#BookReview of #SpeakToMeOfHome by Jeanine Cummins

‘Why hadn’t she said to her daughter I love you beyond reason
and none of this matters at all and every day that you breathe is a gift?’
– Speak To Me Of Home

[ About Speak To Me Of Home ]

Rafaela remembers everything that matters: her beautiful childhood in San Juan, her marriage to Peter, uprooting their children, Ruth and Benny, to the American Midwest, and losing all sense of her place in the world. So she tells no one when her memory begins to slip.

Her daughter, in New York with a family of her own, wishes she could forget her muddy feelings about where she comes from – the same feelings which motivated her 22-year-old daughter Daisy to reconnect with their past.

Daisy, who has momentarily forgotten everything, hears the word critical in a hospital room in San Juan and remembers, all at once, the car that hurtled towards her, the terrible storm, and something else. What was it?

Now Ruth and Rafaela must return to the city where it all began, to gather by Daisy’s bedside and confront the twists of fate that have caused a growing rift in their family and led them to this moment.

[ My Review ]

‘Afterward, Ruth will say she knew the moment the phone rang, even before she picked it up. She will say there was something calamitous in the sound. No one ever calls the house line anymore.’

Speak To Me Of Home by Jeanine Cummins published May 13th with Tinder Press and is described as ‘a classic novel of a family in crisis‘. I was a huge fan of Jeanine Cummins’ 2020 novel American Dirt so was very much looking forward to reading this.

When Ruth receives an unexpected and shattering phone call, her head spins and panic sets in. As she scrambles to make sense of what has happened, the reader is taken back across the decades and the generations that preceded this moment.

Rafaela was born in the 1940s in San Juan in Puerto Rico into a family of means. In her early years she was oblivious to the luxuries of her life, playing happily with her sister, Dolores. But circumstances changed for the family, introducing Rafaela to a whole new world and, in due course, to a whole new life

When she fell in love with an Irish American, Peter Brennan, she eventually uprooted her life and moved to the American Midwest. In her innocence she was unprepared for the racial barbs and the sense of never belonging that was to plague her for all of their married life. Her mental health was impacted and her moods affected the lives of her children, Ruth and Benny.

As the years passed Ruth and Benny witnessed their parents fractured marriage. Ruth eventually married and settled in New York and Benny returned to Puerto Rico. Ruth made a successful life for herself, rearing three children, Vic, Daisy and Carlos. Running a business kept her busy, distracting her from her thoughts, allowing her to get on with her life.

Daisy, her middle child, always enjoyed spending her holidays in Puerto Rico with her uncle Benny and his family. The days with her cousin Stefani were pure escape from the noise allowing Daisy to relax and feel at ease on this Caribbean island. Daisy very much travelled her own path, much to the annoyance of her mother, making a decision that would alter the course of her life.

Rafaela, Ruth and Daisy are all brought together when tragedy strikes and, as the storm whirls, so do their thoughts and memories, bringing them to a pinnacle moment in their lives.

Jeanine Cummins has written an epic novel as three generations intertwine in this remarkable family drama. The complexities of family relationships, racial discrimination, love and regret, all combine into a powerful and dynamic read.

Historically fascinating, Speak to Me of Home is littered with societal, geographical, cultural and political insights. Cummins tackles multiple themes highlighting displacement, assimilation and the forever struggle to belong. Mixed heritage, mixed culture, and the baggage that can be tacked onto generations for decades, are all portrayed with clarity and sensitivity.

Speak to Me of Home is an immersive and sweeping tale. It is a book to savour, one to linger over, one to absorb slowly and mindfully. The portrayal of Puerto Rico across the decades wonderfully mingles together creating a kaleidoscope of colour and sound. These atmospheric descriptions are in sharp contrast to Rafaela’s early years in America and the friction that followed.

A rich and evocative novel, Speak to Me of Home is an absorbing and memorable tale. With a complex cast of characters and an emotional depth, it weaves multiple personal stories into one glorious narrative. A definite recommendation from me and very VERY easy five stars!!

[Thank you to Hachette Ireland for a copy of Speak to Me of Home in exchange for my honest review ]

[ Bio ]

Jeanine Cummins is the author of AMERICAN DIRT, which has sold over 3.5 million copies globally, and has been translated into 37 languages. The novels THE OUTSIDE BOY, THE CROOKED BRANCH and the true crime work A RIP IN HEAVEN, are all published by Tinder Press.

AMERICAN DIRT was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and the Richard and Judy Book Club and was a no. 1 New York Times bestseller. It reached no. 2 in the Sunday Times bestseller lists.

She lives in New York with her husband and two children.