layers of memories are built over each other in this autobiographically inspired novel about a family moving from vietnam to southern california. there are pasts that follow them over the seas. lê tells a story through images and moments with no heavy plot points and an absence of cloying nostalgia, just an air of remembrances that slowly overlap to create a portrait of a family.

i picked this up randomly at the library because i couldn’t find any more of the books i was looking for. it started out really promising, the story of a teenager living in southern california in the 1960’s who gets pregnant as her boyfriend enlists in the army. there were a lot of interesting details, and the point of view shifted between her and her mother, who recollected on her alcoholic mother and an early family vacation when she met a cousin of her husband. this cousin slowly worked into the story and soon there were parts from her focus as well, as she took in the pregnant girl. then halfway through everything got fragmented and dramatic and soon the girl’s siblings were voicing in briefly and then there was one chapter in third person and then suddenly it was ending without resolving anything. rather disappointing, and after trying to explain the story to someone, i can see why there is no blurb on the back of the book, just positive yet ultimately vague quotes: “Thoughtful … a haunting picture … particularly arresting,” said Entertainment Weekly.

i’d never read Kingsolver before, though friends had often recommended her. i appreciated the running theme of the balance of ecosystems and how it ties into the balance of family and community, as well as the way three different storylines were slowly tied together. sometimes it seemed there was something a little unnatural and simplified about the characters, but by the end i was fairly invested in most of them. a good, casual summer read.

the unsettling thing about this book is that the first-person narrators to these twelve stories could all be the same person but aren’t; they all have this innocence and nonchalance at surreal events that is intended to be humorous. it kind of reminds me of Pastoralia by George Saunders in some ways.

most of these stories involve dogs, except the one with the giant slug and the one where the narrator steals a blind guy’s car to drive south for the winter and a couple other short ones. the longer stories have the dogs and many of them are deformed in some way.

there are interesting things going on here, but i feel like it’s not quite my sense of humor and i am missing what other people would enjoy in this collection.