Review by Booklist Review
Chancy follows What Storm, What Thunder (2021) with an ambitious novel that explores the intertwining of the personal and the political through the lives of two childhood friends, Sisi and Gertie, who meet in Port-au-Prince in 1941. Their stories traverse three continents and six decades. Through the ups and many downs of their relationship, Chancy signals the ways human beings create boundaries for themselves. Family, country, ethnicity, skin color, and sexuality all become limiting definitions of the self, and it takes a powerful desire to connect and to love, to see and move past these roadblocks. This tale of two friends whose lives take them from Haiti to Paris, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S. has a powerful cast of supporting characters, but it is in the evolution of Sisi and Gertie and their relationship that Chancy builds her beautiful narrative, masterfully capturing the unspoken nuances within social structures and in the way families interact with their heritage. A compelling and satisfying read that acknowledges the bitter truths of history and dares to imagine a path forward.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Chancy follows up What Storm, What Thunder with an accomplished chronicle of two childhood best friends in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As girls in the 1940s, Simone "Sisi" Val and Gertrude "Gertie" Alcindor discover a deep connection despite the latter's more privileged background. They're separated in the early '60s, when Sisi flees the repression and violence under despotic president Francois Duvalier for Paris, where she constantly feels the pain of rupture from her homeland and throws herself into a relationship with American student Scott, whom she eventually marries. A parallel narrative follows Gertie, who marries into an affluent Dominican family and moves with her husband to Florida in the '70s. "Home is no longer a destination," Sisi reflects as her life takes her farther from Gerti to the U.S. with Scott. Chancy's heartfelt prose lays bare the women's inner lives, and the story is further enriched by its symbolism, such as the bird referenced in the title that "talks all day long as market women are said to," which Sisi remembers when thinking of her grandmother and the other women from Port-au-Prince's bustling marketplace. The third act turns on a poignant revelation when the protagonists are finally reunited in 1979. Chancy continues to impress with this character-driven view of Haiti's turbulent history. (Apr.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In 1940s Port-au-Prince, two girls from different economic classes strike up a friendship--until a secret separates them. In her last novel, What Storm, What Thunder (2021), Chancy used a large cast of characters to examine the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed hundreds of thousands and left more than a million people homeless. In her moving second novel, the Haitian Canadian American writer probes Haiti's history and culture through a narrower lens. Sisi and Gertie become friends quickly, despite the differences in their circumstances. Sisi exists in a small, warm world of women--her mother, sister, and grandmother--who work hard for what little they have, while Gertie is part of a large, wealthy clan, with haughty older siblings, an often-absent father, and a society-obsessed mother who frets over the darkness of Gertie's skin. Sisi and Gertie navigate these divides until a tragedy reveals family secrets that drive them apart. Chancy follows their paths as they grow up and eventually flee an increasingly unrecognizable and dangerous Haiti. The author touches on Haiti's collapsing political system and the violence and horror that follow with a palpable sense of sorrow. But though she shines a light on colorism, racism, and abuses of power, this remains primarily a personal story, with beautifully fleshed out characters and a bone-deep understanding of the inexorable pull of the past and how regret can all too easily overwhelm our lives. As adults, Sisi and Gertie wonder if they can renew their ties, now with husbands, children, and everyday obstacles in the mix. Doing so will be a challenge, but Chancy holds out the possibility of hope: Some bonds simply can't be broken, she writes, if only we are willing to nurture them. A powerful novel about lifelong female friendships against a backdrop of political upheaval and family secrets. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
