"It was because of the sun. Because it was hot and melted your brain. Because it was an absurd ball of fire in the sky that blinded us and regulated our days and nights, our seemingly senseless lives and random fates."
-Dani's thoughts, from the novel
This young adult fiction was chosen for its author who happens to be a member of the church to which most of our Page Turners belong. This is her third published novel. A couple of years ago our group read her second---Death, Dickinson and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia---and I invited her to attend our meeting. It was quite a treat having the author of the current selection available to answer questions and share her inspiration and aspects of her writing process. I believe she enjoyed the feedback as well. In fact, she has agreed to join us for our discussion of Because of the Sun.
Protagonist Dani Falls is a damaged young woman even before the tragic death of her mother at the beginning of the book. Part One is mostly Dani's interior monologue as she feels her way through the loss and the displacement which results from it. When she is sent from her home in Florida to live with her aunt in New Mexico, it had to be serious culture shock. And she never even knew her mother had a sister, adding to the difficulty of the transition.
So much of this novel is steam of consciousness, far from my favorite literary technique, so I had trouble getting into the story at first. Once Dani starts to communicate and makes a few friends, it gets more interesting. When Aunt Shelley finally tells her story, the reader starts to understand much more of the dysfunctional family that made her, her sister Anna Ruby (Dani's mother) and Dani herself, the people they are.
"The truth will set you free," from John 8:32 in the Bible seems to be illustrated by the story as Dani learns dark family secrets and is able to finally forgive her mother. One has the idea that she will find love and happiness in her life as she is freed from her inner demons and begins to move forward.
The novel is divided into 3 parts but without chapters. I didn't really like that but I got used to it. In some places the transition of time or character was a bit confusing. Also a book called The Stranger by Albert Camus is mentioned frequently and I have never read or even heard of that novel so those references were lost on me.
I liked Because of the Sun but of the three Sanchez novels I have read, this would not be my favorite. Her first novel, The Downside of Being Charlie would be #1. I'm looking forward to our meeting this week. More after that.....
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What a wonderful meeting we had with Jenny Sanchez, author of our May book selection! I had distributed generic fiction questions to use but we hardly referred to them at all since most of us already had questions in mind. Jenny shared where her ideas had originated including the second setting of a small border town in New Mexico, the actual family home of her husband. We heard how she had been influenced by her somewhat isolated youth, her reading of The Stranger in high school, the hot sun of Florida and New Mexico, bears in the news and the angst and resilience of young people. (She is a former high school English teacher.) Our Page Turners shared their reactions to portions of the book, some quite emotional. The discussion of the novel was so stimulating some of us left saying we wanted to read it again! We decided not to rate this book. We will give it an NR. With the author present, it would have been a bit awkward. Suffice it to say between author and readers there was great mutual appreciation!
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