The Situation: It is 2017, and Olga Acevedo is doing incredibly well for herself. She has grown her business as a wedding planner to the elite and has the money and reputation to show for it. Her older brother, Prieto, is not doing badly himself, as a popular congressman representing their quickly gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. The two of them were raised by their grandmother after their mother left them to pursue her dreams of activism. For her, leaving her children behind was an act of love, as she left to fight for the people of Puerto Rico. From the outside, it would seem that both Olga and Prieto have overcome that early trauma of being abandoned, as well as their father's death. But Olga has to admit to herself, when reflecting on the many secrets she keeps, that she is not a great person.
The Problem: Although she never lets them know where she is or how to find her, the siblings' mother does write to her children. She challenges her daughter's life decisions, claiming that Olga is wasting her potential, and Olga agrees. She is not entirely okay with herself, with her myriad of secrets as constant reminders of the person she has become. Prieto has his own secrets, some of which may come to light after he receives some startling news. Then Hurricane Maria ravages the island of Puerto Rico, and Olga and Prieto's mother is once again a force in their lives. The woman may not have been around, physically, for decades. But she manages to influence them, and a few around them, from thousands of miles away, all in the effort to liberate the Puerto Rican people. Olga and Prieto will have to decide who they want to be, and what it really means to chase the American dream.
Genre, Themes, History: This is a novel set primarily in mid-to-late 2017, just before and after Hurricane Maria hit the island of Puerto Rico. Olga has not gotten married herself, though she is well-skilled at planning the weddings of others, mostly the incredibly rich. Her divorced brother, Prieto, has a successful political career representing Brooklyn. For some, he is the popular Puerto Rican congressmen fighting for his own neighborhood. For others, he is like every other politician, and not as authentic as he would like everyone to believe. The book explores complex family relationships, particularly between siblings, and between children and their estranged mother. There is also a fair amount of politics involved, as the narrative takes a close look at gentrification, and the history of the relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, giving special focus to the events during the 2017 hurricane season.
My Verdict: This book was not quite what I was expecting, and that turned out to be a good thing. The author has married a romantic plotline with a political one, while also bringing in other heavy issues that somehow do not weigh down the overall story. Olga plans weddings - really nice and expensive ones - but nothing about the story is overly sappy or sentimental. And while the issue of her and Prieto being left behind by their mother is certainly a big one, it is not everything, and the siblings are able to be more than characters with abandonment issues. It is a book that could have been much longer, but Gonzalez fit in an incredible amount of story into less than 400 pages. And it is a story that is never boring, always entertaining (and interesting), and often surprising.
Favorite Moment: There is an early scene where Olga is walking through Brooklyn, and it is filled with all of the sights (like a small coffee shop), sounds, and smells that remind me of what it is like to walk through an older, familiar neighborhood.
Favorite Character: Every family needs someone like Tia Lola. There are things about her that her family has always wondered, Olga and Prieto included, but she feels no need to supply them with the answers. She lives her life on her own terms, but is also the supportive aunt who will always show up for the children that aren't even hers.
Recommended Reading: I recommend Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson, a young adult book that is another love letter to Brooklyn.
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