The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling
But clarity proves elusive. Over the next ten days Daphne is anxious, she behaves a little erratically, she drinks too much. She wanders the town looking for anyone and anything to punctuate the long hours alone with the baby. Among others, she meets Cindy, a neighbor who is active in a secessionist movement, and befriends the elderly Alice, who has traveled to Altavista as she approaches the end of her life. When her relationships with these women culminate in a dangerous standoff, Daphne must reconcile her inner narrative with the reality of a deeply divided world.
Keenly observed, bristling with humor, and set against the beauty of a little-known part of California, The Golden State is about class and cultural breakdowns, and desperate attempts to bridge old and new worlds. But more than anything, it is about motherhood: its voracious worry, frequent tedium, and enthralling, wondrous love.
Review: Daphne is slowly coming undone. On a whim, she flees her life in San Francisco and job as a university administrator and heads to the rundown community where the home she inherited from her grandparents sits. Her Turkish husband has been deported and Daphne has been caring for her young daughter alone for months. Over the next ten days, Daphne wanders the town looking for clarity that proves elusive. She drinks too much, spends money she can't afford to spend, and remains chained to the routine of her toddler. She befriends her neighbor Cindy who is active in a secessionist movement, as well as the elderly Alice, who is on a final journey to revisit old travel locations as she approaches the end of her life. Ultimately, these relationships result in a harrowing standoff and Daphne is finally forced out of her escapist trip.
The narrative of this novel is stream of consciousness style that follows Daphne's inner monologue. A vast portion of the narrative is consumed by the minutiae of caring for a young child. Daphne worries about Honey's diet, her sleep, entertaining her, trying to stop her constant toddler-prone falls, but also delights in her daughter and the love she feels for is ever evident in the worry and care she has for her. This novel perhaps most accurately conveys the immense mental load of motherhood and the all-consuming nature of caring for a child fulltime. No matter how many other things demand Daphne's attention, Honey is ever present and demands her time first and foremost. This was my favorite part about this novel and where it really excelled.
This novel also really placed emphasis on the terrible plight of families separated due to immigration laws in this country. Daphne and her husband are separated due to a "processing error" that has mistakenly taken away his green card. There was something so tragic about Daphne on her own with her child, dutifully skyping with her husband since that is the only chance he has to ever see her. The strain on Daphne is keenly felt, as her mental health is teetering throughout the course of the novel.
Where this novel really took a bizarre turn for me was all the secessionist activity in the small community, as well as the odd relationship with the very elderly Alice, that takes a dark turn in the end of this novel. There was also the dark detail of Daphne being tangentially involved with a work study student at work that meets an untimely end. In short, there are about a dozen reasons that Daphne has poor mental health and by the end of the book, things are, if anything, worse. This novel presented a beautifully written and realistic portrait of motherhood, but otherwise, this novel was very bleak and distressing.
Stars: 4
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