SU professor reviews Haitian novel

The Southern University Literary Society, in conjunction with the College of Arts and Humanities, hosted a book review on Tuesday in the Blue and Gold Room of the Smith-Brown Memorial Union.
Kirsten Squint, a PhD candidate at Louisiana State University and professor of English at Southern University, discussed Edwidge Dandicat’s collection of short stories entitled “Krik? Krak!”
Squint said Dandicat is a Haitian-American author who was born in Haiti but migrated to New York at the age of 12.
One of Dandicat’s major accomplishments is winning the American Book Award for her novel “The Farming of Bones,” Squint said.
Squint briefly described Haiti’s tumultuous political history because, as she said, a good understanding of Dandicat’s work required some background information.
In her reading of some noteworthy excerpts from the short story collection, Squint mentioned such political influences as Duvalier and his Tonton Macoute death squad, as well as Aristide and the Dominican Republic’s Raphael Trujillo who affected the lives of Dandicat’s characters.
“She (Squint) has given us a provocative read and provided great contextual information which helped our understanding,” said Jo Ann Marx, professor of English at Southern.
Squint read excerpts from the specific stories: “Children of the Sea,” “1937,” “A Wall of Fire Rising” and “Women Like Us,” which address themes of story telling, suffering, oppression, resistance, hope and the Haitian Diaspora.
Squint noted that some of the excerpts were graphic in their portrayal of the suffering of the characters, but she credited Dandicat with presenting a realistic view with painful images while still managing to create a sense of hope.
Dinah Dickson, a junior electrical engineering major from Houston, said, “I really enjoyed it. I thought it (the book review) was very interesting and insightful because I know someone from Haiti.”