Review: The Mortifications by Derek Palacio

In 1980, a rural Cuban family is torn apart during the Mariel Boatlift. Uxbal Encarnacion father, husband, political insurgent refuses to leave behind the revolutionary ideals and lush tomato farms of his sun-soaked homeland. His wife Soledad takes young Isabel and Ulises hostage and flees with them to America, leaving behind Uxbal for the promise of a better life. But instead of settling with fellow Cuban immigrants in Miami's familiar heat, Soledad pushes further north into the stark, wintry landscape of Hartford, Connecticut. There, in the long shadow of their estranged patriarch, now just a distant memory, the exiled mother and her children begin a process of growth and transformation. Each struggles and flourishes in their own way: Isabel, spiritually hungry and desperate for higher purpose, finds herself tethered to death and the dying in uncanny ways. Ulises is bookish and awkwardly tall, like his father, whose memory haunts and shapes the boy's thoughts and desires. Presiding over them both is Soledad. Once consumed by her love for her husband, she begins a tempestuous new relationship with a Dutch tobacco farmer. But just as the Encarnacions begin to cultivate their strange new way of life, Cuba calls them back. Uxbal is alive, and waiting. - Goodreads.com

The first word that comes to mind to describe this book is lonely. Each in their own way is alone, and feels that loneliness. You couldn't not feel it with them. Uxbal, a member of the counterrevolutionary faction, wants his family to remain in Buey Arriba, Cuba. Is this for the sake of keeping the family together or for not losing two potential rebels who are still too young to really understand? It doesn't work. Soledad takes the children all the way to Hartford in her attempt to escape the life she has.

I find it interesting that everyone drifts. Some without even realizing it. Emotion like this is difficult to describe. Even for those who have witnessed the passing of a loved one firsthand as I have. Putting it into words will be something of a challenge. Let me see if I can't try anyway? Soledad is at first the picture of a perfect mother. She leaves the only home she's ever known for the sake of her children. Even leaving behind her husband. I can relate on only the basest of levels as I am not a parent myself, but I can see the emotion she's come from. It was a terrifying time for women and children in Cuba. Ulises and Isabel grow up nearly entirely different lives. One going to spirituality, the other decidedly not. The closer Isabel got to God, it seemed, the further Ulises was pulling away. I wonder if he didn't resent the church because of how tightly Isabel clung to it?

Some parts of the book left me clueless. Why we needed to know about the first time Soledad slept with Henri, or Isabel with whomever was a mystery. It seemed terribly irrelevant. There was no relevance to it. No rhyme or reason. Isabel's was actually forgettable. I don't understand the significance.

I'm not sure what I can say about their relationship with their father. What little there was of it. He seemed to just give up after they left. We heard little of or from him until about two thirds of the way in when Ulises receives a letter from him and Isabel vanished. I think that may have been a bit of a plot device just to keep it moving. Because really there was no reason for Isabel to go back. It made me feel awkward. Almost an excuse.

Time didn't seem to make much sense in this book. Years pass but it feels like only hours, but then hours pass that feel like years. It was very surreal finding my way among the timeline.

It intrigued me that something like fifteen-odd years later the cycle was starting to repeat itself with Ulises and the children. Once again a man named Encarnacion was growing tomatoes at the house in Buey Arriba with two little kids. How it all circles back again to where we're from is a strong message.

I rated this book a 4/5 because while it was good, there wasn't much resolution in it. It felt like when we reached somewhere there would be a certain thing happen, it shifted to someone else, somewhere else instead of concluding that particular thread. I liked how visceral it was. I could connect with each of the characters for different reasons. Soledad, wanting for her children to be safe and away from the rebels, but having to live with the fact she left behind the man she loved. Ulises, resenting his mother for pulling them from their home but also upset because his sister was getting further and further away from him. Isabel, getting more and more lost in the church as a reaction to leaving her father before she could fulfill promises. Henri, having to fill in for someone and knowing full well that's what was happening. Lastly, Uxbal, watching his family leave and then come back, and knowing he has nothing to do with it.

You can see the way the family circles back on itself, proving that in the end we will always return to our roots, no matter how much we may not want to. I think it speaks powerfully the force of family and the way they are always together for one another, even if that means being far apart physically.

I liked this book and I definitely want to read more things by Derek Palacio. I received this from Blogging for Books in return for an honest review. Catch you in the next one!