The Art of Leaving and Arriving
David Antrobus Posted on Wednesday, August 28, 2013 at 10:07AM 
For a blog entitled The Migrant Type, this article ("All Immigrants are Artists") at The Atlantic has a special resonance.
While contemplating Patricia Engel’s It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris, the gloriously-named Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat encounters the idea that "re-creating your entire life is a form of reinvention on par with the greatest works of literature" with the same sense of astonishment I also felt when reading the article itself, let alone the novel that sparked it. As an immigrant, I'd never considered the act of migration a creative one, yet in the sense of reinvention Danticat outlines, there's a compelling and even romantic case for it.
Her interpretation of Engel's novel reveals the enchanting idea that art need not reside in the mythic clouds but can (and perhaps should?) live among real people in the practical world of survival. As she writes—in a sentence that had me nodding my head vigorously—"I’ve never seen anyone connect being an artist and an immigrant so explicitly, and for me it was a revelation." Yes. In a world in which immigrants are treated with suspicion and even hostility in many of their host countries, this was hidden in plain sight all along. And fittingly, it takes an artist (or two) to articulate it. Speaking of which, I want to give the last word to the writer of the source novel, since this short quote is simply lovely:
"[A]ll immigrants are artists because they create a life, a future, from nothing but a dream. The immigrant’s life is art in its purest form."
Reader Comments (2)
Why did it take me so long to see this post?? I agree with all of the thoughts expressed: beginning with the glorious name of Edwidge Danticat and finishing with Patricia Engel's quote on the artistic merit of immigration.
I admire individuals who challenge and strive and dream, no matter the scale, for too often we stop short because of fear.
Both Danticat and Antrobus have compelled me to seek out Ms. Engel's novel. :)))
Better late than never, Jo! :) It's impossible to get to it all, really. Thanks for your comment.