Olga Dies Dreaming

Beautiful cover art. Beautiful story-telling. Made me so much aware of PR’s struggle for independence and historical context.

Me encanto este libro, se me hizo muy interesante conocer poco a poco a los personajes de la historia con vidas que inspiran y ayudan a comprender o aprender sobre otras perspectivas diferentes a las que uno conoce. No se lo pierdan.

I REALLY struggled to finish this one. It starts out great -- it's witty, the characters are marvelous, it sings with love for Puerto Rico and for family, it has a plot full of political intrigue, romance, and drama -- and yet it's somehow just... really boring. It took me weeks longer to finish than most books, but I kept forcing myself to go back because I did really care about the characters and wanted to find out how things turned out for them. Way too much of the book is telling and not showing; it's drowning in internal dialogue. The best parts were direct interaction between characters, and the occasional letters to Olga and her brother Pietro from their Puerto Rican liberation anarchist mother. There's a lot to like here, but it's sandwiched between pages that were really hard for me to push through.

"...Even people who were once your sails can become your anchors." There is so much going on here, it's a little mind-blowing. We've got a strong female character, who is learning to nurture her vulnerable side. We've got a strong sibling bond, albeit through shared trauma. There's a lively Puerto Rican family dynamic, in all its dysfunctional glory. Romance and sex (not necessarily in that order). Political corruption and vigilantism. There's are Russian Oligarch weddings (did I mention the weddings?). There's class issues and colourism. Mental health even makes an appearance. Cultural vs. personal identity. Commitment-phobia. Sexual identity... Have I left anything out? I'm not sure how I feel about the bombardment, but generally, I enjoyed the writing.

As someone who lived through Hurricane María, I'm conflicted about this book. I wanted to like it, but it was too many things at once and none of them felt fully developed.