Claire of the Sea Light
Claire Faustin has never had a happy birthday.
Her mother died the day she was born. Her father, Nozias, is an illiterate fisherman who lives in a shack on the beach in a seaside village in Haiti. Every year on her birthday, he tries to give the little girl to the fabric vendor, a wealthier woman who lost her own daughter, in hopes that Claire will have a better life.
鈥淭he good news, Claire thought, was that her father did not try to give her away every day. Most days he acted as though he would always keep her.鈥�
On the day Claire turns seven, the fabric vendor says yes, and Claire disappears. Claire of the Sea Light, by Edwidge Danticat, traces Claire鈥檚 birthdays back in time in a series of interlocking stories about the residents of Ville Rose, a fictional town that Danticat first wrote about in 1995鈥檚 鈥淜rik? Krak!鈥�
鈥淰ille Rose was home to about eleven thousand people, five percent of them wealthy or comfortable. The rest were poor, some dirt-poor.鈥�
When one of the characters鈥� mothers is asked what she is doing, she tells them, 鈥淚 am churning butter from water鈥� 鈥� trying to make something from nothing.
The novel movingly traces the interconnected lives of Gaelle, the fabric vendor; Max Ardin, Sr., who runs the school where Claire attends on scholarship; his son, Max Ardin, Jr; their former maid, Flore Voltaire; Louise George, host of a call-in radio show; and Bernard Dorien, a would-be radio journalist and friend of Max Jr.
鈥淔ok no voye je youn sou lot. We must all look after one another,鈥� is a saying Claire鈥檚 mother was fond of. 鈥淐laire of the Sea Light鈥� chronicles the ways in which the villagers look out for one another 鈥� and the ways in which they fail.
While Claire鈥檚 birthdays aren鈥檛 celebratory affairs 鈥� a visit to her mother鈥檚 grave, a trip to the fabric vendor to see if she鈥檚 being handed over 鈥� the girl herself is a source of joy. Her mother chose her name, Claire Limye Lanme, Claire of the Sea Light, and that luminousness fills the book.
Danticat, a 2009 MacArthur recipient and author of 鈥淭he Dew Breaker鈥� and 鈥淏rother, I鈥檓 Dying,鈥� is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful writers working today. 鈥淐laire of the Sea Light鈥� reads like a fable. The slender novel-in-stories is full of aphorisms and quiet wisdom.
In addition to the villagers, the sea, ever-present yet always changeable, also is a character in the book.
鈥淧eople like to say of the sea that lanme pa kenbe kras, the sea does not hide dirt. It does not keep secrets,鈥� Danticat writes.
As the book unfolds, some heartbreaking secrets come to light. Max Jr.鈥檚 mother, with whom he goes to live in Miami after perpetrating a crime, told him, 鈥淵ou are who you love... You try to mend what you鈥檝e torn. But remember that love is like kerosene. The more you have, the more you burn.鈥�
While in some of the villagers鈥� lives, that fire proves consuming, the book as a whole is lit by it.
