Edwidge Danticat's The Dew Breaker is a tear jerking hypnotic.  Haitian American sculptor, Ka creates a piece in honor of her father and what he endured during Dictator François Duvalier's torturous reign over Haiti. What she doesn't know is that her father was not a victim, but in fact a dew breaker-a Haitian torturer who because they usually came before dawn, "as the dew was settling on the leaves" to snatch their victims away from their homes in the name of Duvalier.

One encounter after the other, Ka's father identity begins to unravel around him. Can he continue his new person as a Brooklyn barbershop owner or will the neighborhood find him out? Will his family forgive him? Can he forgive himself?

This book is so great, because it tells a chilling tale of physical and mental torture. We learn more about Haiti and the lives of Haitian immigrants in America. And their struggle to assimilate to a new culture and forget their past no matter how horrific it was.

However, the novel was set   up more like a series of short stories instead of the traditional novel structure, which would have made the story greater as we felt a continuous peak and valley moving us to the most horrible moment of Ka's father's life.   I wanted to drop with him--experience his greatest fears come to pass in front of his eyes, watch each encounter rip away at him until he is at his worst. Simply put I wanted to ride this rollercoaster of fear with him and that didn't happen because Danticat made Ka the narrator of the story, which keeps you from understanding the inner struggle of her father.    Moreover, the pacing slowed the story down in places where it didn't need to be.

Dee Stewart