A review by liralen
After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti by Edwidge Danticat
3.0
Edwidge Danticat takes us back to Haiti, to Jacmel, for Carnival. But it's a new experience not just for the reader (well, this reader, anyway) but also for Danticat -- as a child in Haiti, she was kept away; Carnival has ever loomed in her imagination as tantalising, dangerous, forbidden. Now, as an adult, she's back to celebrate Carnival herself.
First, though, Danticat takes us through Jacmel. It's an eccentric tour of sorts; she relays a fair amount of history but consistently returns to the things that hold particular interest for her -- graveyards and trees and the relationship of Carnival to life and death.
Though both a recurring theme and the climax of the book, Carnival is not really the focus -- but it does represent a triumph for Danticat, and a new perspective.
First, though, Danticat takes us through Jacmel. It's an eccentric tour of sorts; she relays a fair amount of history but consistently returns to the things that hold particular interest for her -- graveyards and trees and the relationship of Carnival to life and death.
Though both a recurring theme and the climax of the book, Carnival is not really the focus -- but it does represent a triumph for Danticat, and a new perspective.