Now I get why people love Roxane Gay! This short story collection contains 15 texts of varying length that all deal with Haiti and its people. In the acknowledgements, the author states: "I write about Haiti and the Haitian American experience from a place of great privilege but also a place of great pride" - and this pride shows in the texts themselves. Gay's stories radiate love for the country, its culture and the Haitian people, and the emotional impact derives from the empathy the reader cannot help but feel when reading about the joy and pain the characters experience. 

What struck me the most is how Gay writes about the attachment people feel to their home and the longing for a better life somewhere else (in these cases: The U.S.). How must it feel to live in a country that others declare to be defined by its poverty? In a text that was obviously written when for some time not Haiti, but Nicaragua was the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Gay adresses Nicaraguans: 

"You will hear these words until you are sick to your stomach, until you no longer recognize su tierra, until you start to believe the news stories are true, that nothing else matters, that sie no puedes comprar cosas que no necesitas, tu no existes, tu no cuentas, tu no mereces respeto."

(Currently, Haiti is again the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and has to deal with the destructive power of this label.) There are also wonderful texts about the Haitian immigrant experience, what it means to leave and how it feels to be perceived as a foreigner:

"For many years, we didn't realize our parents had accents, that their voices sounded different to unkind American ears. All we heard was home. Then the world intruded. It always does."

Full disclosure: I am generally not very knowledgeable about Haiti, but Gay gave me a sense of what this country is all about. I read the whole book in one setting and was basically glued to my kindle. So mission accomplished and thank you, Roxane Gay!

This powerful debut collection of stories illuminate Roxane Gay's brilliance in her masterful ability to weave different narratives with humour and insightful depth at every imaginable turn!

I am a huge Roxanne Gay fan and this collection did not disappoint. It has all of the sharpness and detail of her other works and has the haunting quality that makes the stories stay with you. As a  reader, you experience Haiti and the immigrant experience both the good and the bad.  Gay has a way with words and I found myself reading and rereading passages, savoring the writing and quotable passages. 
These 15 stories all have memorable characters that develop in full in the short time you have to get to know them. You feel their joy, their pain, theirs highs and their lows. Gay does not shy away from pain but rather forces the reader to confront their assumptions and expectations head on. There is no where to hide, you've got to embrace the intensity of the feeling and process it. This book is exhausting and consuming but in a good way. I came out of it gasping for air but relishing the experience. This is what I love about Gay's writing and look for in her work.

In Ayiti, Roxane Gay uses the motif of Haiti as a viewfinder to capture several distinct portraits of the land and its people. It's an unflinching study of a little-examined, often stereotyped country, told through vignettes that explore love and loss and trauma and survival. On full display is Gay's mastery of language which flows through each narrative so serenely as to appear effortless.

A fantastic collection of essay, poems, and short stories!