Book Review: A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

I am easily convinced to read a book because of its popularity. I am experienced enough to know that there is always a risk to be just the victim of wise PR and communications campaigns, but no matter what, my curiosity is always stronger than any kind of reasonable explanations. You have me always at books´ buzz...

A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, a YA novel with a multicultural background by Laura Taylor Namey, is my latest disappointment. Read it over the long Eastern weekend, it first caught my attention for the beautiful cover. Also the lettering choice is inspiring for the topic and age range it aims at.

Lila Reyes is 17, an active baker of Cuban origin in Miami. In just a couple of month, she experienced the sudden death of her dear abuela - grandmother, in Spanish - the break-up of her 3-year boyfriend (who needs a break to find himself) and the separation from her best friend, Stephanie. Worried, her parents are sending her on the other side of the pond, to join her aunt, living in the medievalesque city of Winchester. There, she will fell in love with a local guy named Orion and will decide to follow her destiny in the footpath of her sweet abuela. 

At the first sight, it sounds as a very cozy YA, the kind you may want to read in one sitting while sipping a cuppa or a coffee. But I may have a couple of observations and criticism on the book in its entirety.

Let´s start with the good things: I was really impressed by the way in which mental health issues were addressed in the book. Her triple incidents were a risk for her mental wellbeing, therefore the prompt decision of her parents to buy her a one-way ticket and sent her away from the causes of her heartbreak. It´s a topic less approached - if ever - in YA therefore it is worth outlining the approach in this case.

Another aspect that I appreciated is the fact that the Spanish words are scattered into the conversation. It makes the dialogues so authentic and creates the proper ambiance of a multicultural novel. From the same category, I loved the references to Cuban food, a chapter my information is very precarious. I love guavas and the thought of guava filled pastry has an instant mouthwatering effect. Hope to have the chance soon to try some Cuban delicacies.

But there are so many flaws into this story. For instance, most young characters are under 18 yo. Lila and Orion and her sister and Orion´s sister - which is only 15 - are assigned voices that are so serious and mature that one may think they are at least 30. Their drinking tastes are also so casual and mature as they started to drink alcohol mixed with their mother´s milk. 

Another weakness: the so-called love story between Lila and Orion is so awkward. Not because it is not romantic at all, but it starts as his invitation to keep her busy and bring her to events. Kind of charity companionship. Again, it does not suit the age expectations and the way of life in general.

A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow started for me on a very optimistic note, but 80 pages into the book I got first annoyed and kept being more and disappointed every couple of pages. Reading the book was for me an exercise in literary analysis and criticism but wish it was more than that...

Rating: 2.5 stars 

 

YA Book Review: Love, Hate&Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

I haven´t read such an insightful YA multicultural novel in a long time. Samira Ahmed´s Love, Hate&Other Filters encompasses with an original voice a clear message about what does it mean to grow up different in nowadays America.

Daughter of immigrants from a Muslim Indian family, Maya Aziz is struggling to write her own story: as a teen, woman, Muslim American, as an individual. She is a couple of months shy of her 18th birthday and the pressures of all kinds are entering her life: her parents - that come with nothing and succeeded to set up a relatively successfully dental practice in Batavia, Illinois - can´t wait to dance to her wedding and already started to tour suitable candidates; it´s time to apply to universities and her passion for film seems to be stronger than the expectations of her parents; she is in love for ever with Phil, that she knows since she was 5, but he is not suitable as a husband material and in addition he is also taken. Maya moves smoothly from a world to another, having non-Muslim friends and coping pretty well with the American melting pot. However, she is born different and this difference is reminded a couple of times every day, from her skin colour to the smell on her clothes because of the ingredients traditionally used to cook in the household. Her parents moved oceans to achieve their current American life, but their adherence to all the cultural norms and standards and self-obliteration is not achievable. Take, for instance, the fact that non-wed young Muslim couples do not kiss before marriage: `The no kiss is anticlimatic, but some taboos cross oceans, packed tightly into the corners of the immigrant baggage, tucked away with packets of masala and memories of home`.

Maya´s biggest struggle is to find the royal path towards a life she wants and fulfills her as a human being, while still being a good daughter. Maybe in a similar with her rebel aunt, in her 40s, not married, a graphic designer enjoying her creativity and freedom. Without acknowledging her parents, Maya applies and is accepted at the NYU for Film studies as her filming ´is the way I see things. Really see them. I can capture what is important to me at a particular moment. That way, I keep it forever´. Which means that she had to leave her parents home and start the life of adventures, in Thoreau´s words she quoted ´suck the marrow out of life´. But announcing such a radical decision involves complex sensitivities and difficult episodes with her parents. ´There are things I love about it. My friends. This place. But I want to be in New York already. You know, a place where I can life and do what I want and not be the Indian girl or the Muslim girl. A place where I can just be´.

Maya´s family Muslim identity appears as a given, connecting the members through the threats of tradition and shared identity: they do not eat pork or drink, but also don´t necessarily go to the mosque all the time and pray strictly five times the day.

At first, everything looks like a cinematically organised sequence of life snaps from the life of a teenage gang in Batavia, Illinois dating, dealing with their family constraints and their burgeoning identity of new adults in the making. But there is another terrible story that rolls in the background, the story of an unhappy young boy that lured by the white supremacist ideas will commit a terrorist attack. First, it was labelled as a Muslim terrorist attack, as among the name of a victims, a certain Aziz - the same family name like Maya´s - was found. Followingly, Maya´s innocence is facing the assault by an aggressive colleague. This is the rotten worm of the beautiful American dream since September 11, revealed as Maya was praying that the perpetrator is not Muslim: ´I´m scared of being the object of fear and loathing and suspicion again. Always´. The Muslim ban and the additional screenings in airports of non-white people, said Maya, ´left American Muslims to fight for their Americanness and their beliefs´. But there is still hope for her; when overwhelmed by the situation, her parents were considering maybe returning back to India, it is the same Maya who is trying to convince them that America is their place: ´Yes, terrible racist stuff happened, but we´re part of this place, and it´s a part of us. And we can help make it better by being here and living our lives and being happy. We can be...We are American and Indian and Muslim´.

The story in itself is full of hope, with delicate twists and change of situation, slow paced yet keeping the reader alert for the new installment. The audience is mostly YA, but it also shows to a larger audience a specific way of understanding and stating identity in America nowadays. In an interview, the author herself who is living in Batavia, Illinois, experienced racism as a little girl therefore the accents of authenticity in the voices of the characters. The characters are authentic not only when they utter realities related to their ethnic and/or religious identity but also as voices of teenage children and adults in the making.

The construction of the story and the ways in which the relationships between the characters develop is another plus of the book; it offers a multiplicity of perspectives and projects the unique voices and personalities of the characters.

Love, Hate&Other Filters by Samira Ahmed is one of those books whose reading is important in those dramatic times for the ethnic relationships in America we are in. As told and seen through the voices and eyes of teenagers, it makes the entire message more relevant because it gives the measure of the struggle for being free enough for writing your own story. That story that´s only yours to live and tell it further.

Rating: 4 stars