Questions and 50 Poisonous Questions.

Suggested for ages nine-plus, but the tone is sufficiently brisk and the material so fun and different, most anyone will enjoy this one. ◊

India Wilson is a writer and artist.

Holiday Gift Guide: Chicken Poop for the Soul: A Year in Search of Food Sovereignty by Kristeva Dowling

From the land that brought you the 100 Mile Diet, Kristeva Dowling takes it all a step further, getting back to the land in a very determined way in order to control what gets to her table.

For her it began with a labor strike and a resulting lack of produce at her grocer’s. “It was this revelation that made me begin to question the necessity for Canadians to have pineapples in January.” The road she created when she started her journey, though, was not the one she had anticipated:

When I started off on this journey I thought that I would simply be growing my own food, learning to process and preserve it and quietly eating it. I didn't think the act of drinking milk would become a political debate. I didn't count on becoming hot and bothered about farmers' right to farm and consumers' right to choose…. My life, and the simple act of eating, has taken on a richer meaning. I now live and eat more consciously.

Chicken Poop for the Soul (Caitlin Press) for the soul charts that journey, following Dowling as she heads to the land and, in all ways, starts a new life. Dowling’s wordsmithing is not as elegant as one could wish, but it is heartfelt and well-remarked and researched. Readers with a commitment to finding the best paths to local and organic eating will find much to enjoy here, and perhaps occasionally shake their heads at the stupidity of government and a culture that often seems to be entirely populated by sheep.

In some ways, Chicken Poop for the Soul has it all: the politics, production and even preparation of food. From rants to recipes, Dowling has it all covered. ◊

India Wilson is a writer and artist.