Brother, I’m Dying

by: Edwidge Dandicat

Published by: Vintage Books — a division of Random House

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

(First published in hardcover in 2007 by Alfred A. Knopf)

Edwidge Danticat has crafted a remarkable memoir in this book – the story of two brothers, her father and her Uncle Joseph, their love for their family and most of all her love for both of them.

Dandicat was born in Haiti in 1969. When she was only two, her father left Haiti and moved to New York to work, initially with only a visitor’s visa. He left his wife and two children behind. But he didn’t desert them. He sent letters, money and gifts. After two years he returned for his wife, but because they would have to work so hard to get ahead in New York, he left Edwidge and her younger brother, Bob, with Uncle Joseph and his wife. For the following eight years, Uncle Joseph became a second father to them.

During the time Dandicat lived with her uncle’s family, he developed throat cancer. Following a radical laryngectomy surgery, Uncle Joseph, who had been a Baptist preacher, no longer had a voice. He could only mouth words or write his thoughts out on paper. Edwidge became his translator.
When Edwidge was twelve, her parents returned to Haiti with two new little brothers. Initially she did not realize that they had come to take her and Bob back to New York to finally live with them as a family. Edwidge would not see her aunt and uncle again regularly until she was grown.

When her father was diagnosed with terminal pulmonary fibrosis, Edwidge called Uncle Joseph and he came to be with his brother. Although his son also lived in New York, Joseph still refused to immigrate. When his three-month visa was up, he again went back to Haiti. He planned to finish work on some projects and then perhaps move to New York. But by that time immigration rules had become very restrictive. Although he had been threatened and his church burned down, U.S officials didn’t want him as an immigrant. His troubles were horrific and Dandicat tells about them with grace and much sympathy.

This is both a joyful book and a sad one. There is much love and joy in the family, but the political realities of Haiti and the realities of immigration policies toward Haitians in 2004 are both horrific and in many ways incomprehensible.
This would be a wonderful selection for book group discussions.

Armchair Interviews agrees.