You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"This whole country, Papa said, is an enormous cemetery, but only some people get proper graves, because most lives don't matter. Most lives get erased, lost in the whirlpool of trash we call history, he said."
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
challenging
Despite Luiselli's excellent prose, and the incredible depth and humour she brought to the characterization of the two children when told from the voice of the mother, this book was a disappointment.
My issue, and it's a very big one, is with her consistent description of the Chiricahua
Apache as "lost", absent, vanished, existing only in the past.
"Because they were the last of something."
"...where...the last of the Apaches are buried."
"He's somehow trying to capture their past presence in the world, and making it audible, despite their current absence..."
This is a lie. They are, in no way, gone. They are very much alive, present and have their own voices. It's shocking to me, that someone who obviously did an incredible amount of research for this book never bothered to fact-check what accounts for a foundational part of this story. The irony of how she fully takes away the reality and voice of one group of marginalized people while trying so hard to capture the sounds, the voices, the presence of another marginalized group. The disservice she does to the Chiricahua by propagating the lie that they are, essentially "extinct" is sickening to me.
My issue, and it's a very big one, is with her consistent description of the Chiricahua
Apache as "lost", absent, vanished, existing only in the past.
"Because they were the last of something."
"...where...the last of the Apaches are buried."
"He's somehow trying to capture their past presence in the world, and making it audible, despite their current absence..."
This is a lie. They are, in no way, gone. They are very much alive, present and have their own voices. It's shocking to me, that someone who obviously did an incredible amount of research for this book never bothered to fact-check what accounts for a foundational part of this story. The irony of how she fully takes away the reality and voice of one group of marginalized people while trying so hard to capture the sounds, the voices, the presence of another marginalized group. The disservice she does to the Chiricahua by propagating the lie that they are, essentially "extinct" is sickening to me.
Beautiful, devastating read, which developed more twists and layers the deeper I dug into this story within a story. My full review (on the second half) for the (awesomely-fun-and-enlightening-and-if-you're-not-following-them-you-should-be) Tournament of Books is here:
https://themorningnews.org/article/camp-tob-2019-week-six-lost-children-archive
https://themorningnews.org/article/camp-tob-2019-week-six-lost-children-archive
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes