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brianreadsbooks 's review for:
Lost Children Archive
by Valeria Luiselli
Luiselli presents multiple layers of story: a family on the verge of splitting up, a highly abstracted idea of migrant children lost in the desert, later a narrative of their journey north across the Mexico-U.S. border, and disjointed stories of “lost” Apache tribes of the Southwest U.S.
I want to acknowledge thoughts by other reviewers that helped me think about the Native American representation more critically. The father in the story is obsessed with documenting the “echoes” of the “lost” Apache tribes. I’m uncertain how much of what we read, through his voice, is factual vs. mythologised or shaped by his (or Luiselli’s) worldview. But the tribes who made up the Apache have not been lost, and are real, living communities today. There was even one point where the father is going to talk with a descendent of Geronimo, but we don’t hear his voice, and Luiselli reverts back to gravestones and echoes. Meanwhile, the family give each other “warrior names” and behave in very appropriative ways in a several spots. As such a major theme of the book, it’s hard to separate this problematic representation, which Luiselli doesn’t seem to be conscious of.
The writing style is fascinating. Luiselli used the structure to bring you into her themes. The majority of the book is written in short bursts, each with a label, all safely contained for later consumption. In a word: archived. These story pieces are contained in sections of the book she labels “boxes”. Only later do we get a very dream-like, stream-of-consciousness chapter, one that reflects the state of the narrators at that time.
The impossibility of trying to record, photograph, archive, to capture, to remember, the living breathing world is the most important message. It’s a shame that Luiselli didn’t use the MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY she had to reflect that idea through the voices of Native American storytellers who continue the tradition of oral history and learning to this day. Not lost, not archived. Still here, and available if you care to listen.
Follow me on #bookstagram: @brianreadsbooks
I want to acknowledge thoughts by other reviewers that helped me think about the Native American representation more critically. The father in the story is obsessed with documenting the “echoes” of the “lost” Apache tribes. I’m uncertain how much of what we read, through his voice, is factual vs. mythologised or shaped by his (or Luiselli’s) worldview. But the tribes who made up the Apache have not been lost, and are real, living communities today. There was even one point where the father is going to talk with a descendent of Geronimo, but we don’t hear his voice, and Luiselli reverts back to gravestones and echoes. Meanwhile, the family give each other “warrior names” and behave in very appropriative ways in a several spots. As such a major theme of the book, it’s hard to separate this problematic representation, which Luiselli doesn’t seem to be conscious of.
The writing style is fascinating. Luiselli used the structure to bring you into her themes. The majority of the book is written in short bursts, each with a label, all safely contained for later consumption. In a word: archived. These story pieces are contained in sections of the book she labels “boxes”. Only later do we get a very dream-like, stream-of-consciousness chapter, one that reflects the state of the narrators at that time.
The impossibility of trying to record, photograph, archive, to capture, to remember, the living breathing world is the most important message. It’s a shame that Luiselli didn’t use the MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY she had to reflect that idea through the voices of Native American storytellers who continue the tradition of oral history and learning to this day. Not lost, not archived. Still here, and available if you care to listen.
Follow me on #bookstagram: @brianreadsbooks