Olivetti by Allie Millington

In this uniquely crafted story, a typewriter, a boy and his best friend join up to find his missing mother. The story is told in the alternating voices of Olivetti, a typewriter and twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle, whose mother has suddenly gone missing.

The story begins with the introduction of Olivetti, a typewriter who has lived with the Brindle family for years. Twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle lives with his mother, Beatrice, his father Felix, his older brother Ezra, older sister Adalyn and his younger brother, Arlo. Ezra loves working out, Arlo has his frogs Chives and Pickles, and Ernest carries around a dictionary. They live in the ground floor apartment in a building called Valley View in San Francisco. 

Olivetti came to the Brindles years ago in a cardboard box and sat on Beatrice's desk until her husband,  Felix purchased a laptop for her. Three of the Brindle children had learned to spell using Olivetti rather than pen and paper. Olivetti knew three of the Brindles by their fingers and their touch. But he didn't know Ernest because he spent his time on  the roof with his red dictionary. With the arrival of the laptop, they often fought over it rather than the typewriter. 

One evening, while the Brindles were all out doing their own thing, Olivetti sees Beatrice answer her phone and rush out of the apartment. The next day she wakes early, crying. As she paces the apartment, Beatrice notices Olivetti and packs him into his carrying case. She packs her typewritten stories, memories and thoughts which she has named Tapestries into a garbage bag and throws them out. At the Heartland Pawn Shop, a visibly upset Beatrice sells Olivetti for one hundred twenty-six dollars.  

Later in the morning, the rest of the Brindle family start their day with Ernest retreating, as usual to the roof with his dictionary. When it's time to leave for school, Arlo gets Ernest from the rooftop. Inside  they hear their father, Adalyn and Ezra arguing about who will take Ernest to a new doctor, Dr. Branson, after school. Ernest hasn't spoken to his mother in seven days, after his last appointment with a different therapist. His father notes that someone has to take Ernest because Beatrice has left unusually early and has also forgotten her phone. That day while Ernest is in the middle of his presentation in Mrs. Fawn's class on the history of the dictionary, he is interrupted by Mr. Robles, the school principal. At the office, Ernest learns from his father that his mother has gone missing.

At home, Ernest and his family are in shock as they struggle to deal the Beatrice's disappearance. They spend a day putting up missing person posters. When Ernest puts up a poster outside the Heartland Pawn Shop, a girl from the shop tells him Beatrice was in the previous morning and sold them a typewriter. She tells Ernest the woman seemed very upset and sold the typewriter for a specific price. The Brindles meet with Mr. Corrie, the pawn shop owner and his daughter Quinn. It soon becomes apparent to the police that Beatrice left of her own accord.

The Brindles are upset and angry that their mother would simply leave after the "Everything That Happened".  Ernest's father tells them they must simply wait to hear from her and must carry on with their lives. But Ernest is wracked with guilt, believing that their mother may have left because of him and his refusal to deal with the "Everything That Happened" event. This leads him back to the pawn shop and his mother's typewriter. But Olivetti is no ordinary typewriter. With the help of Olivetti and his new friend, Quinn, Ernest works to solve the mystery of his mother's disappearance and in doing so finds acceptance, forgiveness and healing.

Discussion

Olivetti is a quirky, touching story about a boy struggling to cope with his mother's illness - referred to as the "Everything That Happened". Readers will not initially know why Ernest won't talk to his mother, what the "Everything That Happened" is, nor why his mother left. But as Ernest, Olivetti and Quinn work together, the backstory is revealed.

Most important to this is Olivetti, a typewriter that can communicate. Young readers who likely have never used a typewriter, will not know that Olivetti was a brand of typewriters first made in Turin, Italy in 1911. Olivetti typewriters were produced until 1994 when personal computers began to take over the market. The author uses the literary device of personification, assigning to the typewriter emotions and thoughts. It's a quaint and interesting plot device that makes this novel stand out. 

As the opening narrator, Olivetti states that Beatrice Brindle used him to record all her memories, poems and thoughts through the years on pages she called her Tapestries. He reveals that typewriters keep every word given to them and are "...a protector of memories inside... Decades' worth of words."  Olivetti also reveals that typewriters speak, using their keys to spell words into the air. This language can only be understood by other typewriters. In the pawn shop, Olivetti meets Remi, a 1947 Remington Deluxe Model 5, who is old and no longer works well. They strike up a friendship and Olivetti learns that Remi hasn't been used in years and is decline.

Olivetti also reveals that there is a typewriter code, "...to never let what has been typed into us back out. Communication with humans is strictly forbidden." Olivetti knows that breaking this code is unheard of  but when he learns that Beatrice has vanished,  he is determined to help the Brindles find her. To do that means breaking the typewriter code and "talking" to twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle. 

Ernest struggled with his mother's cancer diagnosis years ago. In his attempt to understand what was happening he turned to reading the Oxford Dictionary and eventually, on his ninth birthday requested the Physician's Desk Reference. He withdrew, often retreating to the rooftop of their apartment building to be alone. He's been to numerous therapists to help him with "Everything That Happened" without much success. The "Everything That Happened" was what Ernest was trying to forget. He also is not keen to make friends or meet new people because "Once you meet people, you might get close to them. And once you get close to them, you might lose them for good."  In this way, Ernest can avoid being hurt. He also just wants to forget, to pretend that none of it has happened.

However, it is Ernest who is determined not to sit back and wait for his mother to contact them, as his father has suggested. He feels intense guilt over her leaving, wondering if he's responsible. "What if that reason was me? The question lodged in m throat. The longer it stayed there, blocking my air, the more it seemed like the only thing that made sense. Mom spent the last few months worried about me. Taking me to therapists. Making me try new things. But maybe she got tired of trying. Maybe she got tired of me." It is Ernest who sets in motion the events that lead to his family finding Beatrice. In retrieving Olivetti, he uncovers the unusual typewriter's ability to communicate and finds a new friend in the pawn shop owner's daughter, Quinn.

The quest to find Ernest's mother draws him and Quinn into a friendship. Like Ernest, Quinn also believes she is responsible, in this case, for her parent's divorce. Over time, she has come to realize it wasn't her fault. "I know what it feels like to lose someone and not know now to get them back." With Quinn's help, Ernest begins to piece together what has happened to his mother in the days leading up to her leaving. When Ernest learns that his mother left not because of him but because her cancer has returned, he is devastated and angry. If he was to blame, it could be fixed, but with cancer, the outcome is not so certain. In his pain, he strikes out at Quinn. He doesn't want a friend, even though he realizes that Quinn is a true friend when he reads her notes in the pages of his mother's Tapestries. Her diligence tells him that she really cares about finding his mother.

Olivetti is a metaphor for Beatrice's experience in cancer treatment when he is dismantled by the artist Callum Kino. He is taken to Callum's studio warehouse and is placed "...on a long, narrow table surrounded on all sides by sharp, shining tools..." that will be used to take him apart. As this is happening, Olivetti wonders, "...Was this how Beatrice felt, when she had to lie on an operating table?" As Olivetti is examined by Callum, he wonders "Was this how Beatrice felt, during one of her many scans? An object under a microscope?" Even Ernest sees Olivetti's experience as a metaphor for his mother's cancer experience. When he sees Olivetti in Callum's studio as "...a heap of ruins" he realizes how alone and afraid the typewriter must have been, like his mother when she learned of the return of her cancer.

When Ernest loses Olivetti and rushes to the studio to retrieve him, he realizes how much he loves the typewriter and his mother. The loss of Olivetti reminds him of how much he misses and loves her and makes Ernest realize "Everything I was trying not to feel, everything I wanted to ignore..."  Olivetti has forced Ernest to confront both the reality of his mother's illness and his feelings. He has also forced the entire Brindle family to do the same. Beatrice felt she had to face the return of her cancer alone, while Ernest couldn't talk about cancer because that would make it real. Felix busied himself with work to try to forget. The entire Brindle family come to realize they have each other to draw strength from. They are not alone. And that's the main message of this novel: in our struggles and suffering we are not alone. There are always people who want to help.

In the end, Millington provides a satisfying and heartwarming conclusion to her story. Cancer is often a terrifying diagnosis, especially when it involves a parent of young children who do not have the maturity to understand the illness and process their feelings. Life suddenly changes in ways that cannot be predicted. In some ways, Olivetti is a very timely novel, given the cancer diagnosis of the Princess of Wales, who has very young children and her very public acknowledgement. Millington has taken a sensitive topic and treated with with sensitivity while infusing a touch of magical realism.

Book Details:

Olivetti by Allie Millington
New York: Feiwel and Friends     2024
249 pp.

Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

Turtles All The Way Down is John Green's most recent novel, published six years after his very popular The Fault In Our Stars. In this new novel, sixteen-year-old Aza Holmes attempts to solve the mystery of the missing father of a friend while dealing with her own mental health issues. Although the novel begins with a mystery, Aza's attempts to solve it are gradually hijacked by her increasingly oppressive thought spirals.

The novel opens with Aza eating lunch with her best friend Daisy Ramirez at school when Daisy and classmate Mychal Turner tell her that Davis Pickett's father has disappeared. They are certain Aza knows Davis from attending camp with him a few years ago. In fact, Aza did attend Camp Sphero with Davis after both fifth and sixth grade. It turns out Davis's father  disappeared the day before being arrested on bribery charges. Police arrived at his home early in the morning with a warrant but he wasn't home and hasn't been seen since. As a result there is now a hundred-thousand-dollar reward for information leading to his arrest.

Daisy struggles to attract Aza's interest in solving Pickett's disappearance so they can claim the hundred-thousand-dollar reward. This is because Aza is struggling to cope with her obsessive compulsive thoughts about contracting a Clostridium difficle bacterial infection. Aza is reading the Wikipedia article on human microbiota and worrying about whether her stomach noises are a sign of impending illness.

From Daisy's research they learn that Russell Pickett CEO and founder of Pickett Engineering, wasn't home when Indianapolis Police arrived with a search warrant. Detective Dwight Allen stated that he was last seen by his sons Davis and Noah the previous night and that there are no surveillance cameras on the property. However Aza  who spent some time on the Davis estate when she was younger, remembers that there was a motion capture camera in the woods by the river. Because there is a camera at the front Gate, Daisy believes that Pickett walked through the woods and left via the river so he would not be seen.

Daisy and Aza sneak onto the Davis property from the river using an old canoe that Aza's family has. After wandering through the trees on the grounds, Daisy locates the night-vision camera and Aza connects her phone to the camera. She is able to download a photo from September 9th of "the back of a stocky man wearing a striped night-shirt. Time stamp 1:01:03 a.m." Quickly, Aza and Daisy are picked up by Lyle, a security officer for the estate and they tell him Aza knows Davis but that their canoe took on water and they had to beach it.

Lyle takes the girls to the house and there they meet Davis who is puzzled to see them but realizes that like many others they are after the reward money. He tells them he doesn't know the whereabouts of his father and after treating them to Dr. Pepper's Davis drives them home in his Cadillac Escalade. Daisy and Aza continue to dig up information about the Pickett family, learning that entire Pickett fortune will go to the pet tuatara in the hopes that the fountain of youth can be discovered. They also uncover the reason for Pickett being under investigation: he allegedly bribed "state officials in exchange for contracts to build a better sewer overflow system in Indianapolis." A police report that Daisy manages to obtain tells her and Aza that they know more than the police do at this point.

Davis texts Aza telling her he is reluctant to become friends with anyone because he won't know if they are simply after his money. Aza reveals that they know something about his father and asks if it will make things worse for him if they go to the police. Davis asks her not to go to the police. Daisy who has agreed to go out with Mychal has Aza set up a double date with Davis Pickett. After dinner at Applebee's they go to Davis's mansion. While Mychal and Daisy check out the artwork, Davis shows Aza the movie theatre and then takes her outside to the golf course where they lay in a sand trap and talk. Aza tries to explain her struggles with obsessive compulsive thoughts to Davis but when they begin kissing her compulsive thoughts about germs take over. After pulling herself together they talk about the night vision picture of his father. Davis needs to know whether Aza is there because she genuinely likes him or because she's after the reward. To solve this problem Davis decides to give Aza the one hundred thousand dollar reward in cash.

The next morning Aza tells Daisy about the money which they split equally, depositing it in bank accounts with the help of Davis's lawyer. This leads Daisy to quit her job at Chuck E. Cheese and to buy herself a new laptop and a car. Although Noah sends Aza more information about his father, Daisy and Aza give up their investigation. Daisy has the money and isn't interested while Aza's OCD begins to increasingly take over her life.

As Aza's friendship with Davis begins to develop, her relationship with Daisy begins to fall apart. It isn't until she has a serious accident that Aza is finally forced Aza to confront her illness and work on trying to get better.

Discussion

Green latest novel, Turtles All The Way Down, is a revealing portrayal of mental illness and its debilitating effects, one which the author is intimately familiar with. The story is told by Aza Holmes who is now an adult, reflecting back on this portion of her life. Aza has obsessive compulsive disorder , experiencing compulsive thoughts focused on her contracting serious bacterial infections such as C. difficile. These thoughts force her to stay mostly in her head, meaning she struggles to develop relationships with the people around her. Her thoughts also lead her to have a distorted view of herself: she doubts the reality of her existence, she questions whether she is able to control her own life and she believes that she is merely the sum of her thoughts.

The image of Pettibon's spiral that Green felt
represented a "thought spiral".

Aza describes her thoughts as invasive, so distracting she often gets caught in what she calls a "thought spiral" in which she is mostly inside her head. For example, when Mychal is telling Daisy about his new art project, Aza wants to listen but her thoughts about a possible bacterial infection are overwhelming. As a result, she doesn't notice that her friend has dyed her hair,  she's unable to tell Daisy that she does remember Davis Pickett, that she remembers summer camp and that she likes her idea for Mychal's art project because "the thoughts kept coming, unbidden and unwanted."

Green uses the imagery of spirals, gyres, whirlpools, galaxies and circles to portray Aza's unwanted, intrusive and obsessive thoughts. These images all describe the never-ending, infinity of OCD thoughts and actions. This is perhaps best exemplified when Aza visits Davis's home she notices the colorful spiral by American artist, Raymond Pettibon and experiences the urge to grab it off the wall and run away with it. "It didn't feel like something I was looking at so much as something I was part of." Green states that he used the Pettibon painting in the story because it "felt for the first time like I had seen a direct expression of my experience with obsessive thoughts. I didn't feel like I was looking at a metaphor for my thought spirals; I felt that I was looking at the thing itself." Turtles All The Way Down is not a reflection of Green's own experiences of OCD, but it is his familiarity with illness that allows him to capture it so effectively.

In trying to explain what she experiences to Davis, Aza struggles to convey the idea that "When my thoughts spiraled, I was in the spiral, and of it." Aza explains to Davis that her spiral is different from the "widening gyre" William Butler Yeats mentions in his poem 'The Second Coming.'"But the really scary thing is not turning and turning in the widening gyre' it's turning and turning in the tightening gyre. It's getting sucked into a whirlpool that shrinks and shrinks and shrinks your world until you're just spinning without moving, stuck inside a prison cell that is exactly the size of you, until eventually you realize that you're not actually in a prison cell. You are the prison cell."

Aza's belief that the "real" her, the "way-down-deep" her is trapped in this prison, leading her to wonder if she is real. This struggle to determine if she is real begins to take center stage in her existence and has many facets. She tells her therapist, Dr. Singh that thinks she might be "fiction".  Aza wonders if there is a "way-down-deep me who is an actual, real person" or is she "only a set of circumstances"? She tells Singh, "...I don't control my thoughts, so they're not really mine. I don't decide if I'm sweating or get cancer or C. diff or whatever, so my body isn't really mine. I don't decide any of that -- outside forces do. I'm a story they're telling. I am circumstances." Singh responds by telling Aza that she is giving her thoughts too much power; "Thoughts are only thoughts. They are not you. You do belong to yourself, even when your thoughts don't." 

In trying to explain how she sees herself to Daisy Aza states, "...It's like when I look into myself, there's no actual me -- just a bunch of thoughts and behaviours and circumstances. And a lot of them just don't feel like they're mine. They're not things I want to think or do or whatever. and when I look for the, like, Real Me, I never find it. It's like those nesting dolls,  you know? The ones that are hollow, and then when you open them up, there's a smaller doll inside, and you keep opening hollow dolls until eventually you get to the smallest one, and it's solid all the way through. But with me, I don't think there is one that's solid. They just keep getting smaller." Aza believes she's not able to find the "real" her but doesn't recognize that this is a product of her obsessive thought spirals.

Aza's image of the nesting dolls reminds Daisy of two stories told about the Earth; a scientist who explained how the Earth formed over millions of years but then was told by an elderly lady that the Earth is actually a flat plane resting upon the back of a turtle which sits on another turtle. When questioned what was underneath the turtle she states that it is "Turtles all the way down." This story is a paraphrasing of a story often told to express the problem of "infinite regress" ( a sequence of reasoning that goes on infinitely, that is forever) in cosmology. For Aza the quest to find the real Aza is like "Turtles all the way down" - a form of obsessive thought spirals that as Daisy points out to her friend is not accurate.

Because Aza believes her thoughts control her, she wonders if she's real and in control. "And it's kind of terrifying to me that what I think of as, like, my quote unquote self isn't really under my control?...And if you can't pick what you do or think about, then maybe you aren't really real, you know?..." To convince herself that she's real, Aza continually digs her fingernail into her fingertip, reopening the wound so that it bleeds and must be constantly bandaged. But even this seems in adequate to Aza because she feels doing this "didn't even prove what I wanted it to prove, because what I wanted to know was unknowable, because there was no way to be sure about anything."

Green's characters are delightful yet tragic, eccentric yet normal, multi-dimensional and downright fascinating. Aza has OCD, is intelligent and has a sixteen-year-old Toyota Corolla, with a paint color called Mystic Teal Mica and named Harold by her father. To help the reader understand what Aza experiences, there are page-long descriptions of the thoughts and internal dialogue that Aza has with herself as her thoughts loop infinitely around whether or not her finger wound has become infected or she has C. difficile. She is resilient and courageous, although she doesn't recognize herself as being so.

Daisy is Aza's best friend and is somewhat eccentric herself: she writes fan fiction about Chewbacca's love life with Rey. Daisy wonders how to help her friend, "Like, does it help to be reassuring or is it better to worry with you? Is the anything that makes it better?" But she also finds being Aza's friend draining. "You're so stuck in your head, ...It's like you genuinely can't think about anyone else....It's just frustrating sometimes...But you're slightly tortured, and the way you're tortured is sometimes also painful for, like, everyone around you."  To express what she feels, Daisy has created a character Ayala who is representative of Aza in her fan fiction.

Davis Pickett is the caring boy Aza falls for, a poet, but whose circumstances are tragic; abandoned by his father, the fortune he was due to inherit given to a pet lizard. Davis who seems so sweet is desperate for Aza to get well, something she just can't promise him. The cast is further rounded out by Dr. Karen Singh whose genuine concern towards Aza and her positive attitude portray the benefits of having a good therapist.

Green avoids a saccharine ending, where Aza seizes control of her condition, changes how she views herself and gets well. Through Aza, Green explains that happy endings are not really happy or not really endings. Instead the ending of the novel is realistic and authentic. When Aza has a pessimistic view of how her life will be, Daisy tells her,  she can be the author of her life; "You pick your endings, and your beginnings. You get to pick the frame, you know? Maybe you don't choose what's in the picture, but you decide on the frame." 

Aza breaks off with Davis because she tells him she can't be what he expects and hopes she will be. "I know you're waiting for me to get better...it's incredibly sweet, but, like, this is probably what better looks like for me." Aza knows everyone wants to hear that she's getting better but the reality is something less happy. "Everyone wanted me to feed them that story --darkness to light, weakness to strength, broken to whole. I wanted it, too."

Aza comes to the realization that she will go on, just as Davis will go on after he learns of the death of his father. "I would always be like this, always have this within me. There was no beating it. I would never slay the dragon because the dragon was also me. My self and the disease were knotted together for life." But Green does end the novel on a hopeful note; Aza does go on to have a mostly good life, a family, and perhaps most importantly a deep and true friendship with Daisy.

Turtles All The Way Down is authentic, somewhat intense in that it is a realistic piece of fiction that challenges readers to try to understand mental illness and the challenges involved. There are so many themes to explore in this novel, for example the meaning of friendship, and the literary references Green sprinkles throughout the novel (Sherlock Holmes and The Great Gatsby). Let's hope we don't have to wait another six years for Green's next novel.

image credit comes from a link that Green posted on a subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/tatwdspoilers/comments/781jk3/hi_again_and_answering_some_of_your_questions/) about the book of what the Pettibon image looked like:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tatwdspoilers/comments/75qu4q/the_pettibon_painting/

Book Details:

Turtles All The Way Down by John Green
New York: Dutton Books    2017
286 pp:

Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai

Listen, Slowly is another story of Vietnam, following on the success of author Thanhha Lai's debut, Inside Out and Back Again.

The first day of summer vacation, twelve year old Mai Le finds herself on a plane to her family's home country of Vietnam and she's not happy about it. Plans to spend her days at Anita beach with her best friend Montana and possibly with the boy she's crushing on, have all collapsed. Mai, her father and her grandmother, Ba, are returning to Vietnam together for six weeks this summer. Her father, a doctor will be spending his time setting up surgical clinic to fix cleft palates and treat acute burns. But the main purpose of the visit to Vietnam is that Ba has always had questions about whether her husband, Ong Ba, could still be alive. During the Vietnam War, Ong went missing in action, leaving Ba to raise their seven children by herself. Mai's father was only two years old when his father disappeared. They left Vietnam and came to American where the family thrived; "one doctor, four engineers, a professor and an accountant."

All this leaves Mai disoriented and unhappy. "What's so important? All her children and grandchildren are in California. Her life is there. My life is there."  But Mai's father points out, "Ba has had questions for decades. Be with her as she finally accepts...I thought she already did, but that quack calling himself a detective wrote her. I seriously doubt it's possible but..."  Although Mai's father hopes this trip will provide closure for Ba, he is concerned because "Ba thinks Ong might be alive..." because of the information she received from a detective in Vietnam.

When they arrive in Vietnam, Mai notices that every person has yellow skin and looks like her. The airport is clean and orderly, not at all like Mai thought it would be. But Vietnam is hot and sticky, and the city is crowded. "Tall buildings, jumbled electrical lines, tons of mopeds weaving between cars and buses. Every single driver is beeping." They arrive in Ha Noi where the plan is to meet the detective and then travel to Ba's village. Her father warns her not to mention politics as this is not something talked about in Vietnamese society. The detective tells Mai's father and grandmother that he has spoken with a guard who was with Ong Ba but he will not travel to talk to Ba. After the meeting, Mai's father heads out to the mountains, while she and Ba travel to Ba's village. When Mai complains about not going home, her father tells her, "Listen, Ba has sacrificed everything for us. We've raised you to be considerate, so act like it. Be good, listen to Ba. The detective has to find the guard and that might take two weeks. I should be back before then."

Mai is further upset by the fact that she will have to stay for at least two more weeks while they wait for the detective to locate the guard,  but her mother, via cellphone, encourages Mai to do this for Ba. They travel to Ba's village, eighty kilometers from Hanoi, set in a land of rice paddies and water buffalo. At the village Mai and Ba are welcomed by many relatives who are especially fascinated with Mai's braces, her height and her henna-highlighted hair. During a huge meal, Mai meets Ut, whose real name is Muong and who carries around a gigantic frog. Unfortunately, they do not get off to a good start, when Mai causes Ut's frog to ingest a stone while it is eating flies.

Mai's first days in Vietnam consist of coping with the large, voracious mosquitoes and getting use to having a nap in the afternoon because of the excessive heat, They walk to Ong's ancestral home, where his younger brother now resides. Ba and Mai share a bedroom that was once tiled with blue tiles of a goddess. Ba tells Mai that they were betrothed when Ong was seven and she was five, but due to the war they were married earlier than planned at eighteen and sixteen respectively. The room with the faded blue tiles, was their bridal chamber. Ba at first refused to let Ong in but eventually relented. Now, after years without her beloved husband, Ba thinks about the time lost and tells Mai that against reason she continues to hope he is still alive.

Mai also meets an older boy, Minh, who has a crush on Ut's older sister Lan, and who will be acting as a translator and guide. Minh, who is a junior at a boarding high school in Houston, explains village life to Mai, how the boys and men work at a shrimp hatching facility the village purchased. Mai's manages to access her facebook account and also speaks with her mother for the first time since arriving. She desperately want to return home but her mother tells her that being away will test her friendship with Montana and asks her to be open about what will happen during her visit in Vietnam.

On his second visit the detective tells Ba that he has located her husband's guard in Hanoi but the guard refuses to travel to Hanoi. Ba tells him the guard "...held my husband captive; he must come to me to release his past." Later on Mai again complains about going home, this time to her grandmother. Ba asks her for more time, that her presence brings her joy, but she does give Mai the option of contacting her father and arranging for her to travel back to America. However, Mai tells her grandmother "Khong sao." No worries. "I chant "khong sao" to myself over and over. Perhaps after a while, I will wholeheartedly believe it'll be all right to wait. What can I do but wait? Things will happen in Laguna whether I stress or not."

Ba tells Mai about the day she learned that Ong Ba was missing in action and how she carried this date with her to America, about the last day she saw Ong before he left on a mission. She also reveals that he closed each letter to her with Mong Nho Em Dem Tung Hat Mua - which means Longing Missing You Counting Each Drop of Rain. These words are also the names of their seven children.

Mai's settles into life in a small village in North Vietnam. Gradually her decision to stay with Ba on her journey to learn about what happened to her husband and Mai's paternal grandfather bring about a change in perspective and a deeper understanding and appreciation of her Vietnamese roots. It is a journey that will provide some closure for Ba, and many changes for Mai.

Discussion

Author Thanhha Li proves once again that the best novels are those written about what we hold dearest to the heart. Listen, Slowly is really two stories, one which focuses on the tragedy of a couple torn apart because of war and a second which deals with  a young girl's journey toward embracing her culture and her family's past.

At the beginning of the novel, we learn that the primary reason for the family's trip to Vietnam is to bring closure for Mai's elderly grandmother who seems unable to accept that her husband is dead. New revelations from Vietnam appear to indicate that there is a possibility he might still be alive. However, once in Vietnam, Ba tells her granddaughter, Mai, that she although she is hopeful she is also realistic. It is her recounting of her marriage to Ong, that the depth of their personal tragedy becomes apparent.
"I do not live on butterfly wings, my child. His chances of remaining among us rank as likely as finding an ebony orchid. Yet I hold onto hope because I have been unable to imagine his ending."
Ba and Ong promised that if they ever became separated, they would meet again under the blue goddess. Mai asks herself, "How do you know someone almost since birth, then one day you know absolutely nothing more about him at all?"

Despite knowing all this, Mai is not really sympathetic to Ba's quest. She knows, as do her father and mother, that Ong is dead. However, gradually Ba's knowing becomes important to Mai. She and Ut trick Ut's mother into sending them to Saigon. With the detective's notebook and the help of two guides, Mai and Ut find the guard's home and Mai begs him to help her. "Then I start crying...It's so embarrassing, but the possibility of Ba not knowing any more about Ong rips a hole in my gut. Right now, I want Ba to get her wish even more than I want to go home...That's just how I feel."  This along with help from the detective lead to Ba traveling south to see the message Ong wrote her in the tunnel he was forced to dig so many years ago. That message is the same one he closed every letter to Ba with and it confirms to Ba that he is indeed gone. It is his final signing off.

Mai feels very different from the spoiled, self-centered girl who first came to Vietnam weeks ago, as she looks at the "alphabet letters scraped into the dirt by a shaky hand." She recognizes the "familiar line Ong had written in every letter home, the line that came alive each time he called their children's names, that line that ached with longing for his wife as he counted his last years, months, weeks, and days."   "While I stand there, nothing else matters, not the heat, the air, or the stench rising above a floral spray. Nothing matters as long as I can hear Ba's breathing elongate into full, satisfied breaths." For Mai, nothing matters except that her beloved Ba has closure.

In the end, Mai decides to stay on for another twelve days, for Ba and even for Ut, to help her learn the scientific names of the frogs for her examination. "Maybe I can stay and maybe I would enjoy it. What's in Laguna that's so urgent? Mom is exhausted with her trial and I will see Kevin when I see him. As for Montana, I can wait." No longer consumed about whether or not Montana is with Kevin, or what is happening in Laguna, Mai has put her life into perspective. What matters is the time in Vietnam.

The title, Listen, Slowly is a reference to the dominant theme as young Mai struggles to adjust to Vietnamese culture and to understand her grandmother's desire to uncover what happened so long ago. The theme of listening is woven into every aspect of Lai's novel. When Mai arrives in Vietnam she is examined closely by her relatives, one of whom asks her if she is obedient. Mai acknowledges that he is really asking if she listens to her parents and like most young people she's not about to admit "I just pretend to listen."  By her own admission, Mai used to "listen" to Ba, "Twice a day I used to hear long stories, one at nap time and one before bed. Then I went to kindergarten and stopped listening."

When Mai's mother calls, Mai complains that she wants to return home but her mother urges her to stick it out for her grandmother. At her grandmother's meeting with the detective, Mai finds that if she listens, she can understand. But often she finds herself not listening, especially at the beginning when she is so focused on herself and on returning home. She asks Anh Minh why, if everyone agrees the Ong is not alive, they are staying in Vietnam. Ahn Minh tells her what her father and even Ba have told her, that acceptance is difficult, leading Mai to realize that in her desire to go home, she has "missed listening."

Mai becomes ill after inadvertently drinking pond water and is given a local remedy and required to rest her stomach by not eating. When she does resume eating again, the pho stand owner tells her "Eat just noodles and broth, all right? Let's listen to what your stomach does with that." By listening Mai will know whether she can begin to eat food again. 

The guard who comes to speak with Ba about the last time he saw her husband reveals that Ong wrote her a message. Ba believes the message to be a letter but when she asks for it, the guard refuses telling her she must go to the south for the message. In a reversal, when Mai remembers all the times she would listen to Ba at night "whisper all kinds of maybes to herself...maybe Ong escaped, maybe Ong lost his memory but was healthy and happy..." she suggests to her grandmother that maybe the message is not a letter. "But Ba isn't listening."

In Saigon, when Ba and Mai attempt to cross a street to get Banh canh, they find it impossible because of the numerous mopeds zigzagging past. They are helped the the hotel clerk who tells them "The trick calls for not looking at any driver but listening to the engines...".

Finally,  Ba, after having seen the message Ong left for her so many years ago in the tunnel,  tells Mai that the hurts and joys of life become a part of us, that they are important. "I tell you of loss, my child, so you will listen, slowly, and know that in life every emotion is fated to rear itself withing your being. Don't judge it proper or ugly. It's simply there and yours. When you should happen to cry, then cry, knowing that just as easily you will laugh again and cry again. Your feelings will enter the currents of your core and there they shall remain."

Listen, Slowly is a poignant story about a terrible war that tore apart a nation and affected its people deeply. The themes of reconciliation and forgiveness (Ba forgives the guard after seeing the tunnel) and of the importance of family dominate as well.  Beautifully crafted, capturing the atmosphere and culture of Vietnam for those of us who will likely never visit the country, Listen, Slowly is highly recommended for ages 8 to 12.

I hope Thanh ha Lai will write more stories set in Vietnam, perhaps continuing the saga of Mai Le. On her website Thanhha Li reveals that her first name means gentle (Thanh) river (ha).

The map included at the front is very helpful in orienting readers who are certainly not familiar with the locations in Vietnam. This map also contains minor spoilers.

Book Details:

Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai
New York: HarperCollins Childrens Books     2015
260 pp.

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

On the surface, Vanishing Girls appears to be a mystery about two missing girls, but is essentially a story about the grief and guilt experienced after a traumatic loss. The story is told by two narrators, Nicole (Nick) and Dara Warren, both before and after a terrible automobile accident. The story begins just before the accident on March 27 but also includes flashbacks to provide some backstory.

Seventeen-year-old Nick and her sixteen-year-old sister Dara are at a party on the evening of March 27. Later that night, at 11:55 PM, Nick crashes her car and Dara is seriously injured after she flies into the side window of the vehicle. 

Nick and Dara's parents' marriage broke up months ago, her father living in a condo in ritzy Main Heights while their mother along with Dara live in Somerville. After recovering, Nick lives with her father  until she is caught skinny dipping the night of July 15. Concerned about her well being, Nick's father takes her to live at her mother's home in Somerville. Since the break-up of her marriage and the terrible accident, Nick's mother has been struggling, so Nick is not keen to live with her. She's also anxious about reconnecting with Dara, whom she hasn't spoken to since the accident.

Nick wants to return to work at the Palladium during the summer break, but her mother refuses and tells her she has arranged for her to work at the nearby amusement park, Fantasy Land, run by Greg Wilcox, a former math teacher from her mother's old school. Nick goes upstairs to see Dara but she's fled out her bedroom window. Dara has no intention of talking to Nick whom she describes as "Perfect Nicki. The Good Child".  Dara was badly injured in the car accident, breaking her kneecaps, pelvis, wrist and tibia. Her head went through the passenger window leaving her with red scars on her forehead, cheek and neck.

On July 20, the media reports the "possible" abduction of nine-year-old Madeline Snow from a car outside Big Scoop Ice Cream. Madeline disappeared from the back seat of the car after her sister Sarah and her friend Kennedy left her alone. The same day, Nick starts her new job at Fantasy Land, nicknamed FanLand.  Nick hasn't seen Dara in the two days she's been home. At FanLand Nick is shocked to see that her once best friend, John Parker works there. Parker as she affectionately calls him is a childhood friend that both Nick and Dara hung out with together. Parker was Nick's best friend for years; they did everything together. Then in December of last year things changed after Dara broke up with her latest boyfriend and she began dating Parker. But Nick hasn't thought about him for months. Nick is assigned to a work crew with Parker who acts as her tour guide for FanLand, showing her the ropes. At the end of their shift, Parker invites Nick to a party at the Drink which is a local nickname for the Saskawatchee River.

Nick writes Dara a note telling her about the party at the Drink. Impulsively Dara decides to go to the party, grabbing Nicks hoodie to hide the facial scars she received from the accident. At the party Dara meets her "former" best friend, Ariana and her ex-boyfriend, Parker who tries to apologize about what happened between them. Dara doesn't want to deal with Parker and feeling like an outsider, she decides to leave. But not before the party is raided by cops and Dara leaves behind Nick's hoodie. The next day, July 22, Nick is confronted by a woman cop who insists that she was at the party at the river. Nick doesn't give away Dara but takes the blame and is ordered to do community service by helping to search for missing Madeline Snow. Furious at Dara, Nick leaves her a note telling her she is the one who needs to do the community service.

After seeing Nick's note, Dara helps out in the search for Madeline Snow. During the line search, she meets a woman named Cookie Hendrickson who worked at MLK High when Dara's mom worked there. Her questions to Dara are interrupted by Margie, a reporter who works for the Shoreline Blotter. After volunteering, Dara receives a text from an unknown number which she deletes. She also meets Sarah Snow, Madeline's older sister. Sarah tells Dara, "I was trying so hard to protect her...It's all my fault...The lying is the hardest part, isn't it?"

By July 28, Nick has settled into her job at FanLand. She's now playing the part of a mermaid in the park's pirate singing show. Nick mends her relationship with Parker and they begin eating lunch and taking breaks together at work. The evening before the park's anniversary party, Nick and Parker are assigned garbage duty to clean the park. While passing the closed Gateway ride, Nick thinks she hears someone humming and wonders if the ride is truly haunted. Before leaving for the night, Nick and Parker spend some time together at the wave pool where she asks Parker if he still loves her sister. Parker admits that he never was truly in love with her but that he misses her. Later that night Parker shows up drunk at the Warren home and convinces Dara to spend a few minutes talking with him in his car. He tells Dara that he loves her but when he calls out Nick's name she is furious and leaves..

The next day is July 29th, Dara's seventeenth birthday. Nick arranges a special surprise for her sister, asking her to meet her at the Gateway to Heaven ride at 10pm when FanLand is closing. Dara is not in her room in the morning and later on in the day does not show at the planned family dinner at a restaurant. Nick believes she saw Dara getting on a bus to FanLand and when she arrives at the restaurant she tells her parents and her Aunt Jackie that Dara is not coming because their family no longer exists due to their father leaving. Nick leaves the restaurant and returns home later on to confront Dara but she's still not home. She returns to FanLand in the hopes of meeting Dara at 10pm but when she doesn't show Nick begins to wonder if Dara is in trouble. "All along, I've been assuming she just blew us off tonight. But what if she didn't? What if something bad happened? ....What if, what if, what if. The drumbeat of the past four years of my life."

Searching through Dara's phone, Nick discovers disturbing pictures of her sister in various compromising situations. The pictures were sent March 26, the day before the accident. Nick begins to suspect that these pictures contain the truth of what happened before the accident, events she cannot remember. "This is it: somehow, in these pictures, the mystery of the accident is contained, and the explanation for Dara's subsequent behavior, for the silences and disappearances." Determined to learn what has happened to Dara, Nick begins following the thread connecting Dara to whoever sent the photos. It is a journey that will finally uncover her sister's darkest secret, lead her to find Madeline Snow and help her to recover her own identity and heal.

Discussion

Vanishing Girls is marketed to readers as a mystery - one that involves the disappearance of two girls. However, this novel is one of several recent young adult novels that deals with dissociative identity in teenagers. Dissociation, which sometimes occurs as a result of severe trauma, is a complex illness that is often misunderstood and often poorly treated. It's a difficult condition to write into a story but Lauren Oliver is up to the task in Vanishing Girls. 

The story is told by two sisters, Nick and Dara  who have experienced a traumatic event - a car accident. The story, like the main character, is further fragmented by narratives that are labelled Before and After, in reference to this accident. The Before narratives by both girls provide the backstory to their lives; Nick the good older sister and Dara, the wild younger girl who parties and has plenty of boyfriends. From this backstory it appears that a sort of love triangle developed between Nick, Dara and Parker. They all started out as childhood friends, but Dara changed the parameters of the friendship when she began hooking up with Parker. This caused a huge rift between the two sisters as Nick considered Parker to be her best friend. Dara's on-again, off-again relationship with Parker eventually results in huge problems for everyone. The After narratives deal with the short time period from July 15 until July 29 when Nick returns to her mother's home to live. Further complicating the After narratives is that Nick does not remember what happened before the car accident.

In what amounts to a huge twist in the novel, is that Nicole Warren is suffering from deep trauma as a result of the death of her sister Dara in the car accident and she not only hallucinates, but eventually assumes Dara's identity in addition to retaining her own identity. So everything that Dara narrates AFTER the accident is really Nick's narrative as Dara. Oliver provides her readers with many subtle clues; Dara and Nick actually never have a direct conversation with one another and conversations between Nick and other characters such as Parker, her parents and Aunt Jackie, are open ended so that they can be read several ways. For example, when Nick is talking to Parker about the party at the Drink she believes she never went to the party. But Parker saw her there and spoke with her and is angry because she left so quickly. Because the narrator of this event was Dara, the reader assumes that it is Dara they are talking about. Nick however was there, as Dara, but dressed in her own hoodie!

The hints become more obvious as the story moves along but can still be read two ways. For example, in Dara's narrative when Parker shows up at the Warren house drunk, the reader believes he is with Dara. Parker asks "Dara' if he can speak with her for a few minutes. They go to his car and begin making out, when Parker tells her he loves her and then says Nick's name - because of course Parker is actually with Nick, not Dara (who is really dead). But Nick who has taken on Dara's identity acts exactly as Dara would - she is furious and leaves. The reality is that Parker is actually with Nick whom he does love.

Eventually what emerges from the story is a very disordered relationship between Nick who considers herself a caretaker for her rebellious, wild younger sister. always rescuing her. When she can't save Dara, her world crumbles, her identity as the caretaker lost.

The use of Nick as an unreliable narrator helps build suspense throughout the novel. We don't really know what happened the night of the accident due to Nick's repressed memories. And as Nick explores Dara's life she begins to uncover secrets about her sister that connect her to Sarah Snow and ultimately lead her to solve the mystery of Madeline Snow's disappearance.

Oliver does a great job of tying together all the loose ends of the story using emails between Nick's parents and her doctors and medical reports, so that readers fully understand what happened to Nick, what led to the accident, and how Madeline Snow came to disappear.

The book cover is well done - the out of focus cover image hinting at the confusion Nick is experiencing after the trauma of the car accident. In the style of Ransom Riggs, Oliver has placed photographs in her novel that are supposed to relate to parts of the story. The novel could have done without the pictures, which were infrequent enough as to not have added to the story. Overall, Vanishing Girls is a very good read.

Book Details:
Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver (Laura Schecter)
New York: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers    2015
357 pp.

She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

"I am scared almost all the time. But I never tell anyone. I can't afford to. I have to go on pretending I'm this confident person, because if I don't, if I'm quiet, I become invisible. People treat me as if I'm not there. I remember being tine, about Benjamin's age, standing in the sweet shop, and the woman behind the counter asking Mum,...How do you manage with her? It must be very hard...
The woman kept on and on, and Mum didn't know what to say, and I just stood there, feeling more and more upset, and as she went on, I suddenly though it was as if she was the one who was blind, and couldn't see me, not the other way around."

This fascinating short novel opens with sixteen year old Laureth Peak and her seven year old brother, Benjamin flying from London to JFK in New York in search of their father. It is seven o'clock in the morning Saturday London time when they board the plane and the events in the book take place over the span of one day -Saturday in London and Saturday in New York City.

Laureth's father, Jack Peak, is a well known author, whose first five books were extremely popular. She checks her dad's fan mail that comes in via his website and responds using pre-written replies. One evening while checking his emails, she encounters one about the "Black Book" which is what her father calls his notebook. The email, from a Michael Walker, indicates that he has found Jack Peak's notebook. Michael's use of the currency dollar leads Laureth to suspect he is in America. Laureth responds as though she is her father and asks Michael to prove that he has the journal. He sends Laureth some scanned pages of the journal confirming it is her father's. After arranging how much reward he will receive they arrange to meet him at the Queen's Library in Long Island City.

The discovery of her father's journal in New York city is upsetting to Laureth because she understood her father was in Switzerland. When she questions her mother, she tells Laureth that she doesn't care that they haven't heard from her father and that he is the one who is responsible for whatever has happened. Instead Laureth's mother continues packing for an overnight visit to Aunt Sarah's in Manchester; a visit that will leave Laureth and Benjamin on their own for the day and one night. Laureth tries contacting her father but his phone just rings.

At this point Laureth decides that she is going to go in search of her father. She takes one of her mother's credit cards and purchases two tickets to New York. She and Benjamin wait until their mother leaves the next morning (Saturday) for Manchester and then unbelievably they manage to circumvent security and board a plane to New York.  It is during her travel to the airport, that we learn that Laureth is almost completely blind and that this is the reason she has "abducted" her younger brother, so he can be her eyes.

Several interesting things happen in the airport and on the trip over to America. First, it seems that Benjamin has the ability to crash electronics, an anecdotal effect (that is not scientifically verified) known as the Pauli effect. Secondly Laureth has Benjamin read through the first of three pages of the notebook that Michael emailed to her and she realizes that her father is obsessed with trying to understand coincidences and whether they have any meaning in our lives.

On the six hour flight over to New York, Laureth meets a young man named Sam who befriends her and tries to give her his phone number until he finally realizes that Laureth is blind. When Benjamin and Laureth arrive in New York, they meet up with Michael Walker who is not as they thought he would be. He is twelve years old and has a funny habit of speaking like someone out of a Dickens novel. But he does have Laureth's father's notebook which he gives to Laureth. Laureth tells him that their father is missing and asks Michael how he came into possession of the notebook and if he knows anything more about the notebook. Michael tells them that he found a receipt in the book from the Black King Hotel in Manhattan.

With the notebook as their only guide, Laureth and Benjamin set off on a race against time to solve the mysterious disappearance of their father and in the process learn much about themselves and their parents.

The first part of the novel is quite interesting, especially as Laureth learns about the research her father did regarding coincidence.  Jack Peak was going to incorporate coincidence into his next book and was doing research on it. Using this as a springboard, Sedgwick weaves in many interesting ideas that readers may not have encountered; numinous (the feeling that you have experienced God), apophenia (the tendency to see patterns in events), Benford's Law (on the frequency a digit will be the first digit in a number), as well as famous scientists such as Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, and Paul Kammerer. The storyline itself is filled with numerous coincidences and chance meetings, all of which work together to help Laureth and Benjamin in their quest to find their father.

Laureth is a fascinating character, a teenage girl who's blind and who has worked hard to make sure she is not invisible in life. This drive to force herself to be assertive has been scary but in the end pays off when Laureth travels halfway around the world to try to find her father. Laureth's determination and initiative saves her father and her family. Through all of this Sedgwick does an excellent job of conveying to his readers a sense of what it is like to be blind, busting a few myths about the blind along the way.

The resolution to the problem of Laureth's father's disappearance is somewhat disappointing but is offset by the dangerous situation Laureth and her brother find themselves caught up in. Sedgwick uses Jack Peak's diary to build tension in the novel, as the entries grow ever more mystifying and darker, leading Laureth to suspect the worst about her father and her parent's marriage.

She Is Not Invisible is a departure from Sedgwick's novels which tend towards horror and the occult. Because of the numerous interesting concepts put forth in this novel, it would make an excellent book club selection.


Book Details:
She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick
London: Indigo    2013
354 pp.

The Disappeared by Gloria Whelan

Silvia Diaz and her brother Eduardo live with their parents, Dr. Arturo Diaz and his wife, Adela in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their story is told in alternating chapters as "letters" written in past tense, that neither will ever read. 

It is 1977. Although the electric plant workers have been staging blackouts to protest wage cuts, that night Eduardo knew that their darkened neighbourhood meant the police were coming. Their father had just returned home from the hospital when the police forced their way in, handcuffing Eduardo and placing a hood over his head. The masked men searched his room, taking away his books and left with Eduardo. 

Before the arrival of the guerrillas and then the generals, life was very different for Silvia's family. Silvia and Eduardo played in the city's parks "...decorated with their pink and purple bougainvillea blossoms...", visited the zoo with its penguins, lions, and a white tiger, and took in operas at the Teatro Colon. Silvia and Eduardo also visited the planetario with Father. But then things changed.

One spring day, the military police came to Silvia's father's hospital and took away Jacobo Solanas who oversaw the hospital's psychiatric services. He was taken in for questioning because the generals believed Dr. Solanas's patients are telling him secrets that may be dangerous to the state. Eduardo was furious at his father whom he felt should fight against the generals who are taking away their freedoms. But Eduardo's father told him he is a doctor who has "...taken an oath to heal the sick..." and that if he is jailed that would not help either his patients nor his family. This didn't satisfy Eduardo who was determined to go to the hospital with his friends to protest. However his father warned him not to do this. 

The prospect that her father might be arrested was very terrifying for Silvia. So she and her friends, Rosa and Isabela decided to act as though nothing was happening. They rode their bikes on the Palermo Viejo's bike paths, shopped for jeans on Florida Street, and ate ice cream cones sprinkled with granizados at the heladerias. They went to the Alvear Palace Hotel for tea in their party dresses and slipped into the discos to dance all night. It was at a disco that Silvia met Norberto Lopez, son of General Lopez. It was Isabela who told Silvia who she was dancing with: General Lopez  had shut down the university papers and arrested professors, possibly Eduardo's favourite, Professor Bustamante. Silvia managed to leave the disco without giving Norberto her phone number. 

Eduardo chastised Silvia for ignoring what was going on. Silvia believed they were powerless and that they should go on with their lives. She wanted to have fun in her final year before attending university. While Silvia and her friends browsed booths at the Feriade San Telmo on Sundays, and wandered in the part, Eduardo became more involved with protests and meetings. He was determined to remember those who had been arrested and never seen again -- the people referred to as "Los Desaparecidos or The Disappeared. Eduardo helped the children whose parents had disappeared. But his actions angered their father who told him he was endangering all of them. The situation put everyone on edge. And then finally the police came for Eduardo.

While Silvia and her mother sat in the livingroom trying to drink tea and clinging to each other, her father set about meeting with lawyers. Meanwhile Silvia attempted to warn Eduardo's friends, Cesar and Maria, but was too late for the latter - she was chupada. Silvia's father went first to the general in the military, then to the municipal police and finally to their bishop. No one was willing to help. But a young priest, Fr. Paul told Silvia's father that a small group of priests was working to get information about the Los Desaparecidos. Silvia's father gave Fr. Paul the picture of Eduardo. Even a woman who Silvia's mother knew through her poetry and who belonged to an international commission on human rights was unable to help, because the Argentinean government was unco-operative.

During this time Silvia's family learned nothing about Eduardo but more about the many missing. Desperate to secure her brother's freedom, Silvia decided to return to the disco where she met Norberto Lopez, the son of the famous general, with the goal of making him care so much for her that he would be willing to ask his father to free Eduardo. But little did Silvia know about Norberto, his family, and how her plan would place everyone in her family in even more danger.

Discussion

The Disappeared is a short novel that portrays life in 1977 Argentina under the rule of General Jorge Rafael Videla.  In 1974, Isabel Peron, the third wife of General Juan Domingo Peron, became president of Argentina, following his death. General Peron had been in exile for decades until he returned to Argentina in 1973, in an attempt to reunite the country. However, during Isabel Peron's tenure, Argentina was beset by economic instability. 

In 1976, a military coup on March 29 resulted in General Jorge Rafael Videla becoming president of Argentina. His military junta banned political parties and unions, instituted strict censorship and dissolved the Argentina's National Congress and began a period of systematic repression. This took the form of the kidnapping and disappearance of tens of thousands of people, including students, artists, journalists, writers, trade unionist, and anyone who was believed to be against the government. These came to be known as Los Desaparecidos or "The Disappeared" and this period as "the Dirty War". The military dictatorship especially targeted university students and professors, anyone aligned with leftist ideology, religious who sought social justice, and trade unions advocating for workers' rights. Those abducted were never formally charged, had no access to legal representation, and were physically tortured and subjected to psychological abuse. Most disappeared never to be seen again, some were release. 

Democratic rule was restored in 1983 due to economic collapse and the defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War with the election of Raul Alfonsin. A law granting amnesty to Videla and others, was repealed and they were prosecuted and convicted human rights violations. 

The Disappeared focuses on the experiences of one fictional family, the Diazs who become victims of the violence that is engulfing Argentina during the Videla regime. Whelan tells their story from the point of view of Silvia and her older brother Eduardo using "letters" they write to one another but which they know will never be read. 

Silva's letters tell of her effort to secure the release of Eduardo who has been arrested. Silva's narrative explores the situation in Argentinean society during this time, who is aiding the government and who are protesting what is happening. The authorities will not help those families with missing persons: the municipal police tell Silvia's father that Eduardo was likely kidnapped by guerrillas, while the military police claim the military would never enter homes and that Eduardo is to blame for supporting those who oppose the government. The bishop blames Eduardo "...who should have chosen better friends". However, there are priests who want to help the families of the missing, as Eduardo's father learns.

Silvia's letters to Eduardo also describe the mothers who march around the pyramid that was built at the  center at the Palza de Mayo, outside the Casa Rosada where General Videla, president of Argentina resides. They are  there daily to "protest the disappearance of their loved ones".  The women are also marching for the other kidnappings, "Babies and even young children are taken from parents who are arrested." Silvia learns of a young mother whose baby is taken from her at birth, her whereabouts unknown: the mother who has lost not only a daughter but a granddaughter too.  The children are taken from parents who are protesting the government and given to patriotic and military families. 

Silvia's narrative seeks to portray the callousness and dissociation of those in charge through the character of Norberto Lopez. Silvia is shocked to see all the birds he collects and imprisons in cages - a metaphor for the people his father is locking up in the country's prisons. She is especially distressed to see a great egret crammed into a cage so small it can only "...dance a bit from side to side." When Silvia questions Norberto as to why he has them in cages he tells her they are safer in the cages than in the wild. In response to Silvia suggesting they would rather be free, Norberto tells her "What do they know about being free? They're only birds. My father says freedom is overrated." When Norberto tells Silvia that sometimes liberty must be sacrificed to bring order to a country, she realizes that like his father, General Lopez, Norberto places little value on freedom. Later, in an act of defiance and in defense of freedom, Silvia loosens the latch on the cage so that the egret will be able to escape. The egret is a metaphor for the people of Argentina, forced into jails, by a government that places little value on freedom.

Eduardo's letters focus on his experience in prison: the conditions of his cell, his torture and his struggle to not name those involved in the protests at the university. He describes his incarceration as  being "...in the country of fear..." Placed in a small room with the light always on, Eduardo can hear "...screams from a nearby room". As Eduardo reflects on how he came to be arrested he feels he had no choice but to protest. " We can't live in a country where everyone is suspected and everyone is at risk. They tell writers what they can put in their books. They say this book must go and that one. A book that tells the truth about what is happening to Argentina is not allowed." It was when the soldiers took away Professor Bustamante who taught in the experiment psychology department. Eduardo describes how he was ensnared by a man named "the Jackal" who wanted him to punish his friend Ramon Fratelli's family. He claimed Ramon was a traitor to those protesting and that Eduardo's mission was to place a bomb in the Fratelli's home. Ramon had been arrested for protesting and Eduardo knew this was a trap but he had already given the man his essays about bringing down the government. 

Each morning Eduardo is tortured by General Remos. He is beaten with a truncheon, is tortured with the picana - an electric cattle prod. A doctor examines Eduardo to ensure that the torture is not killing him. The doctor's betrayal of his vows to do no harm haunt Eduardo who has seen his own father help others. "That a doctor would aid the generals destroys all my hope. If they have the power to seduce a doctor to do the very opposite of what his profession calls for, they have more power than even I thought..." Still Eduardo continues to resist. Although he learns that his friend Ramon may be in the cell next to him - he cannot be sure as it may be a trick to get him to divulge information, Eduardo struggles to not give any information. Eduardo's letters reveal just how repeated torture weaken even the most determined. Fortunately Eduardo is freed before this happens. The novel ends with the Diaz family being exiled to Spain. This was the fate of thousands of Argentinians during the Dirty War. Many of the exiles which included dissidents, activists and the children  and families of the "disappeared" built lives in Spain. How realistic it would be for a political prisoner like Eduardo and his family to be exiled is uncertain.

All of the characters in the novel are ficticious except for General Videla. There isn't much character development, instead the characters narrate the events they experience, portraying some of what is happening during one year of the Dirty War. Dr. Arturo and Adela Diaz are focused on trying to stay unnoticed by the government, as are Silvia and her friends. However, through these characters the novel suggests that it almost impossible to bargain with evil. It must be confronted, something Eduardo does at great personal cost. Silvia too learns this with her plan to manipulate the son of General Lopez into asking for Eduardo's freedom. Although her actions show her great love for her brother, they also reveal her naivete regarding the personal risk. She is fortunate that the wife of General Lopez is able to save her, and ultimately her family.

This short novel offers a readers a general overview of the events of one year of the Dirty War using fictional characters. It would be interesting to read a novel that offers a more in-depth treatment of this mostly forgotten historical event.

Book Details:

The Disappeared by Gloria Whelan
New York: Speak
136pp.