<p>^^^ I want to clarify my post. I meant the reader (me!) finds details that the author scatters like clues. My post makes it sound as though I’m talking about discoveries made by individual characters. Only Gaelle knows the origin of the baby layette; she never mentions it to Nozias - maybe she thinks he knows. Claire ponders the size of the neighboring wreath as she visits the cemetery with her father. Only later does the reader learn that Yves Moulin leaves the wreath each year and adds a white rose to it each year.</p>
<p>I really like the start of the start of the book … Claire turns seven … and then the countdown: when Claire turns six … five … four … three …</p>
<p>I too found the book very hard to follow. Mostly because of how the time line was structured but also because of the way the narrative jumped from family to family. I did find the writing very effective and I could vividly picture Ville Rose in my mind. But I read for leisure and enjoyment and I found this book a bit arduous.</p>
<p>I didn’t love or hate this book. I didn’t mind reading it. It was pretty quick and I thought the different character stories made the book easy to put down and pick back up without losing the flow of the story.</p>
<p>I will confess that I missed any number of details on the first read. I’ve been going through a second time skimming mostly because I’m serious, about the xkcd chart - I really like the way the paths of the characters weave in and out of the storyline, though it may have made it more difficult to follow than it would have been if it proceeded in a more linear fashion. I will also confess that I put it down to read a romance/thriller after finishing part 1, and it was kind of nice to leave the suffocating atmosphere of suffering for a little while. I never noticed about the wreath. </p>
<p>I agree with NJTheatreMOM that the wealthier characters are not nearly as appealing as the poorer ones. Bernard, is particular, is difficult to swallow. How are we to take the fact that he doesn’t die in the ocean (I presume it’s him since he had a red shirt on earlier in the day) while a perfectly innocent (as far as we know anyway) fisherman does?</p>
<p>Funny how differently we all see it! I found the book to be one of the quickest reads we’ve had in a while. I breezed through it–which meant that I had to return to the story for forgotten details when it came time to review the discussion questions. I agree with ignatius that there were many little clues that tie all the stories together, several of which I missed the first time around.</p>
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<p>I actually had the opposite view in this respect: I felt sympathy for Max Junior and I kept thinking that Danticat did an amazing job of writing to have accomplished that. He’s a rapist! Shouldn’t I hate him? And I do hate him…and yet I don’t. I felt conflicted. He was interesting, and tragic in his way. All the characters were interesting to me, some more likeable than others. </p>
<p>Parts of the story were indeed hard to read, hard to stomach, but my sense is that this is the way it is – it wasn’t hyperbole on Danticat’s part, but simple observation: Violent death and horrible cruelty are as much a part of life there as love and family and community. </p>
<p>I don’t think the sweetness and enchanting “sea light” of Claire would have been quite as effective without the contrasting darkness in the lives of so many of the characters. Despite the horrors, I think the book ended on a hopeful note. Yes, Gaelle is responsible for Bernard’s death…But on the final page, she is the one giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Max Junior, his beloved. Redemption. </p>
<p>The last chapter seems to reflect the words from the first chapter: “fòk nou voye je youn sou lòt. We must all look after one another” (p.9).</p>
<p>Danticat first let us know the rich people in the story through the eyes of others; the rich were not very likeable. When the rich told their own story we were allowed to see their flaws and their sorrows. This made them more human and a little more “likeable”. Danticat gave us the opportunity to understand them. I thought Danticat did a good presenting different perspectives. She was reminding us that there are always smaller personal stories within a larger story. </p>
<p>Claire’s mystery propelled me forward throughout the clunky parts of the book, as described by NJTheatermom., in fact I was certain NjTM was NOT liking this book. I felt it too, but the book worked for me.</p>
<p>Danticat’s style reminds me of "Jazz, sometimes smooth, silky and subtle, like the way she handled Max’s homosexuality and “Time,” which folded backwards and forwards, I never quite knew the chronology of events. The various perspectives worked mosty. So most of the book worked for me. </p>
<p>And, there are chapters when the “jazz rifts” were clunky, annoying and fizzled. I didn’t like the radio announcer’s revenge, Max’s quirky girlfriend who I expected to be Claire. I " endured" some plot lines and tangental stories, to find out what happened to Claire. </p>
<p>Danticat made me care.
Boy, was I ready for a happy ending, and she delivered.
A Simple story! Cleverly structured- A page turner for me. </p>
<p>I didn’t know which Ardin was in the sea-father or son. I had to search the red shirt.</p>
<p>^^^ SJCM: Yea! You’re back. I hope this means that things have settled down at your house. You may have gotten lucky with your “happy ending” as Danticat evidently decided on it at the last minute:
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<p>I finished the book quickly, starting on a Sunday and finishing on Tuesday. I did not love the book but that’s okay - I liked it well enough (which sounds like fainter praise than I mean it to be). My hesitation hit at moments like Gaelle eating that frog or Louise’s unusual menstrual cycle (eek, symbolism of some kind, I just know it). Still, like mathmom, I like how the lives of the characters weave in and out. I liked coming across the small details, scarcely mentioned - the clues that Danticat left for readers to find.</p>
<p>HarvestMoon1: Funny but this was the second book in a row that I read that has this kind of non-linear narrative structure. The Maid’s Version also needs a chart to help the reader through the random intersection of lives. Of the two books, I found it much more complicated, so Claire of the Sea Light seemed a breeze. I have this structure down now … and like it as long as the book is short. I have to add that I really liked The Maid’s Version - more so than Claire of the Sea Light. It’s a look back to a town tragedy - unresolved in so many ways - a mystery of sorts. </p>
<p>So many wonderful posts! I feel like I want to respond to every one of them. A few, in order of appearance:</p>
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<p>I agree – Danticat painted that by-the-sea village beautifully. Re the leisure/arduous question, I would say that if this weren’t a book club selection, I would have read it in a flash for the basics of the story, without a lot of reflection. So in that way, I think it could be a leisure read (not exactly a feel-good leisure read, but one that at least moves quickly and is well-written). However, as a book club choice, I was compelled to look more deeply and I think there is a lot more to the story than I saw at first.</p>
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<p>True. However, even though it’s a small role, I was touched by Yves Moulin, one of the richest people in town. I felt very bad for him, for the guilt that he carried for so many years over Rose’s death.</p>
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<p>I assumed right away that it was Max Junior in the sea, but SJCM, did you think it might have been Ardin Senior because he would not have been able to cope with the news that his son was gay?</p>
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<p>Max Junior’s survival and Caleb’s death just tells me that life is random and unfair. Maybe that’s not a very literary analysis, but that seems to be the way it works. The best that can be done is to help each other pick up the pieces. Danticat does a good job of describing that. The villagers rally round after a tragedy, yet they are very stoic. There’s acceptance, but not a lot of hope. Nozias knows right away that Caleb is doomed: “Nozias knew from his experience, and could sense it in his bones, that both Caleb and the boat were gone” (p. 3).</p>
<p>Gaelle questions whether or not her personal tragedies really are random: </p>
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<p>Personally, I still go with “random and unfair.” But do you think that Danticat is suggesting that there is some sort of “karmic retribution” in this world?</p>
<p>I will admit that I am glad I read the book. I had known so little about Haiti, and now I have a bit more of a picture in my mind. </p>
<p>There are some comments in reader reviews on amazon to the effect that Claire is not Danticat’s best book. </p>
<p>I liked Danticat’s writing and the glimpses she gives of Haiti enough that I think I might like to try reading Breath, Eyes, Memory one of these days. </p>
<p>Me too. I smiled at Danticat’s comment that her daughter “won’t know what a remainder table is though because now I feel like I’ll have to buy every leftover copy of the book I ever see.”</p>
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<li><p>Not only is Claire a revenan, “a child who had entered the world just as her mother was leaving it” (p. 16), but on her 4th birthday, Rose dies, and on her 7th birthday, Caleb dies.</p></li>
<li><p>Pregnant Claire Narcis is employed as the dresser of the dead at the funeral home.</p></li>
<li><p>Gaelle eats a dead frog and then gives birth to an unexpectedly healthy baby Rose.</p></li>
<li><p>Flor is raped (a death of sorts—certainly a death of innocence) and the result is her son Pamaxime.</p></li>
<li><p>The sea swallows up Caleb in the morning and gives back Max Junior that night.</p></li>
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<p>Many characters seem troubled rather than comforted by the memories of their deceased loved ones, so chimè strikes me as more negative than positive (especially considering that it’s the nickname for gang members). However, the last chapter suggests that young Claire is visited by the ghost of her mother, and that’s positive:</p>
<p>*Rose - Gaelle’s daughter - is a revenan of sorts also, though it’s her father who dies as she’s born. (I saw this referenced somewhere but can’t find it now.)</p>
<p>What do you guys make of the passage where Max Jr thought he saw a supernova explode above the sea and the water behave oddly right afterwards? This was on p. 198; it happened right after Max Jr learned that Flore was pregnant.</p>
<p>NJTM - I just went back over my notes. I also used “Ugh” in my notes when I was reading about Gaelle eating the frog. I wrote “Ugh, yuck”.</p>
<p>On page 59 Gaelle is thinking about the reason she ate the frog.
Is this another “ominous exchange of life” and another “struggle of wills”?</p>
<p>Gaelle was remotely responsible for her husband’s death. She didn’t call him to come home when the baby was born. She was afraid he would take the baby away. As ignatius mentioned, Gaelle’s husband, Laurent, was killed at Radio Zorey while baby Rose was being born. (Page 62)</p>
<p>NJTM - I don’t really get the purpose of the supernova.</p>
<p>Just finished, and it took me much longer than usual as I am traveling.</p>
<p>Don’t know how to copy and paste from my Kindle, but did anyone else think of The Luminaries when you read (on page 215 for me):</p>
<p>“It was as if her father and Madame Josephine could have been twins, born at the same hour on the same day.”</p>
<p>I saw a reference to Claire’s father considering a vasectomy in the questions. I completely missed this. I will go back and see if I can find it, but can anyone help?</p>
<p>Mary, I’m glad your mother liked the A. McCall Smith - there are a whole lot of them!</p>
<p>The almost-vasectomy scene is on p. 20-21. Nozias stumbles across a group of men waiting for the procedure outside the hospital. He listens to a presentation and decides to go through with it – until the moment when the needle makes contact and then he jumps up and flies out the door as fast as his legs will carry him.</p>
<p>I felt like there were racist undertones in Nozias’ experience at the hospital. The fact that a white doctor was promoting the procedure to a long line of healthy, Haitian men didn’t set right with me, but maybe I was overthinking things.</p>
I have to add that I really liked The Maid’s Version - more so than Claire of the Sea Light. It’s a look back to a town tragedy - unresolved in so many ways - a mystery of sorts. </p>