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Searching for mom

July 29th, 2008 Lisa - Central

I just finished reading When We Get There by Shauna Seliy.  In this sad but beautiful novel, Lucas is a 13-year-old boy living in a mining town in 1974 Pennsylvania as the coal mines are beginning to shut down.  But not before Lucas’ father is blown to smithereens in the King mine.  Mirjana, Lucas’ mother, handles this by taking to her bed - until one day she disappears.  Lucky for Lucas, his huge family of Russian, Hungarian and Croatian descent all live in Banning, and his grandmother and great-grandfather keep an eye on him. 

But the kid is devastated…his mom adored her son and would take him along with her when she was lonely, filling his head with lovely stories about his interesting, and somewhat crazy, family.  They seemed particularly close.  Then a neighbor, Zoli, who is in love with Mirjana in a scary, obsessive sort of way, decides Lucas knows where she is, and stalks the poor kid.  Zoli is violent, threatens Lucas and burns down the family’s treasured pear tree.  (Great-grandfather brought the seeds from a Slovenian monastery, and makes pear brandy by fitting glass bottles over the pear bud so the fruit grows in the bottles.  Imagine a tree with bottles on it blowing in the breeze…..)  Anyway, Lucas starts cutting school to look for his mom himself. 

I won’t tell more of the plot, so I won’t ruin it for anyone.  But this is a beautifully written little book, with a magical imagery that blends with the family’s culture and superstitions to give the book a dream-like quality.  Lucas is totally loveable, despite the fact that he’s a nightmare of a kid.  In a totally understandable way.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction