Reading Xochitl Gonzalez’s opening meditation on how marriage ceremony napkins signify wealth within the US, my coronary heart sank. I needn't have frightened. Gonzalez is all for excess of home one-upmanship and Olga Dies Dreaming is a multilayered debut about identification, race, the facility of elites and the marginalisation of the poor.
Two Nuyorican siblings, Olga, a profitable marriage ceremony planner, and Prieto, a congressman, come up in opposition to a corrupt and hostile system of their pursuit of the American dream. Olga yearns to be the “Puerto Rican Martha Stewart”, however turns into disillusioned by the relentless drive to build up wealth and “its phantom cousin… fame”. Prieto enters politics decided to guard his Brooklyn neighbourhood and its minority neighborhood however, as Gonzalez implies, is profitable as a result of “he was good-looking and eloquent… the right salve for White Guilt”. Politically naive, nicknamed “Pollyanna” by his friends, Prieto finds himself blackmailed by property builders intent on gentrifying the world.
Introduced up by their grandmother and protecting of one another, the pair are burdened by their dad and mom’ errors. They proceed to hunt the approval of their activist mom, who deserted Olga when she was 12 (and Prieto not a lot older), to struggle for self-determination for Puerto Rico. Not lengthy after, their father died of Aids, a junkie traumatised by the Vietnam struggle and unwilling to match his spouse’s militancy.
Puerto Rico, a US territory since 1898, has restricted illustration in Washington and varied pure disasters have added to its monetary woes. In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated the island. The humanitarian disaster and the US’s stunning failure to offer satisfactory aid for its residents lie on the coronary heart of Gonzalez’s damning indictment of a world the place the worth of linen is prized extra extremely than compassion.
The writer cloaks her polemic in page-turning prose. This deeply satisfying and nuanced novel shines a lightweight on political corruption and the bounds of capitalism. It’s additionally a examine of the psychological fallout of poor parenting and a young exploration of affection in its many varieties.
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez is printed by Fleet (£16.99). To help the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Supply costs might apply
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