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The World in Half
Miraflores has never known her father, and until now, she's never thought that he wanted to know her. She's long been aware that her mother had an affair with him while she was stationed with her then-husband in Panama, and she's always assumed that her pregnant mother came back to the United States alone with his consent. But when Miraflores returns to the Chicago suburb where she grew up, to care for her mother at a time of illness, she discovers that her mother and father had a greater love than she ever thought possible and that her father had wanted her more than she could have ever imagined.
In secret, Miraflores plots a trip to Panama, in search of the man whose love she hopes can heal her mother, and whose presence she believes can help her find the pieces of her own identity that she thought were irretrievably lost. What she finds is unexpected, exhilarating, and holds the power to change the course of her life completely.
In secret, Miraflores plots a trip to Panama, in search of the man whose love she hopes can heal her mother, and whose presence she believes can help her find the pieces of her own identity that she thought were irretrievably lost. What she finds is unexpected, exhilarating, and holds the power to change the course of her life completely.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published February 20, 2009
81 people are currently reading
2606 people want to read
About the author
Cristina Henríquez
8 books1,061 followersCristina Henríquez is the author of four books, including, most recently, The Great Divide, a novel about the building of the Panama Canal that explores those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course.
Her novel The Book of Unknown Americans was a New York Times Notable Book of 2014 and one of Amazon’s Top 10 Books of the Year. It was the Daily Beast Novel of the Year, a Washington Post Notable Book, an NPR Great Read, a Target Book of the Month selection, and was chosen one of the best books of the year by BookPage, Oprah.com, and School Library Journal. It was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Henriquez is also the author of The World In Half and Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories.
Her work been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Real Simple, and more, as well as in the anthologies State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America and Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Women Writers Reflect on the Candidate and What Her Campaign Meant.
She has been a guest on National Public Radio, and is a recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award, a grant started by Sandra Cisneros in honor of her father.
Her novel The Book of Unknown Americans was a New York Times Notable Book of 2014 and one of Amazon’s Top 10 Books of the Year. It was the Daily Beast Novel of the Year, a Washington Post Notable Book, an NPR Great Read, a Target Book of the Month selection, and was chosen one of the best books of the year by BookPage, Oprah.com, and School Library Journal. It was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Henriquez is also the author of The World In Half and Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories.
Her work been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Real Simple, and more, as well as in the anthologies State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America and Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Women Writers Reflect on the Candidate and What Her Campaign Meant.
She has been a guest on National Public Radio, and is a recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award, a grant started by Sandra Cisneros in honor of her father.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
February 12, 2015
I think we all have places, hobbies, or experiences that feel like they belong to us. They are so intimate and meaningful in our lives that it seems impossible that someone else could know it and understand this thing like we do. Panama is that to me. It feels like it is mine: jealously, exclusively mine. It's not often I run into other exchange students, and it's never that I run into someone else who has lived in Panama. So to pick up a book that is set there I immediately felt a flare of jealous guardianship. Will she do it justice? Does she even understand what it is? I was wary, and almost didn't read it.
But yes! Henriquez knows. The story was compelling, the characters interesting and flawed and the story was good in its own right. But to me the only thing that mattered this time was the setting, and she nailed it. Everything about my Panama was there. The absurdity of the bus system, the roosters in the morning, the rain "like God himself has torn the sky in two," and the ants! So I suppose it is our Panama now, and I'm willing to share it with someone who so clearly loves and understands it. But the rest of you, back off! (but please read this book. Because it's good.)
But yes! Henriquez knows. The story was compelling, the characters interesting and flawed and the story was good in its own right. But to me the only thing that mattered this time was the setting, and she nailed it. Everything about my Panama was there. The absurdity of the bus system, the roosters in the morning, the rain "like God himself has torn the sky in two," and the ants! So I suppose it is our Panama now, and I'm willing to share it with someone who so clearly loves and understands it. But the rest of you, back off! (but please read this book. Because it's good.)
August 26, 2018
I thought The World in Half started a bit slow, and I was maddened by the excessive use of strained similes ("the air-conditioning grumbling like a bad stomachache"; "giddiness fizzles inside me like a firecracker"; "the paper leaves collapse softly, like a failed souffle"; "a disused woven hammock lies like a dried corn husk on the ground"--among many, many others).
But this story did make me cry--and more than once. It was sad and touching. And I loved how much I learned about Panama and the Panama canal. Overall, a sweet and enjoyable read.
But this story did make me cry--and more than once. It was sad and touching. And I loved how much I learned about Panama and the Panama canal. Overall, a sweet and enjoyable read.
October 16, 2016
I read the first 2/3rds of The World in Half while on a red-eye cross country (US) flight. I don't sleep on planes. So I was in a bit of a stupor while reading. I think it deserves better than an up all night, half awake reader, but that was my state, so okay. The plotting here was good, strong supporting characters, compelling setting, lovely writing. I think the book could have used one or two more narrative voices to make this more readable. Miraflores, our main character, is a touch boring, there I said it! In a way, she never felt totally fleshed out to me as a reader. The final third of the book -- the one I didn't read as a plane zombie -- was very satisfying and touching.
June 17, 2009
"The World in Half" -Cristina Henriquez (2009)
This book hit me in my emotional core, way more than I thought it would. Having just returned from a trip to Europe, the purpose of whihc was one part travel, one part visiting a friend and one part finding myself, I related to the protagonist on so many levels, even though our situations were quite different. I found myself writing down quotes from the book as well - they weren't mindblowing or profound, but they made sense and echoed my own sentiments. Few books inspire me to want to write, but this was one of them, and Henriquez now goes down as one of my favourite authors.
Began: June 2009
Ended: June 16, 2009
Page Count: 305
This book hit me in my emotional core, way more than I thought it would. Having just returned from a trip to Europe, the purpose of whihc was one part travel, one part visiting a friend and one part finding myself, I related to the protagonist on so many levels, even though our situations were quite different. I found myself writing down quotes from the book as well - they weren't mindblowing or profound, but they made sense and echoed my own sentiments. Few books inspire me to want to write, but this was one of them, and Henriquez now goes down as one of my favourite authors.
Began: June 2009
Ended: June 16, 2009
Page Count: 305
July 11, 2011
IQ "It's more Spanish than I've ever spoken with anyone. But with limitations comes freedom. I don't have the luxury of relying on the automatic expressions I have at my disposal when I'm speaking in English. There's no default mode of communication, few standby phrases and ready-made sayings. I have to think about how to express myself. I have to be creative and take roundabout routes to get across what I want to convey. Which means that I say things I never would in English. Ideas occur to me in ways they never have before." Miraflores pg. 153
Miraflores doesn't know her Panamanian father, her mother raised her in their suburban Chicago home and never mentioned him. Mira always assumed her father didn't want to know her after all she was the product of an affair her mother had while married and stationed to her then husband in Panama. Her perspective changes however when she returns from college to take care of her mother who has succumbed to Alzheimer's disease. Upon her return home she discovers letters from her father to her mother, showing the great devotion her father had to her mother and his NEED to know his baby girl. Miraflores decides to travel to Panama to find her father who she hopes will want to meet her and can even fill in some of the missing pieces of herself. She tells her mother she is going to Washington to study volcanoes, and heads off to find herself and in the process learns not just about herself, but also about her parents, Danilo and her country.
I am completely biased in my love for this book. I am unapologetic about the fact that this is one of my favorite books of the year. First I'm biased because Miraflores is half Panamanian as am I. Then her mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, a disease my grandfather had. Coincidence? I don't believe in them but it was very cool to read about. Plus the feelings Mira describes upon visiting Panama and wanting to belong to that country as well as the culture shock are feelings I could relate to as someone who is half-non American (haha I don't know the proper term for it, I would have said half Panamanian but I think anyone who is half something not American can relate especially well to Mira's thoughts) as well as because I had just returned from Guatemala, which reminded me a bit of Panama. "The first thing I notice when I get off the plane is what relief it is to hear English again, to understand immediately everything someone says, to eavesdrop without concentrating, to decipher signs at a glance. I'm struck, too, by how contained everything is: lanes of traffic are perfectly orderly, grass grows in even plots, trees thrive in mounds of mulch, building faces are austere. The air smells cleaner." (pg. 260). How did she (she meaning the author) know? Haha this is precisely what I was thinking when I returned from Guatemala except I didn't notice the change in how the air smelled, although now that I think about it, I don't smell water like I did in Guatemala (the town we lived in was next to a lake). It was a shock to land in the Atlanta airport and not immediately try to start grasping for words in Spanish (I was once again accustomed to all things American by the time we arrived in Chicago). That's why I chose that Incredible Quote because I could identify so deeply with it. Trying to express yourself in another language can be excruciating because if you have to choose your words with great care and I found that it wasn't always easy to get my point across but everyone I met in Guatemala was so patient with my broken Spanish. Furthermore, anyone who has ever visited or wants to visit the country where their heritage lies or just wants to be acknowledged as having a claim on their heritage must be able to relate to the following "I'm not sure why, but I want them to know that. I want them to know that I'm not just any tourist visiting their country, that I have a claim to this place and a reason for being here, that I belong to them, at least a little bit. I wonder whether, or how, they treat me differently if they knew" (pg. 34).
The World in Half got me out of my reading rut. I was bored with what I'd been reading at worst unimpressed at best. The World in Half made me remember why I love books so much, because of the personal connections, because of their ability to transport a reader around the world. The writing flows, the characters are solid and the setting is as real and memorable as the Earth itself(heehee cheesy geological references). I cried while reading this book which is rare for me. Not just because of the Alzheimer's but also because I really understood romantic love, reading Gatun's letters to Catarina's mom....I'm speechless. They were the most heartbreaking, passionate, sweetest love letters I've ever read (not that I've read any in real life just in books but whatever). Miraflores is the name of the locks of the Panama canal, Gatun is another name for the locks and also the name of her father. I thought that was really sweet and a bit clever of Mira's mother, it was one of the few things that made me like her because for the most part I was resentful towards Mira's mother (I was making up for Mira's refusal to get truly upset at her mother which was both loving and frustrating). While Mira's mother irked me she also brought me to tears. Or at least the author did. Having seen fairly firsthand the effects Alzheimer's has on people (I believe my grandfather died from its effects, I'm not 100% sure because I don't want to ask, too painful) I could painfully relate to everything Mira described about the memory loss, and the fear she felt as she watched her mother forget basic, small things. While the parts featuring Mira's mother were sad, I enjoyed every minute Miraa (and I, the reader) spent with Danilo, a guy her age who sold flowers outside her hotel and was the nephew of the doorkeeper, Hernan. Danilo only spoke Spanish but Mira's Spanish is excellent so they didn't have a problem communicating (I'm jealous), he helps her search for her father. I'll let Mira explain the effect of Danilo on her "he teases me, fishing me out of myself, casting and recasting his line, tugging gently, holding on tight, reeling until he dredges up something real. I love his inclination for rebellion and how flippantly he uses language, as if words are something to be tossed around like confetti rather than laid out like a stone path" (pg. 154). Speaking of words, this author has quite an exceptional way with them as I think is exemplified in that quote. I also loved her connections to geology, which is what Mira is studying in college. Sometimes Mira states the 'obvious' connection between her life's events and geological terms/events, other times the author leaves it up to the reader to draw the connection. It's always fun to read about a country you have ties to, especially a country that is rarely written about. Every time Danilo or another character said something about Panama, I would ask my dad if he thought that was true or knew what they were talking about. Sometimes he agreed (Panama La Vieja is what tourists call Panama Viejo), other times he didn't (he'd never heard of Que xopa instead of Que pasa, a phrase I'm curious about. Anyone use it?). I love love love this book, my only regret is that I didn't buy it (which will have to be remedied because it's going to be my unofficial Panama guidebook). I've left so much out of this review but it is adult fiction and my rule on that is only a mini-review so I'm going to try and stop gushing (I already did on Twitter :D)
Miraflores doesn't know her Panamanian father, her mother raised her in their suburban Chicago home and never mentioned him. Mira always assumed her father didn't want to know her after all she was the product of an affair her mother had while married and stationed to her then husband in Panama. Her perspective changes however when she returns from college to take care of her mother who has succumbed to Alzheimer's disease. Upon her return home she discovers letters from her father to her mother, showing the great devotion her father had to her mother and his NEED to know his baby girl. Miraflores decides to travel to Panama to find her father who she hopes will want to meet her and can even fill in some of the missing pieces of herself. She tells her mother she is going to Washington to study volcanoes, and heads off to find herself and in the process learns not just about herself, but also about her parents, Danilo and her country.
I am completely biased in my love for this book. I am unapologetic about the fact that this is one of my favorite books of the year. First I'm biased because Miraflores is half Panamanian as am I. Then her mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, a disease my grandfather had. Coincidence? I don't believe in them but it was very cool to read about. Plus the feelings Mira describes upon visiting Panama and wanting to belong to that country as well as the culture shock are feelings I could relate to as someone who is half-non American (haha I don't know the proper term for it, I would have said half Panamanian but I think anyone who is half something not American can relate especially well to Mira's thoughts) as well as because I had just returned from Guatemala, which reminded me a bit of Panama. "The first thing I notice when I get off the plane is what relief it is to hear English again, to understand immediately everything someone says, to eavesdrop without concentrating, to decipher signs at a glance. I'm struck, too, by how contained everything is: lanes of traffic are perfectly orderly, grass grows in even plots, trees thrive in mounds of mulch, building faces are austere. The air smells cleaner." (pg. 260). How did she (she meaning the author) know? Haha this is precisely what I was thinking when I returned from Guatemala except I didn't notice the change in how the air smelled, although now that I think about it, I don't smell water like I did in Guatemala (the town we lived in was next to a lake). It was a shock to land in the Atlanta airport and not immediately try to start grasping for words in Spanish (I was once again accustomed to all things American by the time we arrived in Chicago). That's why I chose that Incredible Quote because I could identify so deeply with it. Trying to express yourself in another language can be excruciating because if you have to choose your words with great care and I found that it wasn't always easy to get my point across but everyone I met in Guatemala was so patient with my broken Spanish. Furthermore, anyone who has ever visited or wants to visit the country where their heritage lies or just wants to be acknowledged as having a claim on their heritage must be able to relate to the following "I'm not sure why, but I want them to know that. I want them to know that I'm not just any tourist visiting their country, that I have a claim to this place and a reason for being here, that I belong to them, at least a little bit. I wonder whether, or how, they treat me differently if they knew" (pg. 34).
The World in Half got me out of my reading rut. I was bored with what I'd been reading at worst unimpressed at best. The World in Half made me remember why I love books so much, because of the personal connections, because of their ability to transport a reader around the world. The writing flows, the characters are solid and the setting is as real and memorable as the Earth itself(heehee cheesy geological references). I cried while reading this book which is rare for me. Not just because of the Alzheimer's but also because I really understood romantic love, reading Gatun's letters to Catarina's mom....I'm speechless. They were the most heartbreaking, passionate, sweetest love letters I've ever read (not that I've read any in real life just in books but whatever). Miraflores is the name of the locks of the Panama canal, Gatun is another name for the locks and also the name of her father. I thought that was really sweet and a bit clever of Mira's mother, it was one of the few things that made me like her because for the most part I was resentful towards Mira's mother (I was making up for Mira's refusal to get truly upset at her mother which was both loving and frustrating). While Mira's mother irked me she also brought me to tears. Or at least the author did. Having seen fairly firsthand the effects Alzheimer's has on people (I believe my grandfather died from its effects, I'm not 100% sure because I don't want to ask, too painful) I could painfully relate to everything Mira described about the memory loss, and the fear she felt as she watched her mother forget basic, small things. While the parts featuring Mira's mother were sad, I enjoyed every minute Miraa (and I, the reader) spent with Danilo, a guy her age who sold flowers outside her hotel and was the nephew of the doorkeeper, Hernan. Danilo only spoke Spanish but Mira's Spanish is excellent so they didn't have a problem communicating (I'm jealous), he helps her search for her father. I'll let Mira explain the effect of Danilo on her "he teases me, fishing me out of myself, casting and recasting his line, tugging gently, holding on tight, reeling until he dredges up something real. I love his inclination for rebellion and how flippantly he uses language, as if words are something to be tossed around like confetti rather than laid out like a stone path" (pg. 154). Speaking of words, this author has quite an exceptional way with them as I think is exemplified in that quote. I also loved her connections to geology, which is what Mira is studying in college. Sometimes Mira states the 'obvious' connection between her life's events and geological terms/events, other times the author leaves it up to the reader to draw the connection. It's always fun to read about a country you have ties to, especially a country that is rarely written about. Every time Danilo or another character said something about Panama, I would ask my dad if he thought that was true or knew what they were talking about. Sometimes he agreed (Panama La Vieja is what tourists call Panama Viejo), other times he didn't (he'd never heard of Que xopa instead of Que pasa, a phrase I'm curious about. Anyone use it?). I love love love this book, my only regret is that I didn't buy it (which will have to be remedied because it's going to be my unofficial Panama guidebook). I've left so much out of this review but it is adult fiction and my rule on that is only a mini-review so I'm going to try and stop gushing (I already did on Twitter :D)
June 10, 2010
I felt something was left to be desired, Im not sure what. But a generally interesting and moving story about a college student who goes looking for her birth father in Panama.
August 14, 2011
There was just something lacking in this novel. True it was well written, and presented a realistic view into the world of dementia etc. I could never bond with the characters, and I never clearly understood the mother's reasons for shutting down and cutting her lover the father of her child out of their respective lives. They had such a wonderful chance at happiness, I just couldn't justify her decision to cut him completely out of their lives.Was he a married man? She just moved back to the states and left him, going on to raise their daughter on her own. Was that fair to Miraflores? It seems like she was left with a lot of garbage to deal with. The ending left a lot to be desired, there was no closure. Did Miraflores find happiness with Danilo? What was their relationship, platonic, or potential lovers? The author left me guessing.
July 9, 2012
I really loved this book, which I also inhaled while on vacation in Florida. I've found I particularly like a number of authors from Central and South America: Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Columbia), Paulo Coelho (Brazil), Isabel Allende (Peru) and now Cristina Henriquez (Panama).
Like Come Together, Fall Apart, Henriquez doesn't go to the expected, and she conveys the Panama landscape and the lingering effects of the building of the Panama Canal with prowess.
I was delighted to recommend this book to my Panamanian pastor, who had a similar childhood with a mother with dementia and a father from Panama, to over-simplify. Her delight in the book and the fact that she immediately purchased copies for her sisters exemplified for me why we read and why we recommend - the delight when someone else explores the same world we've just explored and you then share a special bond.
A great read!
Like Come Together, Fall Apart, Henriquez doesn't go to the expected, and she conveys the Panama landscape and the lingering effects of the building of the Panama Canal with prowess.
I was delighted to recommend this book to my Panamanian pastor, who had a similar childhood with a mother with dementia and a father from Panama, to over-simplify. Her delight in the book and the fact that she immediately purchased copies for her sisters exemplified for me why we read and why we recommend - the delight when someone else explores the same world we've just explored and you then share a special bond.
A great read!
April 13, 2021
This is a story about Mila, a college student at the University of Chicago, who’s mom develops Alzheimer’s disease at an early age. Mila was raised in a single parent home. She knows very little about her biological dad beyond his name and that her mom met him when she lived in Panama. While taking a leave of absence from college to care for her mom, Mila feels compelled to search out her dad. She hires a woman to care for her mom for 3 weeks, while she goes to Panama in search of her dad. A large part of the story takes place in Panama where she is befriended by the hotel doorman, Herman, and a young guy named Dinali.
In some ways, the story went beyond believable. If you read the book, I will let you decide what I mean by that. The story seemed very predictable, yet the ending was not.
I read this book for an “Around the World” book challenge. I chose this book, because I knew very little about Panama. This book was educational for me in terms of learning more about country. I gained a sense of the history of the country, and the Panama canal, the cultural ways of Panamanian people and more.
I rate the book 3 stars. Although the story seemed “just OK” for a large part of the book, it was worthwhile for me and I liked the ending.
In some ways, the story went beyond believable. If you read the book, I will let you decide what I mean by that. The story seemed very predictable, yet the ending was not.
I read this book for an “Around the World” book challenge. I chose this book, because I knew very little about Panama. This book was educational for me in terms of learning more about country. I gained a sense of the history of the country, and the Panama canal, the cultural ways of Panamanian people and more.
I rate the book 3 stars. Although the story seemed “just OK” for a large part of the book, it was worthwhile for me and I liked the ending.
January 13, 2024
Heartbreaking love story, and another leaves you wondering what could have been (or may be could be in a sequel?). Extremely long chapters, but not sure how the author could have written differently. 4 out of 10.
December 23, 2024
This was a very good book. At times it was heartbreaking, and probably one of the sadder books I’ve ever read. But it was also very beautiful. I loved the character development between Mira and Danilo. It was very touching. It was a very well written book. :)
June 30, 2024
Really lovely story about grief and love woven into a Panama travelogue.
August 29, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. The characters were really average people but layered. I especially enjoyed Miraflores’s journey of discovery, and her sensible anger at her mother‘s choices and the way they impacted Miraflores’s life. Felt authentic.
I enjoyed the cross-cultural friendship, and appreciated that though there were hunts of romantic interest, the main character stayed rooted in her purpose—that could’ve been an easy diversion that cost this book some of its goodness.
This book was touching and rooted in a country I knew nothing about.
You can discover more of yourself even when you don’t find what you think you’re looking for.
I enjoyed the cross-cultural friendship, and appreciated that though there were hunts of romantic interest, the main character stayed rooted in her purpose—that could’ve been an easy diversion that cost this book some of its goodness.
This book was touching and rooted in a country I knew nothing about.
You can discover more of yourself even when you don’t find what you think you’re looking for.
August 9, 2014
I'm really not sure what prompted me to read Cristina Henriquez's The World in Half. Sure, I've been waiting forever (but really, about two weeks or so) for her newest novel The Book of Unknown Americans to come in at the local library. The plot sounded okay, reviews were okay -- I guess the book falls into a niche that I rarely read, and I wanted to balance myself out a bit.
Okay, and it seemed like a fast and easy read. And it was, so there was that, too.
Anyway, yeah, Henriquez's The World in Half was okay. It's about a bright college student named Miraflores who travels to Panama to find her father -- a father she knows precious little about, beyond the fact that he loved her mother deeply and yearned to be a part of Miraflores's life. The novel, then, is all about this journey to Panama, which is of course a journey of self-discovery, too. She learns more about herself, her mother, her father, her culture, all that stuff.
On her voyage, Miraflores meets Danilo, and he becomes her unofficial guide to Panama City. Unsurprisingly, they begin to fall for each other. Kinda'. I like that Henriquez was okay with leaving the relationship slightly ambiguous, to not feel like the relationship had to be clear-cut by the end of the novel. Hey, that's how life is sometimes.
At the same time, though, much of the novel is about their time together, and the relationship just doesn't seem...alive. I think of Eleanor and Park and how emotionally involved in I was with that novel -- how I felt there was something real at stake while reading. I didn't get much of that here. Even when there was drama between the two, I was detached. The same problems that exist with the Mira-Danilo relationship could be said about Mira's relationship with her mother, and since these are the two tangible relationships on which this novel is based, I never felt emotionally involved in the way I do with better novels.
Okay, on to the good. While I found Mira's (but really Henriquez's) constant need to connect everything back to geology and geography (Mira is a geology student, after all, get it???) tiring and predictable, it's in these passages that Henriquez is able to shine most clearly as a writer. Her prose is complex but clear, poetic and rich. It's these passages, I think, that would make it a good independent novel selection for students -- probably mature sophomores and up. There's not anything really objectionable going on here, but Danilo is a potty-mouth who throws shits and fucks around pretty liberally. He'll have a beer once in a while, too.
But back to being critical, and not of how the novel functions formally but rather in how it represents class. I'm going to start by saying that I don't expect books about Central America to simply show stark poverty or some of the social and political problems that exist. In the same way we expect different types of stories from the USA, so too should we expect different types of stories from other parts of the world. Put another way, it's fine if the book wants to tell a story set in Panama that doesn't deal directly with class and poverty, but I guess I expect it to do that with some respect for material reality. Danilo is introduced as a boy who sells flowers for a living on the streets, and his uncle is a doorman at a cheap hotel. His parents abandoned him, leaving him an orphan pretty much. So there's that going on, but money is *never* an issue for Danilo. He doesn't care if he sells his flowers. In fact, it doesn't really seem as if working is an issue for him. Toward the end of the book, he travels to Chicago on a whim. These actions just seem to contradict the identity Henriquez originally created for him as a flower seller, and I think it misrepresents class and material wealth overall. It makes both a non-issue, and it's clumsy, especially when there are all uncountable other ways to introduce the character Danilo and have him show Mira around. With that critique, I'm done. =)
The World in Half was, for me, an okay novel. Like I said, I think it could work as an independent novel for certain students, but I'm not in love with it.
Okay, and it seemed like a fast and easy read. And it was, so there was that, too.
Anyway, yeah, Henriquez's The World in Half was okay. It's about a bright college student named Miraflores who travels to Panama to find her father -- a father she knows precious little about, beyond the fact that he loved her mother deeply and yearned to be a part of Miraflores's life. The novel, then, is all about this journey to Panama, which is of course a journey of self-discovery, too. She learns more about herself, her mother, her father, her culture, all that stuff.
On her voyage, Miraflores meets Danilo, and he becomes her unofficial guide to Panama City. Unsurprisingly, they begin to fall for each other. Kinda'. I like that Henriquez was okay with leaving the relationship slightly ambiguous, to not feel like the relationship had to be clear-cut by the end of the novel. Hey, that's how life is sometimes.
At the same time, though, much of the novel is about their time together, and the relationship just doesn't seem...alive. I think of Eleanor and Park and how emotionally involved in I was with that novel -- how I felt there was something real at stake while reading. I didn't get much of that here. Even when there was drama between the two, I was detached. The same problems that exist with the Mira-Danilo relationship could be said about Mira's relationship with her mother, and since these are the two tangible relationships on which this novel is based, I never felt emotionally involved in the way I do with better novels.
Okay, on to the good. While I found Mira's (but really Henriquez's) constant need to connect everything back to geology and geography (Mira is a geology student, after all, get it???) tiring and predictable, it's in these passages that Henriquez is able to shine most clearly as a writer. Her prose is complex but clear, poetic and rich. It's these passages, I think, that would make it a good independent novel selection for students -- probably mature sophomores and up. There's not anything really objectionable going on here, but Danilo is a potty-mouth who throws shits and fucks around pretty liberally. He'll have a beer once in a while, too.
But back to being critical, and not of how the novel functions formally but rather in how it represents class. I'm going to start by saying that I don't expect books about Central America to simply show stark poverty or some of the social and political problems that exist. In the same way we expect different types of stories from the USA, so too should we expect different types of stories from other parts of the world. Put another way, it's fine if the book wants to tell a story set in Panama that doesn't deal directly with class and poverty, but I guess I expect it to do that with some respect for material reality. Danilo is introduced as a boy who sells flowers for a living on the streets, and his uncle is a doorman at a cheap hotel. His parents abandoned him, leaving him an orphan pretty much. So there's that going on, but money is *never* an issue for Danilo. He doesn't care if he sells his flowers. In fact, it doesn't really seem as if working is an issue for him. Toward the end of the book, he travels to Chicago on a whim. These actions just seem to contradict the identity Henriquez originally created for him as a flower seller, and I think it misrepresents class and material wealth overall. It makes both a non-issue, and it's clumsy, especially when there are all uncountable other ways to introduce the character Danilo and have him show Mira around. With that critique, I'm done. =)
The World in Half was, for me, an okay novel. Like I said, I think it could work as an independent novel for certain students, but I'm not in love with it.
February 23, 2011
Mira's is a story of finding (a semblance of) peace of mind by reconciling what she can about her estranged Panamanian father while nursing her young mother through early onset Alzheimer’s. Mira lies to her mother and takes a secret trip to Panama, says she's studying volcanoes in Vancouver, Washington. Mother doesn't know Mira's found the love letters that answer her daughter's aching heart: he always did want his baby; He's not a monster. Her search for identity unfolds while searching for her father in a land that isn't-but-is part of her. Mira's a U of C scholarship student studying geology and her obsession and intrigue about how the world was formed and how it matures and changes color the meaning of life, or, at least, the "logic" of why things happen the way they do. Henríquez does not lay it on thick. It's just enough to let the reader fill in the blanks or walk away knowing some amazing trivia while never losing the heart of the story. I like these short scientific mediations very much. This isn't a "chick book," though it deals with what--at least in movies--would be considered such: nursing a loved one through a slow death while trying to peace together the puzzle that is her mother's past, Mira's own collision with love, the secrets and lies of family matters....all told in sharp, intelligent detail and humor. I recommend this story to everyone. (p.s. for my fellow-fellows out there--this books is the long lost sister of you know what---Mira! Volcanoes!...trippy.)
July 16, 2024
I started this book at 8 years old. All I knew was that it was a young woman traveling in search of her dad, whom she never met. I stopped reading it after the second chapter and promised myself that I would finish reading this when I was in my 20s. I thought that I myself would also be in search of my biological dad and maybe grow to have a relationship again. I’m 18 now and that is not something I have an interest in doing anymore. I figured that 8 year old me would be just fine if I finished this book now. I’ve romanticized this book for 10 years, imagining how the story progressed and made up scenarios for how Mira would meet her dad and how they’d both be ecstatic to have found each other after all those years. This book had a hold over me despite me knowing nothing of how the story went or what would come to be. I kept this on bookshelf for years, yearning for some understanding, looking to see if I could find my own father somewhere along those pages. Well let me tell you, this book lived up to the expectations I made in my head about it. I loved this book so much. I’m not even upset that the ending was sad because I like the realism of it. I am happy to know that Mira got to know that her father really truly loved her and longed to be a part of her life. I wish they got to meet just once. I understand her mother’s reasoning but I wish she would just have given things a chance, even after she moved away from her parent’s. This book holds a small part of my heart now, maybe one day I’ll be able to visit Panama on my own.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2011
I am pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book which I won during last year's BPL Summer Reading Program. Twenty-something Miraflores is searching for her long-lost father in Panama. She's also escaping trouble at home and discovering who she is/can be along the way. She happens to be a geology student and observations about geophysics serve as parallels to the storytelling.
"I believe the earth has a memory. That everything that's ever happened through time has left its trace in fine, featherweight particles that fell and sank back into the earth like dust....Humans forget everything eventually, Memories march out. They march away. But the universe keeps it all -- in a rock, in the ocean floor, in the inner reaches of a mountain, in the fault lines in the crust -- millions of years packed into the dirt. The universe holds on."
Normally that kind of obvious author message bothers me, but in this case, it works.
"I believe the earth has a memory. That everything that's ever happened through time has left its trace in fine, featherweight particles that fell and sank back into the earth like dust....Humans forget everything eventually, Memories march out. They march away. But the universe keeps it all -- in a rock, in the ocean floor, in the inner reaches of a mountain, in the fault lines in the crust -- millions of years packed into the dirt. The universe holds on."
Normally that kind of obvious author message bothers me, but in this case, it works.
March 19, 2024
I have a photograph its black and white. The image is of a smiling cowboy on a horse with a little girl about one. She is smiling. This is a photograph of my father and myself. That's all I have.
I didn't have him in my life
we never got to know one another
I didn't know him
He didn't know me
But I hang on for dear life to the photo I press it to my heart for it resembles hope. Hope that maybe he did love me, maybe he wanted me, maybe it was all a big mistake.
A picture's worth a thousand words But you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered
This book is the subject of how your parents relationship will dictate what kind of relationship you get to have with your parents in the future. The power is in their hands not yours.
I didn't have him in my life
we never got to know one another
I didn't know him
He didn't know me
But I hang on for dear life to the photo I press it to my heart for it resembles hope. Hope that maybe he did love me, maybe he wanted me, maybe it was all a big mistake.
A picture's worth a thousand words But you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered
This book is the subject of how your parents relationship will dictate what kind of relationship you get to have with your parents in the future. The power is in their hands not yours.
October 19, 2018
I started reading this book while I was in Panama. (I love reading books set in the location of my travels. I also grew up in Chicago, which added some connection to the setting.) Being in Panama definitely set the tone and allowed me to have a better vision of all that Miraflores was experiencing during her quest. I thought the author wrote beautifully and allowed the reader to experience a lot of insight into both Panamanian culture and the world of Alzheimer’s.
November 9, 2009
I'm a bit of a sucker for reading books where I can picture myself in the setting (I live in Hyde Park) but I truly enjoyed the symbolism used throughout this novel. Heartbreaking, revealing, and still hopeful, this book brightened my spirit.
August 24, 2010
It was amazing how similar this story was to my own life. Henriquez captures what it's like to be half and half. There were parts that made me think it would have been a better memoir than novel -- assuming it was autobiographical.
October 30, 2011
A very complex and layered story about home, our connections to places, family and ultimately hope.
September 22, 2015
beautifully written
May 4, 2017
Never meets her dad, very sad. Mom dying from complications for Alzheimer's. Relationship with Danilo left open-ended. A frustrating... feels like book just ends with no resolution.
April 15, 2020
its an okay book.
February 26, 2025
All the times I imagined it, I thought that what I would see from an airplane window would be this: rivers as thin as dried earthworms, treetops as lush as clumps of moss, patches of farmland lad out like pressed handkerchiefs, mountain valleys rounded like soft dimples, the earth in miniature.
4-4.5 stars.
The continents are on a collision course every second of every day. The earth was born and every time a volcano erupts or a plate shifts, the earth is born again. It keeps reordering itself, it keeps trying new patterns, it keeps meshing one piece with another piece, and then another piece, and then another piece. I like to imagine that the reason being all of that relentless effort is that the continents are yearning to come together again, as they were in the beginning.
I absolutely loved The Great Divide, and wanted to read more of this author. This book is also set in Panama (and Chicago), and paints such a vivid portrait of the culture and geography of this nation. I loved the protagonist's interest in geography, and the way that shaped the chapter titles as well as the language and motifs throughout the book.
I love how flippantly he uses language, as if words are something to be tossed around like confetti rather than laid out like a stone path.
I really liked the love and complexity of the mother-daughter relationship in this story, the ache of her mother losing her memories to Alzheimer's. The romantic element was a bit predictable, but other than that, I loved this book.
The beauty and disarray are everything. They are the edges of Panama, the borders that define it, and there is nothing else in between.
Her writing is spare, straightforward, yet so perfectly descriptive of emotions and setting that I was as charmed as I was by The Great Divide.
...there is something about the process of a volcanic eruption that always strikes me as both beautiful and sad. It's the pain of the earth bubbling up through the surface and ripping it apart. It's the earth ineluctable heartbreak.
I will read anything this author writes!
I believe the earth has a memory. That everything that's ever happened throughout time has left its trace in fine, featherweight articles that fell and sank back into the earth like dust. .. Humans forget everything eventually. Memories march out. They march away. But the universe keeps it all - in a rock, in the ocean floor, in the inner reaches of a mountain, in the fault lines in the crust - millions of years packed into the dirt. The universe holds on.
4-4.5 stars.
The continents are on a collision course every second of every day. The earth was born and every time a volcano erupts or a plate shifts, the earth is born again. It keeps reordering itself, it keeps trying new patterns, it keeps meshing one piece with another piece, and then another piece, and then another piece. I like to imagine that the reason being all of that relentless effort is that the continents are yearning to come together again, as they were in the beginning.
I absolutely loved The Great Divide, and wanted to read more of this author. This book is also set in Panama (and Chicago), and paints such a vivid portrait of the culture and geography of this nation. I loved the protagonist's interest in geography, and the way that shaped the chapter titles as well as the language and motifs throughout the book.
I love how flippantly he uses language, as if words are something to be tossed around like confetti rather than laid out like a stone path.
I really liked the love and complexity of the mother-daughter relationship in this story, the ache of her mother losing her memories to Alzheimer's. The romantic element was a bit predictable, but other than that, I loved this book.
The beauty and disarray are everything. They are the edges of Panama, the borders that define it, and there is nothing else in between.
Her writing is spare, straightforward, yet so perfectly descriptive of emotions and setting that I was as charmed as I was by The Great Divide.
...there is something about the process of a volcanic eruption that always strikes me as both beautiful and sad. It's the pain of the earth bubbling up through the surface and ripping it apart. It's the earth ineluctable heartbreak.
I will read anything this author writes!
I believe the earth has a memory. That everything that's ever happened throughout time has left its trace in fine, featherweight articles that fell and sank back into the earth like dust. .. Humans forget everything eventually. Memories march out. They march away. But the universe keeps it all - in a rock, in the ocean floor, in the inner reaches of a mountain, in the fault lines in the crust - millions of years packed into the dirt. The universe holds on.
June 19, 2024
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. As the mother of a college student studying geography and anthropology, I noticed all of the science and global reference in a way that made my heart happy, since my daughter is frequently discussing related topics at home.
The book covered a number of topics that could have made it feel very depressing and like the characters lived unfulfilled and joyless lives, but Henriquez was adept at balancing how Miraflores compartmentalized her grief about her mother and father's relationship, the lack of her own relationship with her father, and her mother's illness.
Having Danilo and her situationship was a good comparison to the decisions her mother made for her own life, and I enjoyed the Panamanian cultural references and travel related content in this book.
I also enjoyed the style of writing and the flow of the language in this book. As a nurse, I appreciated the direct discussions related to Alzheimer's disease and its progression. Not everyone needs a neurologist-level understanding and representation in books helps people who have the illness or love someone who does a place to land and fill acknowledged, which is important and lovingly addressed in this story. There were a lot of metaphors, comparisons and philosophical passages on relationships, memory, travel and life that were interesting to think about and to discuss at my Read Around the World Book Club meeting.
The book covered a number of topics that could have made it feel very depressing and like the characters lived unfulfilled and joyless lives, but Henriquez was adept at balancing how Miraflores compartmentalized her grief about her mother and father's relationship, the lack of her own relationship with her father, and her mother's illness.
Having Danilo and her situationship was a good comparison to the decisions her mother made for her own life, and I enjoyed the Panamanian cultural references and travel related content in this book.
I also enjoyed the style of writing and the flow of the language in this book. As a nurse, I appreciated the direct discussions related to Alzheimer's disease and its progression. Not everyone needs a neurologist-level understanding and representation in books helps people who have the illness or love someone who does a place to land and fill acknowledged, which is important and lovingly addressed in this story. There were a lot of metaphors, comparisons and philosophical passages on relationships, memory, travel and life that were interesting to think about and to discuss at my Read Around the World Book Club meeting.
December 12, 2023
This was my read the world selection for Panama.
Miraflores has never known her father as she has been led to believe that he was never interested in her. All she really knows is that her mother had an affair with a man in Panama, but returned to the US where she raised her daughter alone.
When Mira’s mother is diagnosed with early onset dementia, Mira finds some letters amongst her mother’s things and decides to go to Panama to look for her father, as it seems as if he had wanted contact with both her and her mother after all.
While in theory this sounds like a book I would really enjoy, I just found it ok. Some of the observations and information about Panama was interesting, particularly about the Panama Canal. However overall something was just missing for me and I can’t quite put my finger on why I wasn’t very moved by it. There is a lot of telling rather than showing and I wasn’t convinced by the relationships between the various characters, which seemed quite odd and unlikely to me.
A decent read, but not overly memorable unfortunately. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Miraflores has never known her father as she has been led to believe that he was never interested in her. All she really knows is that her mother had an affair with a man in Panama, but returned to the US where she raised her daughter alone.
When Mira’s mother is diagnosed with early onset dementia, Mira finds some letters amongst her mother’s things and decides to go to Panama to look for her father, as it seems as if he had wanted contact with both her and her mother after all.
While in theory this sounds like a book I would really enjoy, I just found it ok. Some of the observations and information about Panama was interesting, particularly about the Panama Canal. However overall something was just missing for me and I can’t quite put my finger on why I wasn’t very moved by it. There is a lot of telling rather than showing and I wasn’t convinced by the relationships between the various characters, which seemed quite odd and unlikely to me.
A decent read, but not overly memorable unfortunately. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
November 27, 2018
My reading of this book suffered from two things: (1) The book I read just before featured a female character with whom I identified and sympathized with quite a bit, and (2) this one takes place partly in the city and country of Panama, where I did some of my growing up and, thus, know well. Actually, there’s a third thing: Because it’s about Panama and I love Panama, I wanted to love this book, which means the bar I set was high. My disappointment in it is deeper, perhaps, than if it was about somewhere else. This story, about a young woman who, in the wake of her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, travels to Panama to find the father she thought had abandoned her, has interesting elements. But I couldn’t connect with any of them. The author has a deliberate, thoughtful writing style that feels as if it is building toward something. In the case of this book, at least, it never really does. Panama, I wanted more for you.
August 30, 2025
What an endearing, thought provoking story. It tells of a daughter of a single mom who sets out to find her Panamanian father after finding his letters to her mom. It is a story of love, loss, and regrets. It is a story about the heartache of letting others influence your life choices. Mira never knew her father because her mother never spoke of him. She discovers that he is not the man she has always thought him to be. She finds that he loved both her mother and herself with his whole heart and soul ...his whole life. The separation of her mother and father was due to the misunderstanding of their different cultures to others and the refusal by others to acknowledge the deep love between them and the resulting, perceived shame. Why should these differences matter? This is also a story about the tragedy of Alzheimer's disease. Once again, Cristina Henriquez has written an exceptional book.
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