A review by chillcox15
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

3.0

3.5 stars for me. I really liked the first three quarters of this book or so, which sublimate a ton of theoretical and real world concerns into the internal monologue of a mother of a patchwork family set across the American landscape, primarily concerned with immigration and testament. There is room for vital seriousness and humane foibles throughout, and the book doesn't shy away from interrogating intellectual forebears and concepts, while still being fairly clear about references and internal processing. I just really took a nosedive out of interest with the book as soon as the children took control of the narrative, whether it be the fictional children of the elegies within the novel or the two children of the protagonist and her husband, and so the last hundred pages for me basically bricked the whole thing for me. That being said, I like to see the big swing from Luiselli, and she continues to be one of the foremost writers able to combine large conceptual experiments with accessible prose and interests.