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tatyana_taos's review against another edition
2.0
[sigh:] I really wanted to like this book. I admire Susan Straight for writing about people and situations that nobody else will even touch, but you still have to have character development and a plot that doesn't depend on well-soaped coincidence. These are not real people, they are political stand-ins and they ultimately fall over like cardboard cutouts they are.
wildflower37's review against another edition
4.0
This book is visceral in its desire for maternal connection. So many children missing their mothers and some of those mothers missing their children. And then there are the mothers who disregard their children and those who are not privileged with the title of “mother” but who provide the love and security the children are seeking.
At the core of this book is the sudden separation of Serfina, a Mexican Indian woman is in the US illegally, from her 3 year old daughter Elvia. Serafina spend years and faces great difficulties to journey back to Elvia after her deportation back to a distant village in Mexico. During that time, Elvia believes that she was abandoned purposely and it informs her sense of self along with a deep well of longing to know her mother.
The many story lines revolve around this question of maternity and the search to be known and loved in such an elemental way. I found this to be such a juxtaposition from the harshness of the laws that separated Serafina from her daughter. The emotional and physical journey each of them takes is fraught with pain, wrapped in symbolism and driven by hope. Susan Straight writes beautifully about such difficult things. This novel deserves deep consideration and appreciation.
At the core of this book is the sudden separation of Serfina, a Mexican Indian woman is in the US illegally, from her 3 year old daughter Elvia. Serafina spend years and faces great difficulties to journey back to Elvia after her deportation back to a distant village in Mexico. During that time, Elvia believes that she was abandoned purposely and it informs her sense of self along with a deep well of longing to know her mother.
The many story lines revolve around this question of maternity and the search to be known and loved in such an elemental way. I found this to be such a juxtaposition from the harshness of the laws that separated Serafina from her daughter. The emotional and physical journey each of them takes is fraught with pain, wrapped in symbolism and driven by hope. Susan Straight writes beautifully about such difficult things. This novel deserves deep consideration and appreciation.
jdgcreates's review against another edition
5.0
(4.5) A beautiful and heartbreaking story that put me in mind of [b:Sing, Unburied, Sing|32920226|Sing, Unburied, Sing|Jesmyn Ward|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499340866l/32920226._SY75_.jpg|53537916], but that tells the story of Mexican, American, and Indigenous lives intertwined in believably painful ways. Everyone who believes that immigration or asylum-seeking is "wrong" or "bad" or "avoidable" should be forced to read this book; if they did it would surely inject some much needed empathy and realism into their narrow worldview. Also, if you eat industrially farmed produce (and most of us do), this will really open your eyes to the harm that does to people as well as planet.
That this novel hits as hard in 2019 as when it was published in 2001 depresses me: No one should be demonized for trying to make a better, safer life for themselves or their children, no one. A powerful family story with much wider consequences for the reader!
That this novel hits as hard in 2019 as when it was published in 2001 depresses me: No one should be demonized for trying to make a better, safer life for themselves or their children, no one. A powerful family story with much wider consequences for the reader!
ismahane's review
5.0
As a daughter of a strong hardworking woman who sacrificed so much throughout her life, whether it was for her siblings or her children, this book was the first that I've read to come close to describing the lengths that a mother (like mine) or a daughter would go to for their beloved.
As a reader of a diverse background, albeit not the same background as the characters, it was definitely interesting to get a glimpse into a society so much like mine in its bilingualism and divide between holding on to the traditions of the past and going forward with advancements of the future.
As a reader of a diverse background, albeit not the same background as the characters, it was definitely interesting to get a glimpse into a society so much like mine in its bilingualism and divide between holding on to the traditions of the past and going forward with advancements of the future.
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