Things You Would Know if You Grew Up Around Here by Nancy Wayson Dinan

May 27, 2020

Things You Would Know if You Grew Up Around Here – Nancy Wayson Dinan

Texas, May 2015 – in the hill country of east Texas, three women head out into the aftermath of a hurricane and flood, searching for lost loved ones.  Boyd searches for her best friend Isaac; Boyd’s parents Lucy Maud and Kevin search for Boyd and Isaac; Carla, a transplant from Austin, searches for Lucy Maud and Boyd, as well as a sense of belonging, something she has missed all her life.

This one fell a little flat for me.  The characters make a lot of stupid decisions (but as I've told other librarians, if the characters didn't do dumb things, most novels would be three pages long).  The writing is beautiful and the descriptions are lush, and most of the characters are well-fleshed out.  My issue is with the lack of plot and resolution.  At least two characters are introduced and figure in the novel for long sections but don't serve a purpose.  But these are the hallmarks of literary fiction, and fans of literary fiction will love this.

I'm back to work at the library so I will start getting more bestsellers rather than advanced reader copies.  Up until we were ordered back to work by the City of Chicago ten days ago, I haven't been concerned about contracting COVID-19.  I followed the city and state's guidelines:  stayed home as much as possible, isolated from family and friends, only went out when I absolutely needed to, and always wore a mask when outside my own house and yard.  Now I am taking public transportation to work, and the city is planning to throw open the library's doors one day next week.  There are very few safety regulations in place:  we have no plexiglas shields or face shields, no barriers of any kind to keep patrons back from the staff.  A lot of the responsibility will fall on our security staff, who are already stretched thin, and will now be responsible for checking that patrons are wearing masks, that there aren't too many patrons sitting in an area, and that they don't stay in the building longer than they are supposed to.  It's an impossible task for security.

A library is different from other businesses, like a restaurant, a retail store, a nail or hair salon, or an office - all of those organizations can restrict who comes into their place of business.  They can tell a person who is dirty or appears to be sick that they have to leave.  Libraries don't have that luxury - we are open to the dirtiest, smelliest people in the city.  All a homeless person will have to do to enter the library building is pull his t-shirt up over his face until he is past the guard station and in the building.  People dump their kids at the library when they go to work.  Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, has closed the beaches, parks and jogging paths but she is hell-bent on reopening the library ASAP - she has more concern for the health of joggers and bikers than she does for library patrons and staff.  I know who I'm not voting for next mayoral election!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in return for a review.