Since it began in 2018, I've been reading the books from the Barnes and Noble book club-and if I'm not too busy, attending the discussions at my store in Columbia. Even if I didn't enjoy them, they have all been great novels, giving me a lot to think about! Given the bad press around this one, I almost didn't read it. Now, I wish I hadn't. More of a thriller than a serious contemporary novel, it felt like the author put the worst possible result of any situation into each chapter for the shock value, rather than try to depict the actual experiences of South American migrants.
It's a bit of a train wreck. Lydia, a privileged middle class woman, who secretly loves English novels, escapes from cartel violence in Acapulco after 16 members of her family are slaughtered at her niece's quinceanera, an act portrayed as common and unremarkable (Note: It's not). She then flees with her son, joining with two girls from Honduras also fleeing gang violence. They travel to "el norte" on "la bestia", the train ridden by migrants, being chased by "La Migra" police and the leader of "Los Jardineros" cartel, who of course, is in love with her. Yikes. (also the peppering of the text with basic Spanish words for "authenticity's sake" drove me nuts)
The author made a point not to make the book-covering a messy and controversial issue-political. This being nearly impossible, she does so by turning the touchiest issues into jokes. At one point, a character makes an assertion, in all seriousness, that the migrants-excepting the main characters, one assumes-are "bad hombres", or else, they wouldn't be in this situation. Later, the only mention of child separation at the border comes in the form of a joke-how does one tell the difference between migrants and deportees? The deportees are haunted by the cries of their children left in "Estados Unidos". Just kidding! LoL! ... o.o
I read this so you don't have to.
386 pages
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