Rodriguez definitely captured my attention, but I think I’d need to read the book again to fully understand all of the connections and relations between the different characters and their life stories. So I would say that I enjoyed reading this book, but at times I found myself lost in trying to figure out the timeline, and who was doing the narrating, or who was the daughter, mother, grandmother, brother, uncle, aunt or friend of who…it wasn’t until the last chapter that I noticed details and stories starting to come together. But again, I think if I read the book again it might make more sense; kind of like when I read Woman Hollering Creek again…I loved it the second time around.
Anyways, I loved that a lot of the story took place in Vancouver, and that there were so many references to familiar places like Granville Island, Arbutus and Commercial Drive. She even mentioned a trip to my “homeland” the Okanagan, which was great.
On a different note, something that stood out to me was the amount of emotion and feeling present in this book; particularly the contrast between hope and despair. In the chapter Bodily Yearnings, the heading “happy end” gives the reader a false sense of relief thinking that finally at least someone’s life is going to have a happy ending, as with Yolanda and her having a man who wants to marry her…but this relief, this hope is cut short when we find in fact that Yolanda does not have a happily-ever-after-life when she leaves her husband on a one way ticket back to Chile. This is just one example among many throughout the book where hopes are dashed. And yet, despite these hardships, there are still pockets of hope. For example, though Canada has the difficulties of integrating into a foreign society, it offers life and freedom; things that weren’t available in Chile.
All in all, despite having some confusion with the different narrators and the timeline, I did enjoy this book, and appreciate it a lot more knowing that it is based on the author’s own life. I’m excited to be able to hear more from her when she comes on Friday!
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I think it is interesting how she names the characters or starts the vignette with someone's name and yet they are anonymous. Going with what you said, I too was confused with who was actually speaking. It reminded me of the annecdotal stories in y no se lo trago la tierra. But I think she has a different purpose from Rivera. He emphasizes the importance of the community as a whole and how each of their experiences affects the other. Rodriguez on the other hand, made me feel as if I could be walking along Burrard and Estela de Ramirez would have passed me by without me knowing it.
I enjoyed reading your blog!
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