Grove Press, May 3, 2016.
Four Stars
When Reina’s brother Carlito throws his girlfriend’s
baby off of a bridge, it is a case of history repeating itself – Reina’s father
tossed baby Carlito off the same bridge, but he survived. Unfortunately,
Carlito’s tiny victim did not, in spite of the fact that he instantly regretted
his actions and jumped into the water to save the baby. Now Reina’s life is on
hold as she remains on vigil for her brother, spending every weekend visiting
him in prison, where he sits on death row. When Carlito loses his final appeal,
he commits suicide. Reina is free – but she is at a loose end, with no plans
for her future.
Reina’s mother decides to sell the family home and
move away with her wealthy boyfriend, leaving her daughter to fend for herself.
Planning to hide out and decide on her next move, Reina moves to a small beach
town in the nearby Florida Keys, where she gets a job in a nail salon and tries
to live a quiet life. She is consumed by grief for her role in Carlito’s crime,
which is only slowly exposed to the reader throughout the novel.
Although she keeps to herself, Reina meets a man
named Nesto, an exiled Cuban who is working to move his family to the United
States. Nesto loves the sea and has endless faith in its ability to heal – he has
no doubts that he will be able to bring his family back together. While his
wife has moved on from their marriage, he will do whatever it takes to be
reunited with his children. In contrast, Reina struggles with the role of the
ocean in her own family’s history – from the drowned baby to their troubled
story of immigration from Colombia. Nesto takes her diving in the ocean, in an
attempt to help her learn to trust him, and to trust herself.
Regardless of her doubts and fears, Reina begins to
spend more time with Nesto at sea, and she experiences the healing powers of
the natural world. Engel describes vibrant, beautiful coastal settings, yet
they also hide a darker story – the dangers of illegal immigration. It is a
topical, important story in a world where leaving home for a new country is becoming
the norm, causing the fracturing of families and the risk of injury or even death.
Reina is also troubled by the prevalence of crime within immigrant communities –
her family fled Cartagena to escape crime, but they are still affected by it in
the comparatively safe streets of Florida.
Reina begins to accept her budding romance with
Nesto, but she still struggles with her unsettled relationship with her mother,
and her sense of displacement – she feels trapped between the old and new
worlds. Nesto fully embraces the spirituality of his ancestral community, and
his beliefs are explored throughout the novel. Reina is more skeptical, but she
opens herself up to Nesto’s faith.
More than anything, The Veins of the Ocean is the story of ordinary people struggling to
live quiet lives, despite their complicated histories. Both Reina and Nesto
feel dislocated from the past, yet they are still working to find home in a new
place with a new kind of family. The novel is dark, but filled with a tentative
sort of hope – it moves slowly, but its everyday moments shine with life and
light.
I received this novel from Grove Press and NetGalley in
exchange for an honest review.
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