The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton
Interesting and flawed (2/6/2025)
This book has three distinct characters: Margo Reynolds in 2024 who works for clients who want to get help finding rare items; Pilar, a librarian, dabbles in writing her book and protects books that Fidel's regime wants to purge in 1966; and, Eva who is a teacher of literature in Cuba in 1900. She is one of the teachers that went to Harvard for a commingling of teachers and cultures. She wrote the book after her time there.
The author rotates each character's actions, and I found it difficult to switch so frequently. The book centers around Eva's book, A Time for Forgetting, which has only one copy left. Pilar, in 1966, was given the book for safe keeping. Margo has second thoughts about trying to find the book when she is frightened by a murder and sinister characters.
I have not read much about Cuba during Fidel's reign, but this book needed a better way of chunking the chapters. The constant with from one character and time frame to another made it hard to make the time sequence smooth. Eva's book was disappointing and not worth the cloak and dagger chapters.
The Fertile Earth: A Novel
by Ruthvika Rao
Keep reading! (6/18/2024)
This book chronicles some of the history and changes in India from 1955 to 1990. I was very confused by the first chapter and found the names and other words in the book at first. (The first and last chapters are bookends and are confusing until you read the chapters in between.) This novel starts in 1990 and ends in the last chapter in 1990. In between, the sections are in chronological order. Once I realized that, the novel made more sense. There is a feudal, aristocratic system with the power and the right to make the people in the villages work for them with food for their work. The main characters are Vijaya and her sister, Scree, who are the aristocrats, and Krishna and his brother, Ranga, are sons of a servant of the Deshmukh family. The story chronicles the time of 1955-1990. Vijaya and Krishna are in school together, bright and drawn to each other. Both of them are able to attend college even though Krishna is poor; there are scholarships for him and his education. We see what each person goes through, and it provides a window to see what is happening to society at the same time. Some women can attend college, but there are ways that they are treated unfairly. Marxists and an ultra-left movement are moving to change the system of living and provide more and better choices for many. The characters and their family and friends show how things are and what they are becoming. We see how each of the four main characters is changed through their interactions in the novel. This weaves in politics and changes in the way of life. We view these changes through the lens of the four main characters. Once I was on a chronological path, I could see how the characters and the time setting made more sense. This would be a good book club book as it has rich language, history, and human interest. The author writes well, aside from the beginning chapter, which foreshadows what is to come. I found it difficult to transition from the first chapter and the chronological narrative between the first and last chapters. I enjoyed the historical and narrative story which showed the changes in the characters and the political and social changes as well.
The Stolen Child: A Novel
by Ann Hood
Keep Reading (4/19/2024)
I have read two books by Ann Hood and was drawn into those stories from the beginning. However, the short chapters at the beginning of this book were very choppy. The characters and the different span of years made it difficult to be drawn into the story. Eventually, when the characters started to interact with each other, the plot became more understandable. The premise of the book was interesting and the characters were likable. I found the plot somewhat contrived.
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