ronnie2024 's review for:

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

4.0

---

I put this book down after I started it because I found it off-putting that the protagonist referred to her children as “the boy” and “the girl.” When I picked it up again, I realized no one in the family was named, and that the whole point of the novel was to somehow record the existence of anonymous, “lost children,” either by their presence or their absence. Some readers objected to the depiction of Native Peoples as being “vanishing” or “lost,” but it seemed one of the author’s intentions was to create parallels between the Indian Removal Act and the current situation at our southern border. I agree with other readers that some passages were overwritten and strained credulity, and that the children spoke in voices beyond their years. For me, however, those shortcomings didn’t diminish the power of this novel.