My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Despite our world being hyper-connected by the internet and social media, it can at times feel as though society is losing touch with the things that connect us to each other as a local community, whether they be certain people, places or beliefs. In this slow, but poignant tale, Alex Espinoza writes about a year in the life of a botaníca shop, its Latina owner, and the lives of the people connected to it, even in just a tangential way.
Perla is the owner of the botaníca shop at the heart of this novel. She’s a widow who has been running the shop for years that specializes in selling home remedies for people’s ailments whether they be physical, emotional, or spiritual. During the year catalogued in this novel, Perla befriends a young, undocumented immigrant named Rodrigo whom she comes to care for deeply. His traumatic past affects Perla deeply and she tries to help him far more than any of the other people who come through her shop. At the same time, the main plot is broken up by a series of first person narratives of people who are connected to Perla’s shop, even if they just stopped in for a short visit. While the main plot is quite linear, these sub plots seem to bounce around the timeline a little bit.
Mr. Espinoza displays a great deal of empathy for his characters throughout this book. While Perla is the main character, each of the main characters in the sub plots also shine in unique ways. While some of their connections to Perla and her shop are rather small, they all interact in these ways that are poignant nonetheless. This helps to drive home one of the books themes about how even the briefest connections we have to each other can still have some of the most profound consequences.
That said, this book is very slow. While the sub plots are interesting, they do draw some of the narrative attention away from the the main story surrounding Perla and Rodrigo. Indeed, while Perla and Rodrigo’s story is poignant and even tragic, it’s resolution is a letdown and doesn’t seem to really have a lasting impact on Perla or the community. Indeed, some of the sub plots have a more satisfying resolution than Perla’s does.
Overall, while this book is rather touching, the main plot is slow and the sub plots seem more interesting in comparison. Some of them even get resolved in a more satisfying way than the main plot. I would recommend this book for people who are looking to slow their reading down a bit and reflect on the important connections in their community, no matter how small they may be.
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