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    Drifting
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    Drifting
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    Drifting
    Ebook262 pages2 hours

    Drifting

    By Katia D. Ulysse

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

  • Publicize to major dailies, weeklies, literary publications, alternative publications. Major radio and television push.
  • Very strong fiction debut.
  • Akashic's promotion will have a strong social media component
  • Strong candidate for B&N Discover Program.
  • Promote to a general literary audience, but also to African American and Carirbbean-themed media venues.
    • LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAkashic Books
    Release dateJun 16, 2014
    ISBN9781617752797
    Unavailable
    Drifting
    Author

    Katia D. Ulysse

    KATIA D. ULYSSE is a fiction writer, born in Haiti. Her short stories, essays, and Pushcart Prize–nominated poetry appear in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including: The Caribbean Writer, Smartish Pace, Phoebe, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism; Mozayik, The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States, and Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat. She has taught in Baltimore public schools for thirteen years, and served as Goucher College’s Spring 2017 Kratz Writer in Residence. Drifting, a collection of short stories, drew high praise from literary critics. She is currently at work on another short story collection. Mouths Don’t Speak is her latest novel.

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    Reviews for Drifting

    4/5

    17 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Katia Ulysse's DRIFTING is a collection of related stories that float through her novel like half-told tales. The reader is seduced by certain characters who never reappear to tell the end of their story, leaving a mysterious void and an opportunity for the reader to imagine an ending for their lives. Ulysse's work shows the influence of other Haitian and West Indian writers. Edwidge Danticat, Julia Alvarez, and Jamaica Kincaid seem to hover in the background of certain chapters, showing that Ulysee, while unique and talented, is certainly influenced in her writing life, albeit by very good writers. Some chapters are tantalizingly strong and full of suspense, but they end too suddenly and the reader moves on to the next tale feeling a bit let down that certain characters and stories were left adrift. The work is inconsistent in places, with not every chapter and every character holding the same weight. Ulysee's strength is in her girl characters, particularly Flora and Yseult, childhood friends in Haiti who both hope to reunite in America someday. It is the poignant, believable writing about girls such as these that hold the reader to the page hoping for more storyline, more linkage between characters. But, in Ulysee's book, characters come and go, related in interesting ways between the old world and the new. Still, the reader yearns for more resolution. If one is driven to find out "what happened?" DRIFTING may not provide the satisfaction of a more traditional novel. Still, there is plenty to like in Ulysee's pages.Although she has published a children's book, DRIFTING is Ulysee's first book for adults. It will be well received as it is well-written and it tells the Haitian and Haitian-American experience as well as any living Haitian writer. Enjoy the stories, get lost in the tales, but remember that the book is called DRIFTING, and don't be upset if, while reading, the feeling comes across that the reader is drifting a bit too.
    • 5/5
      Drifting is the story of Haitian immigrants who come to the United States and find a totally different world than they expected. It covers forty years of Haitian family life. All the stories are interwoven by relationships that the characters have with each other. A great diverse read.
    • 4/5
      So much triumph and heartbreak in one book. I did find it interesting that all of the characters came to America by way of New York. Wives and children reunite with their husband/father, except one who finds a new husband once she lands in NY. In one story, a sibling meets an implied unfortunate ending. In another story a girl falls into the job-for-right-now trap after she and her mother find themselves homeless.A wife sells everything she owns to keep her husband alive.Definitely a good read.
    • 5/5
      As the title suggests, Katia D. Ulysse's group of tales drift from Haiti to New York and back again. She gives voice to a rhythm that is Haitian in nature. Her story telling is gentle while her subject is harsh. The stories in this book are separate yet weave together. Ms. Ulysse gives the reader an insight to what it means to leave all that one has known and travel to the unknown. She also touches on the sense of loss and homesickness experienced by many immigrants. For the Hatian immigrants opportunities are so much better away from all one is familiar with, but how does one not feel a sense of loss of "home". The story includes characters who choose to stay in Haiti and the realization that when a family member leaves, they may never see them again. Loss on both sides.....yet opportunity for the future.This is not a big book but it covers a lot of ground, I liked it....I liked it a lot, perhaps mostly because of the "voice" of the author. That voice never gives up hope while managing to tell of the struggles of a people, struggles most of us can not imagine. But, isn't that what story tellers do ? They open the mind and after their tale we see things differently, more clearly or perhaps we give it more thought. Katia D. Ulysse does it beautifully. Great debut by a new voice, a voice with a style of it's own.
    • 4/5
      Well-written...compelling characters. Horrifying. I'm not very familiar with Haitian culture, so I don't know how indicative the characters were of a reality. Generally though, so many of the parents were so harsh to their children and the outcomes in most of the tales were so bleak, that this was a difficult read. Still, it was a good read. While some of the characters were horrible, they were developed. It brings me back to Philip Roth's [When she was good]. I hated the "she" of the title, but had to give Roth credit for being so artful in developing her that she wasn't easy to dismiss, but was easy to dislike...Ulysse is definitely a talent to keep an eye on.
    • 4/5
      I received a free copy this book from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.This is an illuminating look at the trials and tribulations of four decades (1970-2010) of Haitian family life, both in Haiti and as immigrants in the United States. The narrative does, indeed, drift as the title implies. There is a thread, sometimes thin, that connects the segments. We wander through various neighborhoods, spy on tourists at a posh hotel, observe spiritual practices, dream impossible dreams, witness ugly crimes, and see some successes. At times it is a bit difficult to follow but it is a rewarding read.
    • 3/5
      I received this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers. After reading the description of the book, I was very excited and looking forward to interesting glimpse into Haitian culture. I typically enjoy books like this that weave different storylines together and switch back and forth from different perspectives, ultimately linking up the stories and giving the reader an “Aha!” moment once things start to come together. Unfortunately, I found this book very hard to follow and get invested in. Of course, this may not be the case for everyone and I would recommend it to other readers. Ulysse is obviously a very talented writer.
    • 4/5
      Drifting, Katia D. UlysseI won this book for review from Librarything and the main thing I have to say about this arrangement is that it gives me the opportunity to read authors I’ve never heard of and discover voices that sing in my heart. This is another fine example. Ulysse provides several interwoven stories that bring all the flavor, love and heartbreak of living in Haiti under the harshest of conditions and splashes them about in their new world haven, the U.S.A., where sometimes what you work so hard to achieve can often turn into a nightmare of broken dreams. She gives us insights into a world I’d never have the opportunity or ability to fully realize otherwise. I cannot step into her protagonists’ shoes but their thoughts, regrets, loss and best of all, their jumping off points teach of a beautiful people trapped in abject poverty without losing their self-respect and historical backgrounds. The characters are vivid, the scenery screams of paradise and the lives reflect every human’s desire to be more than a stereotype. Well done, Katia. Well done.