Book review: Olga Dies Dreaming, by Xochitl Gonzalez

Olga Dies Dreaming, by Xochitl Gonzalez

REVIEW:

Olga Dies Dreaming – Xochitl Gonzalez (Little, Brown, $37.99)
Reviewed by Louise Ward, Wardini Books

Olga and her brother, Prieto, had an unusual upbringing. Now in their 40s, both are deeply rooted in Brooklyn: Olga as a high-society event planner, Prieto a politician with his neighbourhood and its Latinx inhabitants a firm priority. Raised by their grandmother and an array of uncles and aunties, the siblings are haunted by the demise and death of their father, and their abandonment by their mother, Blanca, when they were in their teens.

Blanca has kept a one-way line of communication with her children during the decades she has been missing. She left to fully commit herself to her cause, the liberation from the US of her native Puerto Rico. Her letters are initially positive, calls for action from her children who she believes she raised to be the next generation of revolutionaries.

As Olga and Prieto become adults, and Blanca's network keep an eye out and report back to their mother, her missives turn to disappointment and judgement.

Blanca is the pivotal, missing piece in the lives of the siblings. Olga has striven to raise herself from poverty; she is now well off, a minor celebrity, and, in her mother's mind and buried deep within her own, a sell-out, nothing more than a glorified maid to the white man. Olga's battered heart cannot commit to love, until she meets Matteo, an honest and loving man with some interesting issues of his own. Their story is beautiful, the key to Olga defining who she really is.

The tone of Olga Dies Dreaming is modern and sassy. Brooklyn is alive with the vibrancy of the old neighbourhoods – kids playing in the streets, the sounds and smells of raucous family life – along with the not entirely welcome gentrification of hipster developments and craft beer bars. The story deals deftly with identity and entitlement, casual but deeply rooted racism, love and responsibility. Olga is real enough to pluck off the page – sharp, witty, loyal, confused.

There is a great deal of fun and warmth in this novel in which many things happen in the characters' internal and external lives. Reading it is like hanging out with some very cool people, going through their dramas, loves and crises with them. I was entranced by Olga and am very glad to have met her.