Here are three official reviews of the book: Clarion Review GENERAL The Anglo Brambles Sylvia Lyon Rodman Xlibris 978-1-4836-1294-2 Four Stars (out of Five) A different kind of coming-to-America tale illustrates irrationality of everyday life. If you’ve ever walked in the woods, you may have seen a bramble—a shrub with prickly, thorny branches. They’re difficult to walk around (much less through) without catching one’s clothes or scratching one’s skin. In many ways, the bramble is the perfect metaphor for anyone emigrating from one country to another: No matter how carefully a person treads, he may get tangled in the bramble. This is one of the several themes of The Anglo Brambles. The book opens as Doroteo, a wealthy businessman and patriarch of the Buenaventuras, decides to move his family from an unnamed South American country to New York City. That same day, Doroteo, a gruff authoritarian in the eyes of his family, meets his first granddaughter, Nina, who softens his heart. While the rest of the family wonders what’s wrong with him, Doroteo develops a special, lifelong connection with Nina. Her birth and Doroteo’s decision to move mark the start of a journey that will change the lives of everyone in the Buenaventura family. While The Anglo Brambles is an story about immigrants, it’s unlike most coming-to- America tales. The Buenaventura family is neither poor nor destitute. Polarities—young and old, south and north, new and old, logical and absurd—run as themes throughout the book. In fact, absurdity sets the tone. While the scenes are mainly realistic, author Sylvia Lyon Rodman has fun with the sometimes irrationality of everyday life. For instance, Doroteo may be transacting business, but sometimes he imagines himself with wings, flying around with Nina. The tone isn’t set just in the plot. Rodman uses other devices as well, sometimes punctuating her story with amusing footnotes that explain South American culture, expand on a character’s name, or provide other details about a scene. Rodman also adds her own line drawings. When Doroteo sees a doctor after having heart problems, Rodman shows what the doctor drew (an anatomically correct picture of a heart), what Doroteo sees (a big scribble and nonsense), and what Blanca, his daughter, sees (a grave and a new mourning hat for herself). While the tactic is purely postmodern, the drawings are a humorous counterpoint to Rodman’s prose. And even without these devices, Rodman’s writing crackles with humor. However, there are times when the author’s phrasing makes her prose overly wordy. At one point, she writes, “Blanca chose to sit down in the darkest spot of the room. She chose to sit in the darkest spot in the room because she doesn’t want to be there. She doesn’t want to be there because ...” While the phrasing captures Blanca’s state of mind, the repetitions call the reader’s attention to the writing and out of the scene. Still, The Anglo Brambles is a novel that is sure to pique the interest of anyone who loves Isabel Allende’s South American epics or the sprawling postmodernist masterpieces of Susanna Clarke or David Foster Wallace. It’s a novel that’s sure to catch readers’ interest as easily as a thorn on a bramble catches cloth. Katerie Prior BLUEINK: The Anglo Brambles Sylvia Lyon Rodman Xlibris, 463 pages, (paperback) $23.99, 978-1-4836-1294-2 (Reviewed: May 2013) This collection of fictional stories tells the tale of the wealthy Buenaventura family and their emigration from a South American country to an island off of Manhattan. The volume is illustrated with hand drawings, annotated with footnotes and told with a flair for magical realism, resulting in an original and multi-faceted story. The book begins with an explanation of what is going on in patriarch Doroteo’s life on the day he first flies – not by mechanical means but under his own power. The connected tales that follow weave in family, history and the politics that force his decision to flee to Dawn’s Island, formerly the site of an insane asylum, which he buys for the family compound. Despite the seemingly heavy topic, this is largely a light, colorful tale, rich in South American culture and imbued with a strong sense of family, particularly the relationship between Doroteo and his granddaughter Nina. “Nina and Doroteo fly together ...,” writes Rodman. “Their flights are not always as successful as their vocabulary games. Nina likes to swerve with the winds that serve her best for all sorts of daredevil pirouettes. Doroteo is more the helicopter type, chugging laboriously along ...” The stories circle back over various events, picking up threads and adding details as they progress. Often a truly enjoyable read, this is not, however, for the impatient person, as Rodman’s style depends greatly on repetition. For example, “Realizing how far apart he had grown ... filled him with horror. It filled him with horror because ...” While the technique can work in small doses, it can at times feel overdone and frustrating. That aside, this is a well-imagined and satisfying read that will especially appeal to readers who want to lose themselves in another world. Also available in hardcover. TITLE INFORMATION THE ANGLO BRAMBLES Lyon Rodman, Sylvia Xlibris (474 pp.) $34.99 hardcover, $23.99 paperback ISBN: 978-1483612959; April 12, 2013 BOOK REVIEW A collection of linked short stories introduces a mythic Latin American family escaping to the U.S. from political upheaval. In an unspecified country, Doroteo, the patriarch of the Buenaventura family, has risen from poverty to become a man of epic wealth. But after the election of El Presidente, a politician who, Doroteo fears, will open the doors to communism and destruction, the Buenaventuras escape to an island—formerly the site of a mental institution—in Manhattan’s East River and attempt to adjust to life in their new country. Part Gabriel García Márquez, part Roald Dahl and even some Wes Anderson, these linked stories portray three generations of Buenaventuras (plus their family dog, Pisco), with graceful leaps between perspectives. The more fantastic elements of this magical realist collection (some family members can fly or levitate) are underutilized to the point of feeling incidental and out of place. What’s truly magical here is the intricacy and fairy-tale success of the Buenaventura family, not the magic some of its members possess. Charming hand-drawn illustrations complement the book (although they are occasionally difficult to decipher), and footnotes expound on cultural references and emotional interiority. The narrator seems to join the reader as a gossiping audience member, an awestruck, sardonic but admiring witness to the fabulously wealthy family. The narrator’s tone wavers perfectly between celebration and contempt—similar to public fascination with families like the Kennedys—and she deeply analyzes and defends actions and sentiments with historical fact or evidence from the family’s invented lives. From the patriarch to his granddaughter to his son-in-law the poet, the collection is a comprehensive vision of a wonderfully unique family. That the book contains an addendum with a series of recipes for food adored by the Buenaventuras is further testament to how fully Rodman has imagined their lives. An impressively sprawling, engaging account of an eccentric Latin American family. Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Rd., Austin, TX 78744 indie@kirkusreviews
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 16:21:05 +0000
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