I loved this debut novel. The first chapter drew me in to this wildly dysfunctional family. The main characters are Olga Acevedo (named after a radical female) and her brother Prieto. Their father dies of AIDS picked up through intravenous drug use. Their mother deserts them when Olga is thirteen and her brother seventeen. Prieto changes his plans for college to stay home and help their grandmother take care of Olga. Through the years, the two receive letters from their mother. Due to her clandestine existence in the radical underground, her children never have any real idea of where she is or what she’s doing. Though she is seen only in the epistolary segments of the book, her character comes through loud and clear: she is a radicalized Puertoriqueña fighting against “the man.” In each letter, she urges her children to become what she perceives as their true selves, trying to get them to join her in her fight for Puerto Rican independence. Her disappointment in the lives they establish for themselves is incandescent.
This book deals with many issues facing people of color and nonbinary people, ranging from blatant racism to the more subtle, deeply engendered white privilege. It also looks at the lives of children with poor parenting and the fracture felt by people who belong to two cultures.
I enjoyed watching Olga and Prieto come to terms with being abandoned by a mother who never should have been a mother, their development of their own lives, and how they eventually must abandon their hopes for reconciliation with their mother.
********************
Olga Dies Dreaming is available through:
********************
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases.
