Claire of the Sea Light

 

This is a lovely, lovely piece of writing. Set in Haiti in the fictional town of Ville Rose, this village by the sea contains a cast of characters that span the economic and social status range, yet all are sympathetically portrayed, despite their assorted character flaws. While events - both good and bad - happen, there's a narrative background to each one that humanizes what brought each character to that decision or act. In a modern media-driven world that often seems to embrace the idea of simplistic motivations, Danticat's fictional village feels like a glimpse into a bygone world brimming with fully rounded characters, shaped by joys, tragedies and everything in between. Her ability to interweave all these different characters' stories into one cohesive narrative, is very nicely done. What begins as a story about a fisherman and his 7-year old daughter in the first chapter, travels over the remaining chapters, ironically like a boat, navigating the depths and shallows of fellow villagers' lives, interconnected with each other in a myriad of ways, but ultimately journeying round trip. It's a quiet, poetically beautiful piece of writing. It won't dazzle you with anything flashy and in your face, but if you just want a gentle piece of writing that reminds you of what it means to be human, in all our complexity, this is definitely worth your time.

★★★★

You can find this and all my other reviews at: https://www.goodreads.com/curious-kat