The Morningside by Tea Obreht

February 25, 2025

The Morningside by Tea Obreht

Set in Island City, the Morningside is a once elegant but now rundown apartment building where Silvia and her mother live after being evicted from their ancestral home and resettled in Island City. The building is only partially occupied since many residents fled the city. Silvia's mother wants to forget their past and where they originally came from, but Silvia's aunt fills her head with superstition and fears. Silvia lives a lonely life until a girl close to her age named Mila moves into the building, and the two girls become fascinated by the woman who lives in the penthouse.

Meh. A dystopian novel by the author of Inland and The Tiger's Wie that sounds like it might be set in a future Manhattan devastated by climate change and war. The author doesn't seem to know what story she wants to tell: first it's about evil spirits and folklore and discovering the true identity of the woman in the penthouse, then it changes to the plight of refugees and conspiracy, and then it switches to war crimes and government abuses. And then there are these damned birds that don't have anything to do with anything. If you want to read something that has similar themes but is a much better book, read Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts.

Post-apocalyptic New York

Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung

July 31, 2024

Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung

The cultural revolution erupts in China in 1948, but in rural Shandong, the Ang family is living according to 10th century traditions and is more concerned about the lack of a male heir. The oldest son's wife produced only daughters, considered to be useless mouths to feed until they marry and leave. When the Communists take control of the country, the son and his parents flee, leaving his wife and their daughters behind at the family home, with little food and no money. When they are evicted, the mother and daughters decide to go to the city to try to find the rest of the family.

Based on the author's grandmother's story of fleeing China for Taiwan during the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese treated their girls like crap; they may still. And the mothers and grandmothers not only put up with it, they encouraged it. Not that the Chinese have a patent on treating daughters with disdain - my own parents weren't that crazy about having a daughter (I was the only one) and made it obvious that they much preferred my brothers, until they got old and then having a daughter to look after them was a good thing. Inspiring story but depressing at the same time.

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

Cutting off a man's pigtail, considered to be a sign of the ruling or wealthy class, during the Cultural Revolution

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

June 14, 2023

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

A Jewish refugee fleeing the Nazis, a girl and her father escaping El Salvador, and a child separated from her family at the U.S./Mexico border. These are all characters in Allende's latest book.

I love Isabel Allende's writing so was happy to receive an eARC of her latest novel. This one was all over the place, so it was hard to tell what the story was at first or how the various characters would come together. It almost read like a collection of short stories strung together by the threads of being a refugee and losing one's family. An important story, but my least favorite Allende book so far.

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

Refugee children at the U.S./Mexico border

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

January 6, 2020

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

(I would have finished reading this yesterday on my commute to work (the library is open on Sunday) while I was on the CTA Blue Line train.  But there was a homeless man on the train who was sleeping across several seats, and when he stood up, he wasn't wearing any pants.  Yep, bare-ass naked.  There are cameras in the cars, and the CTA workers removed him from train at the next station.  But it was still pretty unnerving and I had a hard time concentrating.)

In 1938, with war looming in Europe, Spain is in the middle of its own civil war.  Medical student Victor Dalmau and his family live in Barcelona, and Victor and his brother Guillem join the battle for independence, Victor as a medic and Guillem as a soldier.  When Franco’s forces overrun Barcelona, Guillem’s pregnant sweetheart Roser flees over the mountains to France, in the company of Victor's mother and one of Victor's friends.  At the instigation of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, Victor and Roser marry and emigrate to Chile on board the Winnipeg, where they meet and become entangled with members of the aristocratic del Solar family.

I have read just about everything that Isabel Allende has written, including her nonfiction.  Her books are always extensively researched and gorgeously written, and A Long Petal of the Sea is no exception. The title of the book refers to Allende's native country of Chile.  There are loads of details about the Spanish Civil War, and then the revolution and dictatorship in Chile, maybe a little too much. But there are hidden historical details such as the refugee ship Winnipeg, organized by the Chilean government and the poet Pablo Neruda to bring Spanish refugees to Chile after Franco set himself up as a dictator in Spain.  The characters and the lives that Allende creates for them are wonderful.  Be advised that there is some brutality since the characters were living in brutal times.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.