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Buy or rent from www.recordedbooks.com In this unabridged recording of Edwidge Danticat's novel THE DEW BREAKER, Robin Miles gives a good performance telling a story of one man and the effect his life has had on several people and their families. No one will remember him fondly due to who he was and his former occupation -- a torturer at a Haitian prison during the Duvalier regime. Using a series of vignettes Haitian-born author Edwidge Danticat shows how the title character impacted on the lives and families of those he has physically and mentally tortured. Some of the characters include a wedding dress maker who 'sees' him everywhere she goes; the children of some of his former victims who are trying to learn English and earn a high school diploma; the actions of a woman whose brother was murdered by this monster; and the Dew Breaker himself, now living in New York City, with his wife and daughter, living a lie and keeping a deep dark secret. Each one of these tales stand well on its own sharing the same link -- a man trying to break free from his past who cannot forgive himself or ask to be forgiven. It is a burden he carries of his own self-making and will probably never escape from. He will face a penance that will be revealed to readers at the end causing them to be shell-shocked. Robin Miles gets into the heart of each one of these characters and gives them their own version of self-expression from the pacifist to the militant, by their tone of voices, accents, and other things making each one unique. Some of these characters have managed to move on, others continue to live stagnant lives. It is those who cannot forget that make this a haunting story including that of the former prison guard. The book does not regale us with a happy ending -- it is just a tale with great character development. It is unfortunate that the author does not have to look far for inspiration for this story due to the recent incidents in Haiti. THE DEW BREAKER serves as a wake-up call to readers. No matter how hard they try this work is not easily forgotten. One can only hope that the life of the characters as well as the current world situation only gets better. Only time and memory will tell.
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, March 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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