The Past Is Alive

As made explicit in the Epilogue, many stories of KRIK? KRAK! explore how the past has influenced the present, and how it continues to do so. The author describes herself in the Epilogue as full of the spirits of the hundreds of Haitian women who have come before her. Full of this spirit, full of these stories, she is compelled to write in order to share a forgotten history with the world.

Drawing upon the long history of spiritualism and belief in the supernatural in Haiti, the author imbues many of her characters with a rich spiritual life. Grace in "Caroline's Wedding" constantly dreams of her long-dead father, who appears just out of reach. The playful game of question and answer he played with Grace as a child gives Grace a way to communicate with her mother at the story's end. The narrator in "Nineteen...