Historical Fiction: The Antidote by Karen Russell

Karen Russell's The Antidote has garnered a good amount of attention for tackling what life was like during the Dust Bowl in the U.S, as well as the displacement of Native Americans, and the displacement of the settlers from their own homes in Europe. With a little added magical realism, Russell's story becomes about more than economic hardship and environmental consequences.

The Situation: After Black Sunday in 1935, the farmers in Uz, Nebraska are facing a crisis. The land that they settled on has turned to dust, and so has their livelihood. Everyday another family gives up and moves away from the small town. Harp Oletsky, a wheat farmer who grew up in Uz after his family relocated there from Poland, has experienced a strange bit of luck as his wheat is growing just fine, despite the drought. But he cannot allow himself to celebrate it as his neighbors continue to struggle around him. Living with him is his niece, Asphodel, who is still coming to terms with the death of her mother, Harp's sister. And then there is the Antidote, a woman in town who can take a memory, any memory, and store it away somewhere deep inside herself until the customer is ready to retrieve it.

The Problem: The Antidote, Prairie Witch, Vault...whatever people decided to call her, is facing her own crisis. Since Black Sunday, she has lost all of the memories that the townspeople of Uz have deposited with her. And because so many of them have decided to leave, there are now lines outside of her door of people wanting to retrieve what they gave her. If they find out she has lost the memories, they will think she is a fake, and the Antidote already has enough trouble with the town Sherriff, who is carrying a secret of his own. But when a photographer from D.C. arrives to take pictures of the people of Uz, her camera may reveal more than anyone bargained for, giving the town a new crisis to grapple with.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a historical fiction novel set between Black Sunday in 1935, one of the worst dust storms in the history of this country, and the flooding of the Republican River, which received 24 inches of rain in 24 hours. Front and center in the story is the Dust Bowl and its effects on farmers, such as Harp and his friends. But there is also the titular character of the Antidote and her strange ability to relieve people of their memories. Some may call her a witch, and she may be generally shunned by polite society, but yet so many rely on her to take (and keep) their secrets, as they believe her when she says she never hears a thing when they come to her. But the people of Uz will also be confronted with what happened when the land they now live on was settled, as it was given to them by a government who had to first take it form someone else.

My Verdict: The dust bowl as a subject in fiction has always interested me, and I was excited to see Russell's take on it. The book started out well enough, before eventually feeling like a chore to get through every time I picked it up. Having several different characters take over telling the story as opposed to having only one perspective was a great choice, but even that did little to allow me to get away from a particularly difficult, or even boring part of the story by escaping into a another character's narrative. To be fair, pretty much every aspect of the story is a difficult one, and I give Russell credit for going for it and not shying away from hard topics.

Favorite Moment: As the captain of a ragtag basketball team, Asphodel is committed to winning, but has to confront everything that goes into that, from team sacrifices, to facing down opponents who may have even more to lose.

Favorite Character: I want to pick the cat that makes its way around Uz, but if I am forced to pick a human, I pick government photographer Cleo Allfrey.

Recommended Reading: I always recommend The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, but for a more contemporary read, I recommend The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. 

Classic Fiction: Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

Continuing my journey through the books of Isabel Allende, today's post is all about Portrait in Sepia, which for me will close out the author's Trilogía Involuntaria, which also includes The House of the Spirits, and Daughter of Fortune. Staying within the tradition of the other two books, this one follows a young woman, Aurora del Valle, beginning before she was even born, and continuing into the early 20th century as she enters adulthood and begins to uncover the buried memories and lost stories of the past. 

The Situation: Before Aurora del Valle is born, her mother, uncle, and grandparents are respected members of the Chinatown community in San Francisco. Lynn Sommers is already known for her beauty, something that greatly worries her mother Eliza, as she insists on escorting the young girl everywhere and making sure she spends no amount of time alone with any of the young men who seek to gain her attention. Despite all of Eliza's attempts and attention, Lynn becomes pregnant and gives birth to a young girl. But for Aurora, the first five years of her life will remain a mystery, as will her maternal grandparents, as she will be raised by her paternal grandmother Paulina del Valle, a woman insistent on keeping her granddaughter's early years a secret.

The Problem: Although she has no memory of the first five years of her life, Aurora is regularly haunted by nightmares of figures in black. It is almost as if her life began when she came under the care of Paulina del Valle, a woman who is larger than life in many ways. Irreverent, proud, envied, but also incredibly skilled in business and money management, Paulina makes sure that her granddaughter wants for nothing, while also remaining ignorant about her past. But even the del Valle matriarch is unable to keep the War of the Pacific, followed by the Chilean Civil War, from affecting those close to her. 

Genre, Themes, History: This is a historical fiction novel set in both San Francisco and Chile, beginning in 1862, before Aurora is born, and ending in 1910. As the narrator, Aurora sets out to tell not only her own story, but the story of her family, while admitting that her memory is flawed. Readers will recognize several characters from the other books in Allende's Trilogía Involuntaria, including some names from The House of the Spirits, the events of which take place in the future. At the forefront are Aurora's grandmothers, Pauline del Valle and Eliza Sommers, both women who insisted on making their own path in life, despite how women were expected to behave in the 19th century.

My Verdict: Of the four books that involve the del Valle family (including this year's My Name is Emilia del Valle), this one has become my favorite. Aurora may be the focus, but the book takes on several members and branches of the del Valle family tree, and I love the choice of occasionally spending a significant amount of pages on someone other than the main protagonist. With so many colorful characters, and its setting of some of the most tumultuous years in Chile's history, it makes sense to go outside of what Aurora would have been able to see with her own eyes, therefore adding to the already epic story of the del Valle family. The book can be read on its own, separate from the others in the Trilogía Involuntaria, but I recommend reading all three.

Favorite Moment: It is difficult to go against the wishes of Paulina del Valle, but Eliza Sommers manages to stand firm in an early decision.

Favorite Character: Aurora's grandfather, Tao Chi'en, is a respected physician and an advocate for the helpless in his community. 

Recommended Reading: Chronologically, Portrait in Sepia is the second book in the Trilogía Involuntaria, but it was published third. Honestly, the series could be read in either the order the books were published, or in the order of the events in the story. Either way would work.