cover image Taking Flight: Caribbean Women Writing From Abroad

Taking Flight: Caribbean Women Writing From Abroad

Jennifer Donahue. Univ. Press of Mississippi, $30 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-4968-2870-5

Donahue, a University of Arizona assistant professor of Africana studies, debuts with a worthwhile if thematically repetitive study of modern female authors from, or with familial roots in, the Caribbean. Picking nine writers to analyze—including Edwidge Danticat, Elizabeth Nunez, and Tiphanie Yanique—Donahue focuses on the place of immigration, trauma, shame, and sexual politics in their work. The first chapter deals with Danticat and addresses how her work illustrates the link between folklore and the immigrant experience. In exploring the works of Michelle Cliff and Margaret Cezair-Thompson, Donahue moves into psychological territory and the link between “violence, migration and desperation.” She considers Paule Marshall’s “reclamation of cultural identity” and Andrea Levy’s use of historical fiction as a genre. “The intersection of illness, migration, and transformation” are explored in Nunez and Pauline Melville, and, for Yanique and Nicole Dennis-Benn, themes of “sexuality, social norms, and belonging.” Though the dominant themes tend to flatten out the differing styles and worldviews of the writers, literature students and fellow academics should take note of Donahue’s helpful survey. (July)