The authors’ original words do their work more justice than any book review I write, and when grouped together, the quotes become atmospheric of the state they are set in. I hope you enjoy this addition of a “Favorite Quotes” series to my Andrea Reads America coverage.
from The Saint of Lost Things by Christopher Castellani
“The traffic breaks and they cross into their home state of Delaware, different in not one single way from the state of Pennsylvania. The same little brick houses, squat and square, divided by chain link fences, go on for miles.”
“‘Reading is very important, Ida,’ he says. ‘The secret to a long life is to escape it as often as you can.'”
“To her, the bus rides are like little vacations, an hour of guilt-free rest. There is nothing to clean or cook here, no one’s hair to brush.”
“He stares into his whisky the way a woman stares into a lake, as if seeking an honest answer from the reflection.”
“‘We tried a new guy, younger, better-looking if I have to say, but he didn’t have the’ – here Antonio searched for the word he clearly already knew – ‘the passion.'”
“To the young people, Rosa says: fall in love and forget about tomorrow. To the old people, Rosa says: stay in love and forget about yesterday.”
from Courting Ruth by Emma Miller
“The sun-warmed boards felt good on the soles of Ruth’s bare feet.”
“She found sweet comfort in the familiar odors of baking bread and the clatter of dishes and silverware.”
“Ruth wasn’t just pretty, she was saucy. A man didn’t come across too many saucy Amish girls where he came from. Mostly the were quiet and meek.”
“Her cheeks felt as warm as if she’d been standing over a kettle of simmering jam.”
“The sun was warm on his face, and the air smelled of green growing things. From the yard, he heard the bleat of a goat and the flapping sound of clothes drying on a line.”
“We are all human and capable of sin. It’s what happens after we sin that really matters.”
from The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
“Celia told me about the provisions we would need for winter – heavy coats and a stack of comforters and something called long underwear that made me laugh when she tried to describe it.”
“English was such a dense, tight language. So many hard letters, like miniature walls. Not open with vowels the way Spanish was. Our throats open, our mouths open, our hearts open. In English the sounds were closed.”
“Profesora Shields explained that in English there was no usted. No tu. There was only one word – you. It applied to all people. No one higher or lower than anyone else.”
“Even with the fallen snow, the air had the sting of salt water, and we crunched broken sea-shells under our shoes.”
“The wonders of this country. In México, men sold ice out of carts they attached to bicycles. Here, it was falling from the sky.”
“We’re the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they’ve been told they’re supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to get to know us, they might realize that we’re not that bad, maybe even that we’re a lot like them. And who would they hate then?”
“I have the right to be in any store. I feel like telling them sometimes, You don’t know me, man. I’m a citizen here! But I shouldn’t have to tell anyone that. I want to be given the benefit of the doubt.”
Andrea Reads America: Delaware
As a character in Cristina Henriquez’s brilliant Book of Unknown Americans says:
Who comes to the United States and ends up in Delaware?
Which was my thought exactly as I read first a romance novel showing the strong German roots of the Delaware Amish, then a novel about Italian immigrants in Wilmington, and then finished Delaware off with Henriquez’s Book of Unknown Americans which tells the stories of Americans of Latino ancestry living in – you guessed it – Delaware.
Delaware always seemed to me a land of farms and rolling hills, like what I saw on bicycle rides through the Delmarva peninsula when we lived in Maryland, but after reading these books I see there are thriving cultural populations in the cities of Delaware. I see the state in a whole new way now.
Novel: The Book of Unknown Americans
Author: Cristina Henriquez, born in Delaware
Setting: Delaware
Categories: Contemporary Fiction, Hispanic Fiction
Set in modern day Delaware, in an apartment building populated by immigrants from Mexico, Paraguay, Panama, this powerful book tells the stories of these unknown people, most of whom are American citizens or legal immigrants with visas, who are treated like slaves, animals, and idiots because they are perceived as “wetbacks,” “illegals,” “lazy Mexicans,” and other insulting stereotypes.
We’re the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they’ve been told they’re supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to get to know us, they might realize that we’re not that bad, maybe even that we’re a lot like them. And who would they hate then?
The underlying story in The Book of Unknown Americans is deep and beautiful. Told from the points of view of several characters who live in the apartment building, the tale is of an outcast boy and a girl who would have been out of his league but for an accident that left her brain damaged and ostracized. Both rejected by their peers, they are the only ones who understand and appreciate each other. Her family worked two years to get the necessary paperwork to legally bring her to the US from Mexico so she could go to a special school, and The Book of Unknown Americans explores their struggle to pursue the American Dream.
To balance the hard issues Henriquez deals with, she also injects the story with wonder and beauty,
In México, men sold ice out of carts they attached to bicycles. Here, it was falling from the sky.
and with humor:
Celia told me about the provisions we would need for winter – heavy coats and a stack of comforters and something called long underwear that made me laugh when she tried to describe it.
The Book of Unknown Americans is layered, dealing with guilt and fault and blame, dealing with concepts of home, and dealing with belonging, and citizenship, and citizenry. Moreover it explores not a single culture, but the human conditions of joy, heartache, and love: the love of adolescents, of parents for children, of husbands and wives, of friends, and of nations.
Novel: Courting Ruth
Author: Emma Miller, lives in Kent County, Delaware
Setting: Delaware
Categories: Christian Fiction, Romance
You know what I love about this reading project? I’m reading books that I would have never otherwise read, like Emma Miller’s Courting Ruth: an Amish romance novel.
An Amish romance novel.
Courting Ruth is set in Seven Poplars, a fictitious Amish community in rural Delaware that reflects the farms and fields of the author’s Delaware upbringing. Filled with rural imagery, earthy landscapes, and funny farmhouse metaphors, Courting Ruth is warm and wholesome. Not to mention I’m always going to love a book that describes my common-colored eyes as “nutmeg brown with dashes of cinnamon and ginger.”
Also, this book made me hungry.
My husband and I used to live in Maryland where we’d often visit the Amish market on Saturdays to buy cheeses, pastries, and homemade ice cream. This book triggered memories of that market, of how simple it felt to be there, with the Amish in their Plain dress, with honey wood walls, worn communal-picnic tables, walls lined with cases of golden loaves and rustic pies, heavy mechanical cash registers dinging with real bells and slamming shut with satisfying ka-chunks. And women with their aprons and men with their beards.
I learned from this book that a man’s beard signifies that he’s married, that the Amish faith instructs that its followers live apart from the world, that pride is to be avoided, and that I can totally romanticize the simple life.
The sun-warmed boards felt good on the soles of Ruth’s bare feet.
I loved this book for its bucolic landscapes, and for the pies, and for the summer evenings. But most of all I loved it for the warmth and security it made me feel.
Novel: The Saint of Lost Things
Author: Christopher Castellani, born & raised in Wilmington, DE
Setting: Wilmington, Delaware
Categories: Contemporary Fiction
Set in 1953 Wilmington, Delaware, in the Italian district around Seventh and Eighth Streets, The Saint of Lost Things is a year in the lives of an immigrant Italian family at varying states of integration into their new American lives. There are the brothers Mario and Antonio: Mario the effusive restauranteur and manager of Stella’s Italian restaurant, and Antonio the smart but timid older brother who works an assembly line in an auto factory but dreams of opening a proper Italian restaurant one day – one that is sophisticated and elegant. Mario and Antonio live together with their wives, Ida and Madellena, and their parents, all of them in an apartment on Eighth Street.
The Saint of Lost Things focuses on the struggles of Antonio and Madellana as they find their way in America, childless for seven years and resigned to a life without a large Italian family of their own. In the story, Madellena constantly looks back in time toward her small Italian village where she left her lover, her sister, and her weeping mother to come to America with Antonio, a stranger whom she married.
He stares into his whiskey the way a woman stares into a lake, as if seeking an honest answer from the reflection.
As is often the way with books that include the mannerisms and language of another country – famiglia, la musica, bambina – The Saint of Lost Things, just in putting the sound of the Italian language in my head, made me hungry for Italian food. It also made me romanticize Italian culture – the closeness of families, the tradition, the loyalty, and the focus on passion – while also showing that exclusion and prejudice are sadly, a human theme, as when several members of the Italian community repeatedly vandalize the new black family’s house in an attempt to drive them out of the neighborhood.
Mostly, though The Saint of Lost Things is about making new life, and new love.
For Further Reading in Delaware
Books that have been recommended to me and I have not yet read:
I’m On My Way But Your Foot is On My Head by Bertice Berry
Contents Under Pressure by Lara M. Zeises
The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls by Julie Shumacher
Final Price by Gregory Smith
I am reading America: 3 books from each state in the US with the following authorships represented – women, men, and non-Caucasian writers. Follow along on Goodreads and here at andreareadsamerica.com.
I have the right to be in any store. I feel like telling them sometimes, You don’t know me, man. I’m a citizen here! But I shouldn’t have to tell anyone that. I want to be given the benefit of the doubt.
– The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez