This Side of Providence

In This Side of Providence, Arcelia has fled an abusive relationship in Puerto Rico in favor of opportunities on the American mainland. But when she and her children settle in Providence, R.I., they are met with the harsh realities of poverty and addiction. After Arcelia is sent to prison, her three children are left to fend for themselves with scattered help from their mother's ex-lovers, family friends and various neighbors.

Rachel M. Harper (Brass Ankle Blues) builds Arcelia's story through rotating narrators: her children, Cristo and Luz; their teachers; the family's landlord, nicknamed Snowman; and even her ex-husband in Puerto Rico. The effect is kaleidoscopic. Each shift in narrator reveals some new fact or detail that paints a complex and detailed picture of the difficulties in Arcelia's life. The story that emerges from this ever-evolving landscape is epic in scope, spanning such large topics as AIDS, the psychology of poverty, race, the education system and--perhaps most consistently throughout--what constitutes a family. "Family is the only thing that connects you to the world," Cristo is told. "Without that, you'd be flying around like a balloon some kid forgot to hold onto." 

Arcelia's fight for this connection to the world (and her kids' fight, and their teacher's fight, and so on) in turn keeps This Side of Providence connected to our world; though Harper's novel is vast, it is never impersonal. And though it is dark, it is never without hope. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm