“BOOKS, CHEAPER THAN AIRLINE TICKETS”
A dozen masked Bookers met at the home of Debbie Yarger with Rebecca Brisendine leading the discussion of this month’s selection. Many kudos and thanks to her for sharing her insights with thought-provoking questions fostering a lively conversation. 10-1/2 liked the book (one not finished) with Rebecca admitting she almost put it down after the violent first chapter but gave it a chance and was glad she did.
American Dirt, a combination of tender, terrifying, brutal, poignant, current, suspenseful, deeply human, revengeful, loyalty, with rich characterizations that opens with a mass slaughter of sixteen people at a family barbeque in a pleasant neighborhood of Acapulco, Mexico. It started with this massacre and 400 pages later ended in Maryland, a refuge. Cummins used strong character development, exquisite writing with words setting scenes that made you gasp and hold your breath in the same sentence. “Books open a previously undiscovered window in (the) mind and forever alter the perception of the world.”
Out of 34,000 reviews, 9% were negative most citing the author’s misstatements as to her heritage, the plight of Mexican writers who lived this book every day but are seldom recognized while Cummins received a seven-figure advance and the film rights optioned…it’s been called a brown story told through a white lens” Lydia and Luca, feel like a White mother and her White son with nominally Mexican names slapped on and sprinkled with a little lime and salt…an airport novel for the migrating elite”…laced with stereotypical characters, misuse of the Spanish/English – English/Spanish languages, a “trauma-porn melodrama.” Writers are told to write what you know…but you don’t have to be a murderer to write about one (I hope!)
Our discussion:
We talked about our own stories having visited Acapulco and if the experience left us wanting to return or not. After my family trip in the late 1980s with armed men lining the downtown streets and being warned if we left the property for the beach, the “police” could not guarantee our safety, we’ve not given it another thought…find a friendlier place to vacation!
We discussed the relationship between Lydia, a wife of a journalist, mother of an eight-year-old boy, and owner of a bookstore and Javier, the suave, powerful, bibliophile, who also held the title of head of a Mexican drug cartel and whether or not their meeting was by chance or calculated deciding there was a true chemistry between the two of them and on a platonic level, a love affair. My image of him was of the Dos Equis man…dubbed the most interesting man in the world – but add to that the most dangerous as well. We analyzed Lydia’s responsibility for the slaying of her family as she approved 100% of the article her husband would publish on La Lechuza, “The Owl,” emphatically insisting there was no reason to fear retaliation from him. Did she feel guilty about her role in the massacre? Her husband, Sebastian, was a journalist – it was his calling to report the news and stand up for the truth. We spoke of his responsibility not only to his job, but he had a family who he put in constant danger with his published words. The core of her “relationship” with Javier drove her optimism that even as the head of a cartel he would be pleased with his portrayal. We talked about how faced with survival totally alone and with responsibility for her son, how bravery and perseverance replaced fear in Lydia’s character… “she would staple (Luca) to her, sew him into her skin, affix her body permanently to his now…she would become his conjoined twin-mother…” After fleeing Acapulco, she was a hunted animal after being spared from the massacre of her family riding in a van with girls from an Indiana missionary to jumping from overpasses to the top of a moving train. Did Javier want the person he called “queen of my soul” alive to mourn the loss of her family and question whether she was to blame…did he want her to grieve as much after the suicide of his daughter, Marta, after she read the article about her beloved Daddy’s real job. He was her “es mi cielo mi luna y todas mis estrellas” (my sky, my moon, and all my stars.)
Luca’s character, endearing and believable, showed his intelligence, perception, vulnerability, and loyalty especially in his special relationship with a “fellow migrant” Rebeca. Our Rebecca the reviewer wants a sequel – starting with a relationship between these two in America. We discussed Lorenzo, “the scum” whose job was to keep track of Lydia and Luca for “The Owl” with no one shedding tears at his demise. Left to the reader’s interpretation was whether Lydia and Luca’s lives were deliberately saved by Javier so she would feel pain every waking minute of every day. We talked about the “coyote” who led them on the journey to realize their dream out of oppression and into a refuge of hope on American dirt. We shared personal stories of the fate of undocumented workers and the complexity of gaining citizenship.
On the business side:
We had some news from Daryl Daniels that would make a grown person jump up and down and holler hi-de-ho! She and Barry are in Houston renting an apartment while she’s in treatment at MDA. She received news yesterday that testing for her stem cell transplant will begin January 19th and although all previous tests will have to be repeated and updated, it’s a step in the right direction. She thanks everyone for “pulling her through all this with our thoughts and prayers.” I’m sure she’d love to hear from you. Email is daryl.daniels@hotmail.com.
The January BookTrib books have arrived, and I’ll post the titles and descriptions on Facebook and encourage you to select one or two to read if possible.
Since Bookers has endured the pandemic limitations, we’re considering extending another month into June. Stay tuned and let me know your thoughts.
WHITE: LIGHT READ
PINK: MODERATELY CHALLENGING
RED: CHALLENGING
February 9: Olive Kitteridge & Olive Again, Elizabeth Strout
The author, described as a master at animating the ordinary, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Olive Kitteridge featuring an indomitable, compassionate, unpredictable retired schoolteacher in a small coastal town in Maine. Strout weaves a tale in thirteen linked stories, a vibrant exploration of the human soul that will make you laugh, nod in recognition, wince in pain, and shed a tear or two. This is a revisit for Bookers as thirteen reviewers offered their opinions of each story in November 2009. Ms. Strout thought she had put Olive to bed, but the eternal cantankerous character kept begging for more press so Olive, Again was born.
PINK
Home of Bonnie Magee
Discussion Leaders: JoDee Neathery, Olive Kitteridge & Ann Ireland, Olive, Again.
March 9: The Dutch House, Ann Patchett
PINK
A story about the interminable bond between siblings – a brother and a sister who grow up in a fairy tale – huge house, loving father, and caring staff. The only thing missing is their mother who fled the pressure of managing the household when they were young.
April 13: The Book of Lost Friends, Lisa Wingate
Historical novel set in the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, 1875, Louisiana. Three young women search for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South and a modern-day teacher learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives. Based on actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War as newly freed slaves searched for loved ones who had been sold away.
PINK
May 11: People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
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An Australia rare-book expert is offered a job of a lifetime – analysis and conservation of a priceless book, one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. As she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries, the reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.
Summer Read: Clementine, The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill, Sonia Purnell
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A long overdue tribute to the extraordinary woman who was Winston Churchill’s closest confidante, fiercest critic, and shrewdest advisor. Later in life he claimed that victory in World War II would have been impossible without the woman who stood by his side for fifty-seven turbulent years.
Discussion Leader: Beverly Dossett
Home of Beverly Dossett – fingers and toes crossed!
Happy Reading,
JoDee
