Heartfelt ... The novelist’s duty is to present such questions and then leave the room — to grant the reader space to ponder them. Danticat does this masterfully, particularly regarding the subjects of love and home ... Despite its title — the Kreyòl word for mourning — there is hope, however faint, in this tender novel.
A gracious exercise in restraint, a story fueled by the tempered outrage that runs through so much of her fiction and nonfiction. She bears witness and, by the extraordinary empathy of her prose, makes us witnesses, too ... A haunting feat of concision and elision ... In the quiet sanctuary of Danticat’s prose, the complexity of Magnolia’s life gently unfurls ... But this is determinedly not a thriller about mass shootings, details of which are laced so sparingly through these pages that you’ll taste the poison without being sickened by it. This is, instead, very much a novel about persisting, about remaining alive in a world that would have us be ghosts
A masterful short story writer, Danticat has employed the novel-in-stories format to tremendous effect in The Dew Breaker (2004) and Claire of the Sea Light (2013). Dèy offers an inversion: the novel’s social sweep and focal intensity on the protagonist’s emotional and psychological undulations paired with the short story’s compressed clock ... The novel is a defense strategy and living elegy.
Danticat’s domestic narrative is deceptive, as we realise that she is writing about something more profound: how violence touches us all, even when it’s on the other side of the world; how children are being taught survival tactics at an increasingly young age; and how solace can be found in 'dèy' ... Her descriptions of the Haitian diaspora and their extended families back home are tenderly drawn, making for an immersive read. This is a story for our times, a powerful meditation on belonging, the immigrant experience and familial love.
Edwidge Danticat is an international treasure, and her sixth novel, Dèy, proves it ... Danticat isn’t the showiest writer, and that’s part of her brilliance. She eschews jaw-breaker words for les mots justes to express the complicated joys of human connection.
