Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia: A review

 

Gabriela Garcia's debut novel gives an account of five generations of women from four different countries: Cuba, the United States, Mexico, and El Salvador. Each generation of women has in common their victimization by brutal men and, in some cases, by brutal governments.

The first woman in the line is María Isabel from Camaguey, Cuba. It is the nineteenth century and María Isabel works in a factory that rolls cigars. She is the only woman working there. Each day, while the workers roll the cigars, a reader reads for them from a book. María Isabel falls in love with the reading and with the reader.  The reader gives her copies of two books, Cecilia Valdés and Les Misérables. (These books will make a reappearance in the story generations later.) The couple marries and their daughter is born on the same day that her father is brutally executed by the state for alleged crimes against the government. The daughter is named Cecilia.

Fast forward to the mid-twentieth century in Cuba, a time of revolution. Cecilia's daughter, Dolores, has two daughters of her own, Carmen and Elena. Carmen emigrates from Cuba to Miami. Elena stays put. There is a rift in the family wider than the 90 something miles between Cuba and Florida. That rift might have been attributed to politics but in fact was much more complicated than that.

In Miami, Carmen raises her daughter, Jeanette,  and in Cuba, Elena has a daughter named Maydelis. The two never meet or have contact until Jeanette reaches out as an adult.

It is Jeanette who is actually at the center of this generational story. It is her story that reveals the rest of the family story. When we first meet her, she is in recovery from an addiction to painkillers and she is emerging from an abusive romantic relationship. One day, she watches as ICE officers arrive in her neighborhood and take her neighbor, an El Salvadoran refugee whom she barely knows, into custody. Later she sees the woman's young daughter dropped off after her day at school. She doesn't know if there is anyone to care for the girl and she decides to go next door to check on her. When she finds the child alone, she persuades her to accompany her to her apartment until her mother comes home. She cares for her for a few days but is incapable of following through with her caring. She contacts the police who come and pick up the girl, who is named Ana, and send her to Texas where her mother, Gloria, is being held in an immigration facility prior to being deported. 

Gloria is bullied by an immigration official into signing away her rights to a hearing regarding her refugee status and she and her daughter are deported to Mexico and told they must find their own way back to El Salvador. There is nothing but brutality waiting for them in El Salvador and Gloria makes the decision to try to make a life for them in Mexico. (As with the books, Ana, too, will make a reappearance in the novel as a teenager back in Miami, looking for the woman who she thinks of as her benefactor.)

Meanwhile, Jeanette has made a decision of her own. She wants to go to Cuba to meet her grandmother, her aunt, and her cousin. She wants to find her roots. Her mother is vehemently opposed, but Jeanette is determined and does manage to make her way there and meets her relatives. She also finds the copies of Cecilia Valdés and Les Misérables on her grandmother's bookshelves and realizes that the old and rare books are probably quite valuable. How will she use that knowledge?

The stories of each of these women are distinct enough that this could be a collection of discrete but linked stories.  But they are held together by blood and by the common theme running through their stories. They have each been unlucky in love and have had to struggle to make their way in the world. They have been weighed down by tragedy, in Jeanette's case the tragedy of her addictions and abuse. Each of the women's stories in the María Isabel line is layered and nuanced; we learn of their strengths and of their failures. The story of Gloria and Ana is less well-developed and the reader could have wished for more from it. There would seem to have been a wealth of possibility there for more refinement of that aspect of the tale. As it is, all we really learn of them is the trauma of their history. 

Overall, with minor quibbles, I thought Garcia did a good job of presenting these women's lives to us. Her first novel was a very promising effort.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




Comments

  1. Great review of a novel with a good deal of connection to our times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It certainly resonates with current events, particularly the story of Gloria and Ana. One thing which I didn't point out in the review but which is made explicit in the book is the disparity in the way that refugees from Cuba and refugees from Central America are treated by our government's policies. Cuban are accepted almost literally without question while Central Americans must jump through a series of hoops to gain legal status. There is no equity in the process.

      Delete
    2. This is such an important point to bring up and I am so glad the book shines a light on that especially - the disparity between immigrants/asylum-seekers between the two are so vastly different.

      Delete
  2. Another excellent review, Dorothy. I'm still reeling from reading American Dirt and I'm not ready for this book,yet, but I'll put it on my list. P.x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought this one was much better than American Dirt. I hope you like it when you get to it.

      Delete
  3. This certain sounds like a book appropriate to life today. I saw it on another blog recently but hadn't realized what it was about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The message of the novel (at least from my point of view) is about Cuban immigrants and the fact that they get preferred treatment, as opposed to Central American refugees requesting entrance to our country. But this is told in the context of a historical generational story.

      Delete
  4. The multi-generational stories always get me. Seeing common themes woven throughout the lives of the family members is fascinating for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And in this particular instance, it was an extremely effective way of telling the story.

      Delete
  5. It sounds like quite an ambitious undertaking to do justice to these five women in different countries ... but it seems like she mostly succeeds. I'm curious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did feel that she did a good job of presenting this generational story and by including the Gloria/Ana story, she was able to contrast the disparate treatment of two separate populations of migrants.

      Delete
  6. Sounds like a wonderful read. Once again, Dorothy, you write another wonderful book review. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C.J. Box - A review