The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A moving reflection on a subject that touches us all, by the bestselling author of Claire of the Sea Light
Edwidge Danticat’s The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story is at once a personal account of her mother dying from cancer and a deeply considered reckoning with the ways that other writers have approached death in their own work. “Writing has been the primary way I have tried to make sense of my losses,” Danticat notes in her introduction. “I have been writing about death for as long as I have been writing.” The book moves outward from the shock of her mother’s diagnosis and sifts through Danticat’s writing life and personal history, all the while shifting fluidly from examples that range from Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude to Toni Morrison’s Sula. The narrative, which continually circles the many incarnations of death from individual to large-scale catastrophes, culminates in a beautiful, heartrending prayer in the voice of Danticat’s mother. A moving tribute and a work of astute criticism, The Art of Death is a book that will profoundly alter all who encounter it.
Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah's Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; and the novel-in-stories, The Dew Breaker. She is the editor of The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Diaspora in the United States and The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Men and Women of All Colors and Cultures, Haiti Noir and Haiti Noir 2, and Best American Essays 2011. She has written several books for young adults and children—Anacaona, Behind the Mountains, Eight Days, The Last Mapou, Mama's Nightingale, and Untwine—as well as a travel narrative, After the Dance, A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel. Her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. She is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow.
Read more from Edwidge Danticat
One World Two: A Second Global Anthology of Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Money and Class in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBomb: The Author Interviews Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Other Side of the Sea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Moment: Changemakers on Why and How They Joined the Fight for Social Justice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFault Lines: Views across Haiti's Divide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Art of Death
Related ebooks
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letters from Amherst: Five Narrative Letters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Chronology of Water: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Stranger's Journey: Race, Identity, and Narrative Craft in Writing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5MFA vs NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fearless Confessions: A Writer's Guide to Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best American Essays 2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Miracle: The Novelist's Handbook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inventors: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll the Fierce Tethers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Best Microfiction 2021: Best Microfiction, #3 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Field Notes from the Flood Zone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecond Words: Selected Critical Prose 1960–1982 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGet Published in Literary Magazines: The Indispensable Guide to Preparing, Submitting and Writing Better Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing the Novella Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Gardner on Writing: On Becoming a Novelist, On Writers & Writing, and On Moral Fiction Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Living by Fiction Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tell It Slant, Third Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Becoming a Novelist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Composition & Creative Writing For You
The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zen in the Art of Writing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Legal Writing in Plain English: A Text with Exercises Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Only Writing Series You'll Ever Need - Grant Writing: A Complete Resource for Proposal Writers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lincoln Lawyer: A Mysterious Profile Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Craft of Research, Fourth Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emotion Thesaurus (Second Edition): A Writer's Guide to Character Expression Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to a Young Poet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE EMOTIONAL WOUND THESAURUS: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elements of Style: The Original Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Writer's Diary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything Writing Poetry Book: A Practical Guide To Style, Structure, Form, And Expression Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Creative Journal: The Art of Finding Yourself: 35th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels: How to Write Kissing Books, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Better Grammar in 30 Minutes a Day Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for The Art of Death
15 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I like this "Art of" series a lot—they're always thought-provoking, both in terms of writing and life in general, and add a bunch of books to my wish list (which is always a good thing). This one is no exception. Danticat does a good job with the subject, meditating on death and dying and their depictions in literature—well woven together and not maudlin or overly sentimental.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A surprisingly effective combination, this is both a memoir of the author's mother's death from cancer and an examination of the way different authors whose work she likes have depicted death. Considering the portrayal of death as art allows Danticat to explore this essential subject – its dread, allure, power, and the potent force its inevitability exerts on every other aspect of human life – from a variety of angles and with useful artistic distance. This intellectually valuable coolness is balanced and the book gains warmth and depth by the love and vulnerability illustrated in the sections about Danticat's time caring for her mother during her illness and dying. Thought provoking, powerful, and lovely.