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The history of Puerto Rico is truly enthralling and you get a great taste of it in this book through the multi-generational backstory of these passionate characters. The first chapter is so well written and enchanting you know the book is going to consume you, at times with a deep laughter, at times with intense sadness. You love the main characters and their flaws, for no one is perfect. Makes me want to go back to Puerto Rico and talk more with the locals in the tiny backstreet bars, on the we...
The opening chapter of Xochitl Gonzalez’s debut novel, “Olga Dies Dreaming,” is all about napkins — wildly overpriced wedding reception napkins.That may sound like a small cloth in which to wrap a big book, but Gonzalez folds those napkins into a satire of consumer excess, an appraisal of business morality and a study of family relations.In short: Don’t underestimate this new novelist. She’s jump-starting the year with a smart romantic comedy that lures us in with laughter and keeps us hooked wi...
CW: mention of suicide, sexual assault, rape (implied, from the POV of the perpetrator), Hurricane Maria, and drug use This review is NOT spoiler free, so thread with care if you don’t want spoilers!Thank you Flatiron Books for providing me an ARC in exchange of my honest opinion.Olga Dies Dreaming is a tale of resistance to the oppressor, and how minorities have to change who they are to fit in the mold white people put on us. It is also a tale of loss and mistakes that change lives forever. We...
Initially, I wasn't sure about the breezy tone of González' writing but the more I read, the more I liked her vibrant style. Olga is a prickly wedding planner who is so busy acquiring success that she ignores its personal costs. Her brother, a congressman, also lives a life on the surface, keeping what matters most to him covered. Interspersed with their personal narratives and awakenings is the story of their revolutionary mother, the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and issues of ge...
5 stars. If a book could be an intersectional feminist anthem, this is it. "You must remember, mijo, even people who were once your sails can become your anchors." *SPOILER FREE REVIEW* : TW : suicide / vulgar language / sexual assault(implied) / rape(implied) / drug use / disease This is the kind of book that makes you go:while simultaneously kicking racism, white privilege, capitalism, elitism and entitled misogyny in the ass!I heard this novel is going to be adapted onto the big sc...
I'm only 7% in but boy do I find the humor to be forced and cringey. I think I've also never been a fan of the 'strong independent woman' type of character who is actually just a combination of rude and insufferable...and Olga seems to belong to this group. Maybe I'll revisit this at a later date and feel differently about it but for now...dnf.
Xóchitl González’s OLGA DIES DREAMING is certainly an ambitious fiction debut. This book battles with the age-old dilemma of what is best for the individual versus what is best for the collective. There were many things I felt were great about this book. Frustratingly, the not-so-great things made this book a real slog to read at times. My favourite thing in this book was the fascinating relationship between 40-something siblings Olga and Prieto, and their absent-for-27-years mother, Blanca. Ima...
David Dies ReadingThis was many things but "extraordinary" (one of many promises clearly featured on the book jacket) was not one of them. It turned out to be:Too longFrequently hyperbolicLoaded with exposition (often delivered in epistolary form or within "romantic" conversations)A strain on credulityI took particular exception to the unwittingly unethical depiction of a healthcare provider, agreeing to run sensitive diagnostic tests - on an individual who is not her patient - in exchange for a...
I guess I wanted more from this one…. This book was very high on my list, a debut novel written by an author from Puerto Rico…. Sign me up! In Olga Dies Dreaming we meet Olga who is a wedding planner living in Manhattan and is the go too for celebrities and A-Listers planning their wedding. Olga’s got it all, top of her game, a go getter, owner of her business but still feels like she isn’t exactly where she should be. She is constantly reminded of this by her mother… Her brother Prieto is a
4.5 stars. An absorbing snapshot of the personal and the political, the micro and the macro, the complexities of our current world. Set mostly in 2017 just as Puerto Rico is in the midst of a disastrous hurricane season, it centers on siblings Olga and Prieto Acevedo. The children of Puerto Rican radicals, born and raised in pre-gentrified Brooklyn, they have worked their way up to positions of prestige, he as a congressman and she as a wedding planner for the ultra-rich. Now in their 40s, neith...
Everything about this book is more than I could have expected. I didn't know much about it going into the story, but I was caught up in the pages. The characters, the story, the representation all dug right into my heart. Some parts were a bit slow. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the end just yet, but I truly enjoyed this gem.
As a bookseller I look for strong and powerfully driven characters combined with historical content, especially in Puerto Rico. I absolutely LOVED this debut novel. I was instantly drawn from the first chapter and was rooting for Olga throughout. Xochitl's prose is unlike anyone I have ever read and I'm looking for this to this powerful debut to be out in the world. Can't wait to uplift and support this title. Olga Dies Dreaming is my personal and the bookstore's most anticipated novel for 2022....
