Velorio

October 25, 2021
Navarro Aquino debuts with an elegiac and fervent ode to Puerto Rico that opens in the wake of 2017’s Hurricane Maria, as people grow increasingly desperate for food, water, and gasoline. In the absence of effective government, a magnetic young man named Urayoán sees an opportunity to take power, and—supported by his red-shirted minions—founds a self-sufficient society called Memoria. Urayoán limits Memoria’s inhabitants to young adults and teens, and the novel follows several of them, first as they follow signs in search of Memoria, rumored to be “the center of all things,” and later as they contend with Memoria’s growing violence and instability. There’s tough, independent Bayfish; his happy-go-lucky friend Banto; and Camila, who wanders the island, trancelike, carrying the corpse of her older sister, who was killed by a mudslide. The ambitious, polyphonic first half takes a little while to build steam, but once the characters gather in Memoria, the narrative takes off as Memoria threatens to collapse. Graphic, unsettling scenes of animalistic violence orchestrated by Urayoán are studded with moments of emotional clarity and grace. Throughout, Aquino’s characters grapple with all they have lost and wrestle with the temptation to feed their nostalgia for a place and a past that never really existed. This lyrical and emotionally raw story will leave readers reflecting on the pain and promise of memory.

March 1, 2022

From the opening sentence of Aquino's debut, "It wasn't until after I dug out her body that I learned to love my sister, Marisol," listeners confront the disorientation, trauma, rage, and grief experienced by Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. In this dystopian narrative, the "Old Government" has basically collapsed and the islanders' increasingly desperate circumstances are chronicled through alternating, rapid-fire bursts of narrative. A group of people, including Camila, Bayfish, Moriviv�, Urayo�n, Banto, and Cheo, meet in Memoria, a mountaintop settlement designed to be a self-sufficient utopia by a visionary whose authoritarian tendencies eventually threaten as much destruction as Hurricane Maria. Despite frequent point-of-view changes, listeners will connect deeply with the well-drawn characters thanks to Aquino's sharp prose as well as the brilliant performances of Diana Pou, Vico Ortiz, Mar�a Victoria Mart�nez, Gil Ren� Rodr�guez, Jes�s E. Mart�nez, Gabriel S. Rivera V�zquez, and Yetta Gottesman. The many Spanish phrases, stream-of-consciousness prose, and poetry woven throughout the narrative make this a challenging audiobook, as listeners do not have the opportunity to reread or get context clues as print readers would. The extreme violence throughout the novel could also make this a difficult listen for some. VERDICT Listeners who give the story a chance will likely be quite moved by this exploration of how climate change and neocolonialism threaten a beautiful island and its people.--Beth Farrell

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