Absolutely loved this! She tells the many different threads of lives in a Haitian community through the evening Claire goes missing in a way that made complete sense to me, despite all the different directions in went in. Her writing is beautiful and he story craft is as well. I was holding my breath til the ending worked itself out. I must read more by her.

This book is the story of a community and its inhabitants. Ville Rose, Haiti, is a small fictional town located about twenty miles from Port au Prince. It reads like a series of short stories, bookended by the tale of Claire and her father. Claire’s mother died when she was born. Her father is a poor fisherman who has asked the local fabric vendor to adopt his daughter. It is a story of community, class, and corruption.

Due to its beautiful title, I thought the book would be more about Claire, but she is only one of many characters. The other stories are only loosely connected, which makes the narrative feel fragmented. It is told in a non-linear manner. The writing is elegant. Danticat employs vivid images of darkness and light, life and death, and growth and decay, which are effective in conveying mood. I liked this book enough to read another of Danticat’s works.
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Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat is a short but complex story that consists of a series of linked stories set in a small town in Haiti, as she explores the nature of grief and the various forms it takes. Death is the one constant in this book, even the mayor is the town’s undertaker. Claire Limye Lanme, meaning Claire of the Sea Light, was named for her mother, who died in childbirth. Her seventh birthday starts with a rogue wave claiming the life of a neighbour which sets the tone. Claire’s fisherman father feels that he won’t be able to raise Claire properly and decides to give her away to a wealthy shopkeeper whose own daughter died in an accident. As he makes this painful decision to part from his child, she vanishes.

The author explores the stories of various inhabitants of Ville Rose, from the shopkeeper who has lost both her husband and her daughter, to Bernard, a young radio writer who dreams of hosting a show about the gang members who rule his neighbourhood, and Louise, an on-air radio host who airs the town’s secrets all the while concealing her own ailment. These stories are put together like a puzzle and the reader is rewarded with an involving story of life in Haiti.

I was immediately caught by the question of whether Claire would return home and by the lyrical, haunting prose and richly described characters that the author has peopled her book with. Many of the characters are at a breaking point, wanting to change their lives but mostly unable to. Danticat vividly portrays how grief and pain are felt by everyone no matter their gender, age or social status. Claire of the Sea Light is a quiet novel, but it delivers a definite emotional impact. ( )

A novel that revolves around a little girl in Haiti whose mother died giving birth to her. A bit hard to follow at times but very well written. Claire's father struggles with keeping her or passing her on to someone better off to raise her. Other people in a very poor town in Haiti pass through the story. There is an undertaker who employed Claire's mother, the headmaster of the school Clair attended on scholarship and the woman Claire's father considered giving her up to. ( )

The characters in this book are fully realized, enough that they could be your neighbor or family. In That way, the book was compelling and a joy to read. However, for all the words and lives and description, it never felt like there was an actual story. The threads were too loose and the fabric never came together. ( )