Karen
I appreciate this novel for giving me the opportunity to put "spontaneous combustion" in my tags.
Fallon Kazan and her two brothers, Ovid and Terrence (sometimes known as Cosmo), are adults dealing with the fallout of their mother's apparent spontaneous combustion in the Chilean desert when they were on a family trip as children. Their relationships with each other are turbulent, and Fallon and Ovid have trouble building lives for themselves in the world. Their father, Walter, is a passive man who doesn't know how to help them and may not even think it is his role to help them. This is the state of things in the beginning of the novel. When Ovid has a crisis, things begin to shift in the story. Fallon is led to set off on a journey of discovery in the very car her family was driving in Chile when her mother disappeared in a flash of fire.
In many ways this is a conventional story of adult siblings navigating the aftermath of trauma from their childhood, coming to new understanding of what happened to them, and learning to trust themselves and each other. It was the unexpected elements of the story that made it fun to read. The hints of magical realism in Blue Woman Burning add to the sense that the world of the Kazans is seriously off kilter. Eustacia's over the top personality repeating itself in Ovid, her obsession with him, and his behavior after her exit from their lives suggests not just family drama, but family horror. Fallon's experiences and the people she meets on her epic journey are imaginative and build meaning within the story. I really liked being surprised over and over by what happened next.
I do wish that the character of Walter, their father, had more development. I had so many questions about him. He had enough of a personality to persuade Eustacia not to name her daughter Fallopia and her son Ovum, but almost nothing is said about his reaction to Eustacia's fiery exit. Is his passivity and helplessness in later life because of that or something else? Despite these questions, I really enjoyed the book.
I appreciate this novel for giving me the opportunity to put "spontaneous combustion" in my tags.
Fallon Kazan and her two brothers, Ovid and Terrence (sometimes known as Cosmo), are adults dealing with the fallout of their mother's apparent spontaneous combustion in the Chilean desert when they were on a family trip as children. Their relationships with each other are turbulent, and Fallon and Ovid have trouble building lives for themselves in the world. Their father, Walter, is a passive man who doesn't know how to help them and may not even think it is his role to help them. This is the state of things in the beginning of the novel. When Ovid has a crisis, things begin to shift in the story. Fallon is led to set off on a journey of discovery in the very car her family was driving in Chile when her mother disappeared in a flash of fire.
In many ways this is a conventional story of adult siblings navigating the aftermath of trauma from their childhood, coming to new understanding of what happened to them, and learning to trust themselves and each other. It was the unexpected elements of the story that made it fun to read. The hints of magical realism in Blue Woman Burning add to the sense that the world of the Kazans is seriously off kilter. Eustacia's over the top personality repeating itself in Ovid, her obsession with him, and his behavior after her exit from their lives suggests not just family drama, but family horror. Fallon's experiences and the people she meets on her epic journey are imaginative and build meaning within the story. I really liked being surprised over and over by what happened next.
I do wish that the character of Walter, their father, had more development. I had so many questions about him. He had enough of a personality to persuade Eustacia not to name her daughter Fallopia and her son Ovum, but almost nothing is said about his reaction to Eustacia's fiery exit. Is his passivity and helplessness in later life because of that or something else? Despite these questions, I really enjoyed the book.