Whatcha Readin'? The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat
by Lah-May
History is often written on the pages of fictional works. A good author can extract empathy from the reader while shedding light on a troubled part of the world. That's what Edwidge Danticat has done in her novels—her latest being The Dew Breaker.
The main character starts off as a mystery man, a quiet Haitian living in New York. His daughter, a sculptor, can only surmise that the long scar on his face is the result of his time spent in a Haitian prison. His wife seems to keep tragedy at bay through her devotion to the church and her obsession with the miraculous. So moved is the daughter by her father's countenance that she sculpts a kneeling figure in his resemblance. It's only when the daughter sells the sculpture to a Haitian actress living in Florida and her father agrees to accompany her on the drive does the harsh reality shatter the illusion. Disappearing one morning from their hotel room with the sculpture, the father returns to inform her that he tossed it in a lake so as not to display a lie, revealing, “…your father was the hunter, he was not the prey.”
Other characters woven through the chapters were the prey—wounded, disfigured, sleepless from nightmares—but survivors. Survivors of a brutal dictator's enforcers: the Tontons Macoute.
A good book can indeed enlighten through education. An excellent book never lets the reader accept that this is just how the world is, but intensifies the realization that this world must change so no longer should anyone suffer as the victim or even as the victimizer.