In an affluent suburb nearby, Norma is growing up as the only child of unhappy parents. She is smart, precocious, and bursting with questions she isn’t allowed to ask – questions about her missing baby photos; questions about her dark skin; questions about the strange, vivid dreams of campfires and warm embraces that return night after night. Norma senses there are things her parents aren’t telling her, but it will take decades to unravel the secrets they have kept buried since she was a little girl.
The Berry Pickers is an exquisitely moving story of unrelenting hope, unwavering love, and the power of family – even in the face of grief and betrayal.
Comment: This book caught my attention months ago and I've suggested to my usual buddy reading friend that maybe it could be an interesting book for us to try. Late October was when we could slot it.
In this short novel (around 300 pages more less, in my ebook edition) we meet a family that, in the 60s, comes from Nova Scotia to Maine every summer to pick berries. They are of Indian origin and are used to be seen as different but their family is a close one. Everything changes one day, when the youngest of five siblings, Ruthie, vanishes, and no one finds her, not even the police feels interested in doing something to help. As the years go by, the rest of the family needs to adapt to this situation, but it's especially hard on Joe, the one youngest before Ruthie, who feels he should have paid attention to her. At the same time, a young child named Norma lives with her parents in a very controlled environment which she accepts because she is loved, although she does have these vivid dreams where she is part of a different family...
Well, this story was perfect for a crying fest. I say this in the good sense, though, because while it was incredible sad it was also great to read. The story is incredibly emotional, very, very poignant and if there is something I'd change is the fact the reunion of Ruthie with her family happened so late that they couldn't all enjoy it for longer.
This is the first book I try by the author and had no expectations on the writing but I was positively surprised, the writing is fluid, conveys enough to make the reader be in the right mood and while certain plot issues were a bit predictable, I still had a good time reading, if I think about the reading experience. It's also the author's debit, which makes her accomplishment even more gratifying. I liked this book and I liked turning the pages, but I'll be honest, I don't know if I would re-read it because it's sad and some things happen that didn't have to - I can't tell if they were used to increase the unfairness of things, thus adding some drama, or if the author didn't want to "loose" the vibe.
I liked knowing the family: the parents and the five children, Ben, Mae, Charlie, Joe and Ruthie who might be poor and part of a so-called minority, but were happy together and had a strong base with values and beliefs that made them all good people. You know, characters you just can't help but root for, and perhaps even know in real life if that was possible. Of course something would happen and Ruthie vanishes. It's not a spoiler since it happens in the first chapters, but Ruthie is actually taken by a white woman so she can raise her as her own child.
Ruthie disappearing has an effect on the whole family, especially on Joe. There are only two narrators of the book, we have alternated chapters in Joe and Norma/Ruthie's POV and as we switch between them we get to see where they are as they get older. Through Joe's POV we also learn of what happens to the family and I must say it was a bit sad and frustrating to read about moments which I wanted to change, that I think didn't have to be so terrible.... still, choices and destiny or whatever one wants to believe in, should not be enough to justify some actions, and Joe goes on to be a kind of a "lone wolf" guy when he's an adult. I also wish this didn't have to be so.
I felt connected to these characters. Often readers criticize books because this is a missing element, but here I've felt the opposite. I wanted so badly for the family to be reunited and when they do, there are already some facts which cannot be changed. This made the road to the end of the book a bit bittersweet but still so rewarding, because following the characters through their lives, knowing about good and bad things, knowing they became people that are considerate but who also suffered losses and that no one is perfect...well, it was a good journey.
There are things the reader knows from the start, so I should say the end isn't a surprise but it still made me cry and cry... The author certainly knows how to create the perfect atmosphere to make the story emotional and heartfelt. Again, some details are not that necessary the way I see things; I think a few more happy situations would have elevated this to a higher grade for me. Also, let if be said there are several situations which might be triggering for some readers. I think the kidnapping and what it might mean culturally are elements that would require a lot more debate, so I'll simply say that the goal was to focus the attention on the two narrators.
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