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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

NEW FICTION TITLES

THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO US, BY ANNIE BARROWS    2015

                                                                    


Written by one of the co-authors of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, this novel focuses on a small town of Macedonia, West Virginia, during the Depression era.  Layla, the daughter of a Senator, is sent to Macedonia to work on a history of Macedonia for the Federal Writer’s Project.  Her father has decided not to support her, and she is on relief and given an assignment.  She stays with the Romeyn family – Jottie and her divorced brother, Felix, and his children Willa and Bird.  Twin sisters Mae and Minerva also live with them during the week, and go to their husbands on the weekend.

Stories of the Romeyn family and Macedonia unfold as Layla meets different residents and hears their tales of the town.  Felix’s father created American Everlasting, a hosiery company, and Felix worked there.  The reader knows that something happened, and Felix no longer works at the company.  We learn that Vause Hamilton, Felix’s best friend and Jottie’s sweetheart, was found in the building when a fire had started, and he had money that he appeared to be stealing.  Throughout the book, the reader tries to figure out what really happened, and finds out at the end.  Willa is a strong 12 year old who adores her father and doesn’t understand why he is gone so much.

Jottie cares for the children and acts as their mother.  Sol, who works at the factory is interested in Jottie, but Jottie still feels her love for Vause, from twenty years earlier.  In the end, we find out not only who started the fire, but why.  The book is written from several points of view, often changing within a chapter.  The story is also told through letters, flashbacks, and through the writing Layla does of Macedonia.  In the end, Layla writes a real history of Macedonia containing the truth.   She changes from a spoiled wealthy girl to a woman who has some depth and has found some purpose, and people whom she likes and can relate to.  The book has a good story, although it strays at points.  The writer has several plot lines going, and the story line can be confusing at times but comes together in the end.    Although her first book was more tightly written, I really enjoy reading The Truth According to Us. 

 

 WE NEVER ASKED FOR WINGS, BY VANESSA DIFFENBACH.  2015

                                                                       
                                                 

We Never Asked for Wings  is the second novel by this author, and I really like her writing.  This novel is set in the present day in the S.F. Bay area.  Letty Espinosa had a baby, Alex,  when she was 17, and her parents took care of Alex, and then another child, Luna, who is 9 years younger.  Letty was in love with Wes in high school.  When she realized she was pregnant, she never told Wes, and he went off to college, and then medical school.  We never learn who Luna’s father is.  Letty worked jobs to help feed the family, and to send money to Mexico, to family members.

She has never really been a parent.  Her mother, Mary Elena, and father, Enrique have raised her children.  They now want to go back to Mexico.  Letty leaves her children alone in her apartment and drives to Mexico, to try and bring them back.  After a few days, she calls her friend, Sara, and asks her to watch the kids.  When she returns, the children are scared and angry, mainly because their grandparents are gone, and also because they have never seen Letty act like a mother.  She doesn’t know how to cook, or take care of her children.  Alex is 15 and Luna is 6.  In the past, Letty has been drunk many times, and now works at a barmaid at the airport
 
Alex is not happy going to his local high school.  He is very bright, bored 9th grader who needs to be with other students who want to learn.    Letty falsifies some papers to get him into a better high school with honors classes, and eventually  moves near the school.  Meanwhile, a romance develops between Alex and a girl in his original neighborhood, who is also very bright.  A crisis arises when Alex tries to enroll her in the school he now attends.   
The plot thickens when Alex figures out who is father is, and meets him.   A realistic story develops about undocumented immigrants who live in terror of being deported.   This novel is a good follow-up to the spring 2015  Northfield Reads book, Enrique’s Journey.  The nonfiction book describes the difficulty of entering the country illegally.  This novel describes the fear and terror that stay with undocumented immigrants, while they are trying to better their lives and obtain and an education.
 
 
 
 
 

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