Alentejo Blue: Fiction [Paperback]

I bought this book because my mother lives in the Alentejo. I intended to read it and then send it to her. But I'm struggling to even finish it. I'm a college graduate, and I've read plenty of complex novels, but this one leaves me feeling like I'm missing some skill necessary to decode it. I think I need an English Literature class in order to understand it, and frankly, I don't want to put that much work into reading for pleasure. There are too many characters, with too little to tie them together, and sentences thrown in at the end of paragraphs that leave me thinking "huh?"

Others clearly love this book, so I realize this is just a mismatch between reader and style of book. But I thought I should write a review so that others who want plenty of accessible plot in a book know to look elsewhere.

I bought this book because I was born and raised in the Alentejo and I was so anxious to read about familiar places and perhaps to better understand my own culture.

I hate to say this but I read perhaps 20 pages, if that. Nothing made sense to me, and there was no flow. I actually returned the book to the store.

So sorry to say this but I would definitely not recommend it to anyone.

Five Mesmerizing Stars!! Monica Ali's wonderfully conceived sophomore effort transcends the Bangladeshi roots of her debut novel "Brick Lane" by a considerable distance, physically and topically. She transports us to the village of Mamarrosa Portugal in the southeastern rural area of Alentejo and a tangle of lives and events played against the country's historical, social, and economic factors. In so doing, she elevates herself from a writer who can very convincingly write about her own background to someone who can conjure up a totally different stage, across a wide swath of time, and reveal the innermost workings of other cultures and characters. And in the "acknowledgements" she tells us she's spent time in rural Portugal and studied the language, and it clearly shows in her wonderful writing! Not 'chick lit', it's 'Wonderful Lit'! 'Saudade' (a Portuguese word which appromixates 'sadness/hopeful longing') hangs in the air, hence the "Blue" for atmosphere (and a local paint color), but it's not a turn off. It's exactly like taking a short vacation in a rural town in a foreign land, full of quaint, interesting, interlaced characters that you take as they come, soak up some history and the local sights, and then you go home, better off for the experience! There are no murders, spies, or insidious terrorist plots.

Roughly-hewn, beautifully complex characters abound. And her prose can be spellbinding, whether she's writing about dictatorships, the vagaries of love, or an almond tart. A few crude situations are present. I like the way she drops us into a scene and slowly makes us aware of where we are and what's going on. The verbiage of some of the Portuguese characters is somewhat obtuse at times, almost like a translation, but certainly not difficult to follow and it does transmit a certain cultural mindset, which is significantly different from the foreign characters in the novel.

Shifting timeframes (67 years) and situations within her first vignette on Joao and Rui, the reader is introduced to the hardships and complexities of a friendship that begins during the Salazar dictatorship and actually ends at the beginning of the vignette. Then she makes an even bigger temporal and topical shift to current day Portugal and the complex story lines of the ex-patriots and tourists, and the differences within their worlds around the village of Mamarrosa. And then there are the local citizens with their fascinating stories, some staying, some escaping and some unable to: the scene between Joao and Teresa, juxtaposing the old and the new, the settled and the unsettled is flat out beautiful writing. It's an example of islands of especially lyrical prose that pop up everywhere in this novel. Sometimes you get the feeling that there is no resolution coming in a chapter, just the exhilaration of the wonderful prose and great descriptions of the villages and countryside and it's inhabitants, but that is not always so. But it doesn't matter if there is a destination or not, the ride is enjoyable. Watch for the shifts from third person to first person. In Chapters 8 & 9, one may be exhilarated that one is actually reading something this good, as it flows beneath our eyes. But can she tie it all together? Yes, near the end, there are surprises and recapitulations.

In summary, a wonderful read about an engrossing fictional world and village. The grandmother was right: "We live our lives!" and this is 'life', but would these characters make the same choices and mistakes given another chance in Mamarossa Portugal? I think so! Monica Ali is one heck of a Big League writer. I couldn't get enough of this novel!!
Highly recommended. Five Engrossing Stars!!!

(Note: *This review is based on an EBook download in Adode Reader 7. Save a tree, download your books when possible.)

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