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Olga Dies Dreaming
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fiction (2022), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel (2022)It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro "Prieto" Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan's powerbrokers.
Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets...
Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.
Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream--all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.
Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets...
Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.
Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream--all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.
369 pages, Hardcover
First published January 4, 2022
4364 people are currently reading
159714 people want to read
About the author
Xóchitl González
6 books2,617 followersI'm a native of Brooklyn, New York, where I was raised by my maternal grandparents in South Brooklyn. A proud graduate of the New York City public school system, I studied performing arts at Edward R. Murrow high school before getting my B.A. in Fine Art and Art History at Brown University in 1999. Nearly twenty years later, on the eve of my 40th birthday, I decided to listen to the long whispered dream of writing. I attended The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and then was accepted to the Iowa Writers' Workshop where I was an Iowa Arts Fellow and recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Prize for Fiction. I completed my MFA in May of 2021 at the tender age of 43. Before writing I worked as an entrepreneur, consultant, wedding planner, fund-raiser, tarot reader and writer of etiquette columns. I currently live back in Brooklyn with my dog Hectah Lavoe.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 8,176 reviews
January 6, 2022
5 stars. If a book could be an intersectional feminist anthem, this is it.
*SPOILER FREE REVIEW* :
TW : suicide / vulgar language / sexual assault(implied) / rape(implied) / drug use / disease
This is the kind of book that makes you go:
while simultaneously kicking racism, white privilege, capitalism, elitism and entitled misogyny in the ass!
I heard this novel is going to be adapted onto the big screen by Hulu and let me tell you, I AM SO EXCITED.
It is a marvellous story, rich with the essence of Puerto Rican culture, told by a bold & outspoken protagonist, Olga, & her brother, Prieto, who is a closeted, queer politician just as forthright as Olga albeit in so many different ways. Where Olga is all wit and snark, Prieto is all smiles and charm. Both siblings have their own demons to fight as they grapple for a seat at the table, determined to change the rules from the inside out.
This book is a marker of the 21st Century.
Although a fiction novel, it carries with it real-life testimonies of how far we've come & the fruit of progressive reform, while reminding us of the long journey we still have in front of us. It deals with the intricacies of activism with its own set of dilemmas that come with it. It reminds us that life runs on trade-offs, disguised under the illusion of choice.
This will be my favourite debut novel of 2022, I know it. I find it hard to believe Xóchitl is a debut author. She is a natural at this.
Olga had me wrapped around her finger. The way she presented herself is something I have always wanted to be. She is my dream-self, materialised in the pages of a book. So I felt her anger like it was my own & I learnt many things about my own activism & how I should work to improve on it. The other characters' complexity was done impeccably well & none felt like plot devices. In fact, they were the most human characters I've read about in a while. This book reads like the most exciting memoir you never knew you needed.
If you like character-driven books, this one is for you.
This is not to say the plot lacks behind in any way.
The plot is modern and relevant. When the author drops the plot points on you, you care so much about the characters that it's hard to not have your hand fly to your mouth. I found myself holding my breath so many times while I read, hardly believing what unfolded. Nothing but a page-turner, this book is.
The writing is so picturesque and engaging. Xóchitl is so fond of her culture and her people and I found that my heart reflected that same love. The way she wrote about Olga's family brought me back to my hometown's wooden house with the warmth of chaos of my Chinese immigrant family in SE Asia, a never-ending drone of the mingling dialects & laughter from my aunties & uncles. Time has taken those moments away, as everyone grew up in pursuit of a better life. far away. This book brought back that overwhelming comfort of being surrounded by family, food and culture that I very much miss. She captured it in a way I didn't think possible.
Her writing sets its own standards. Sophisticated in the ways that matter and yet down-to-earth, genuine and unrefined in describing love, family and friendship.
The romance is absolutely fantastic, none of that puppy love you see in YA novels and yet still giving your heart a squeeze every time our protagonist and her love interest interact.
This is such a raw & grounded book that resonated so deeply with me. The best #OwnVoices book I've read yet.
Thank you Flatiron Books & NetGalley for providing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are genuine & entirely my own.
〖 Follow me on Instagram (@shashaybooks)! 〗
"You must remember, mijo, even people who were once your sails can become your anchors."
*SPOILER FREE REVIEW* :
TW : suicide / vulgar language / sexual assault(implied) / rape(implied) / drug use / disease
This is the kind of book that makes you go:
while simultaneously kicking racism, white privilege, capitalism, elitism and entitled misogyny in the ass!
I heard this novel is going to be adapted onto the big screen by Hulu and let me tell you, I AM SO EXCITED.
It is a marvellous story, rich with the essence of Puerto Rican culture, told by a bold & outspoken protagonist, Olga, & her brother, Prieto, who is a closeted, queer politician just as forthright as Olga albeit in so many different ways. Where Olga is all wit and snark, Prieto is all smiles and charm. Both siblings have their own demons to fight as they grapple for a seat at the table, determined to change the rules from the inside out.
This book is a marker of the 21st Century.
Although a fiction novel, it carries with it real-life testimonies of how far we've come & the fruit of progressive reform, while reminding us of the long journey we still have in front of us. It deals with the intricacies of activism with its own set of dilemmas that come with it. It reminds us that life runs on trade-offs, disguised under the illusion of choice.
This will be my favourite debut novel of 2022, I know it. I find it hard to believe Xóchitl is a debut author. She is a natural at this.
Olga had me wrapped around her finger. The way she presented herself is something I have always wanted to be. She is my dream-self, materialised in the pages of a book. So I felt her anger like it was my own & I learnt many things about my own activism & how I should work to improve on it. The other characters' complexity was done impeccably well & none felt like plot devices. In fact, they were the most human characters I've read about in a while. This book reads like the most exciting memoir you never knew you needed.
If you like character-driven books, this one is for you.
This is not to say the plot lacks behind in any way.
The plot is modern and relevant. When the author drops the plot points on you, you care so much about the characters that it's hard to not have your hand fly to your mouth. I found myself holding my breath so many times while I read, hardly believing what unfolded. Nothing but a page-turner, this book is.
The writing is so picturesque and engaging. Xóchitl is so fond of her culture and her people and I found that my heart reflected that same love. The way she wrote about Olga's family brought me back to my hometown's wooden house with the warmth of chaos of my Chinese immigrant family in SE Asia, a never-ending drone of the mingling dialects & laughter from my aunties & uncles. Time has taken those moments away, as everyone grew up in pursuit of a better life. far away. This book brought back that overwhelming comfort of being surrounded by family, food and culture that I very much miss. She captured it in a way I didn't think possible.
Her writing sets its own standards. Sophisticated in the ways that matter and yet down-to-earth, genuine and unrefined in describing love, family and friendship.
The romance is absolutely fantastic, none of that puppy love you see in YA novels and yet still giving your heart a squeeze every time our protagonist and her love interest interact.
This is such a raw & grounded book that resonated so deeply with me. The best #OwnVoices book I've read yet.
Thank you Flatiron Books & NetGalley for providing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are genuine & entirely my own.
〖 Follow me on Instagram (@shashaybooks)! 〗
September 14, 2021
Thank you to Net Galley and Flatiron Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Sometimes I come across a book at just the right moment, like the author wrote FIN on the last page and slid the unedited manuscript under my doorway. Other times, I can appreciate the work of an author, but am not in the right mindset to fully immerse myself in the story. Unfortunately, I felt more of the latter with Olga Dies Dreaming. I think I need to read some Flannery O'Connor or Toni Morrison to reset my palette after all these contemporary books.
Olga Dies Dreaming has all the elements for a successful novel: two compelling, complex main characters, solid writing, and overarching political/cultural themes that the characters navigate in both their work setting and personal relationships. I'm sure those elements will resonate with a lot of readers, as they should.
I found myself...bored. It's hard to overcome the feeling of boredom and enjoy a book, no matter how much respect I might have for a particular passage or development of a singular character. If you're bored, you're bored, and short of lying to yourself, there is little enjoyment to be had.
I found the pacing to be poor, the summary-to-scene ratio askew, and the jokes try-hard and cringey, like someone wearing a leather jacket that everyone knows they can't pull off. The dialogue was predictable. Worse, the little missives about gentrification could have been lifted from a book from 1995 with no changes, a seemingly astute political point that is actually just the laziest observation one can make. Because this book is set in NYC, the characters are legally mandated to grapple with the question of "authenticity," an intentionally vague concept that is impossible to define, outside of the understanding that it only exists in Brooklyn.
Sometimes I come across a book at just the right moment, like the author wrote FIN on the last page and slid the unedited manuscript under my doorway. Other times, I can appreciate the work of an author, but am not in the right mindset to fully immerse myself in the story. Unfortunately, I felt more of the latter with Olga Dies Dreaming. I think I need to read some Flannery O'Connor or Toni Morrison to reset my palette after all these contemporary books.
Olga Dies Dreaming has all the elements for a successful novel: two compelling, complex main characters, solid writing, and overarching political/cultural themes that the characters navigate in both their work setting and personal relationships. I'm sure those elements will resonate with a lot of readers, as they should.
I found myself...bored. It's hard to overcome the feeling of boredom and enjoy a book, no matter how much respect I might have for a particular passage or development of a singular character. If you're bored, you're bored, and short of lying to yourself, there is little enjoyment to be had.
I found the pacing to be poor, the summary-to-scene ratio askew, and the jokes try-hard and cringey, like someone wearing a leather jacket that everyone knows they can't pull off. The dialogue was predictable. Worse, the little missives about gentrification could have been lifted from a book from 1995 with no changes, a seemingly astute political point that is actually just the laziest observation one can make. Because this book is set in NYC, the characters are legally mandated to grapple with the question of "authenticity," an intentionally vague concept that is impossible to define, outside of the understanding that it only exists in Brooklyn.
April 6, 2022
CW: mention of suicide, sexual assault, rape (implied, from the POV of the perpetrator), Hurricane Maria, and drug use
This review is NOT spoiler free, so thread with care if you don’t want spoilers!
Thank you Flatiron Books for providing me an ARC in exchange of my honest opinion.
Olga Dies Dreaming is a tale of resistance to the oppressor, and how minorities have to change who they are to fit in the mold white people put on us. It is also a tale of loss and mistakes that change lives forever. We follow the story of two Puertorrican siblings from Brooklyn; Olga and Prieto. These two are complex as a puzzle, as they lost their father to addiction and their mother to her journey to free Puerto Rico.
I enjoyed Olga’s character, but it was very difficult for me to connect and sympathize with Prieto, cause even though he’s fictional and did his best to redeem himself, he still signed PROMESA and I can’t look after that. PROMESA is the bridge the government gave to dismantle educational places like the University of Puerto Rico, my alma mater. This law arrived when I started university, and almost 7 years later its effects on my university are more visible than ever. It is worse when you read that he voted for this law to go against his mother, who according to him was manipulating him through her letters (she was, I’ll talk about her further on). Let's also add that he was being blackmailed for being a closeted gay man. But taking this decision, which would be LIFE CHANGING for people on the island, was not something to do to spite your independentista mother. It doesn’t matter what was your reasoning for supporting a law like PROMESA; if you claim to be Puertorrican and still support this law, you are a sell-out of your country (so he deserved that box of worms). From this point forward, I couldn’t feel any type of sympathy for him, but I do have to say it felt very weird and violent the way he was “punished” by having to out himself as gay and dealing with a positive diagnosis of HIV.
As for Olga, the main character, she has a lot of issues that she sweeps under the rug to focus on her life as a wedding planner and her social goals in the affluent society of NYC. Her mother abandoned her, and this marked and affected her deeply. She struggled with relationships, keeping the idea of forming a bond with someone at arm’s length. However, she meets Matteo, and he changes the way she thinks. This doesn’t mean that he heals her immediately and all of her issues are gone, but he is a good influence in her life. Their relationship was sweet and passionate, but also very grounding for both of them. I really liked seeing a healthy relationship after seeing toxic after toxic relationships in this book, whether it was romantic or familiar. However, sometimes Olga rubbed me off the wrong way, and the one time that stood out the most to me was when after Hurricane Maria, she decided not to go and help with the recovery aid because it was the “white savior thing to do”. No, it isn’t. It’s the decent thing to do. It only turns into a white savior narrative when the person in question gloats to everyone they can find about going down to the island to help so they can get praised (Victoria Eikenborn, for example). How many Puertorricans would have liked to come here to help, but couldn’t because they lacked the resources?
Now, a character that I absolutely hated and made me feel disgusted was Richard Eikenborn III, also known as Dick. He was her lover, and he was also a piece of shit. He is also the CEO of an important chain of hardware stores, and part of a selected group of gringo vultures that see the destruction left in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria as an opportunity to fill his pockets. This man fetishizes and objectifies Olga, and is disgustingly possessive with her. He even hits and rapes her in their last encounter, and we have to read all of this from his point of view, which repulses me even more. I’ve seen reviewers claim this book is feminist, but as a feminist myself, I do not think having to read a rape scene from the perspective of the rapist is very feminist. There are other instances in the book where I can see feminism (Olga’s mom being the leader of an organization, Olga being a successful business owner, etc), but this is my opinion, and it is completely fine if you don’t agree with it.
Another character that quickly fell from my graces was Blanca Acevedo, Olga and Prieto’s mom. She was part of the Young Lords, and when her kids were teens, she abandoned them and their father to follow her pursuit to free Puerto Rico. She created her own organization called Pañuelos Negros, which was focused on the liberation of the people of Puerto Rico. They gave aid to the community in their moments of crisis and held the fort when FEMA left us to fend for ourselves. She was also extremely manipulative and a terrible mother to her children. She used to send them letters, trying to morph her kids into the mold of her liking, and when they didn’t come out how she wanted them to, flagged them as weak and disappointments. As someone who believes in the independence of Puerto Rico, I wouldn’t follow someone who couldn’t show compassion to her own children. Portraying this woman, who is supposed to represent the freedom of this island, as basically a villain felt like a disservice to the cause. I feel it is also important to point out that the social movements in Puerto Rico for independence are not controlled by one person but led by many small organizations like Colectiva Feminista PR and Jornada Se Acabaron Las Promesas that focuses on helping the community while bringing the problems of misogyny, colonialism, imperialism, corruption in the government, racism, among others to light. Like we say here, eso se cae de la mata, but I like clarifying for those who don’t know about the complex politics of Puerto Rico. Nothing here is black or white, and portraying it as such is, for the sake of redundancy, a disservice.
I believe the hardest part for me to read in this book was when Hurricane Maria happened. I am a survivor of this catastrophe, and I did all of the lines for ATMs, ice, gasoline, and food the author mentions. A small detail maybe many didn’t catch but it made me cry like a baby was when Prieto was hearing the municipalities check-in done through the AM radio. I vividly remember sitting in the dark with my mom beside the radio, listening to other Boricuas use what little phone signal and battery they had to call in the radio and say their names and location so their family members from other towns or even in other countries would know they were alive. It was also super interesting to see the POV of the politicians, CEOs, and billionaires who want to take over our island, who prey on us and our resources like vultures over rotting meat. The author really captured the essence of these neo-colonizers who want Puerto Rico without Puertorricans on it.
Overall, I really wanted to enjoy this book, but as I sat down after reading it and analyzing it, I feel a lot more could be done. The ending was so rushed and unexpected I had to stop and reread to understand why the flash-forward was happening. It completely killed the pace the book had and left me feeling underwhelmed. In the end, I couldn’t connect with either of the siblings. I understand the diaspora experience can be really difficult and complex, but when talking about the politics of an island filled with real people, one has to take their perspective into consideration. I hope more books that handle our politics in fiction come out in the upcoming years, both from the perspective of the islanders and the diaspora.
This review is NOT spoiler free, so thread with care if you don’t want spoilers!
Thank you Flatiron Books for providing me an ARC in exchange of my honest opinion.
Olga Dies Dreaming is a tale of resistance to the oppressor, and how minorities have to change who they are to fit in the mold white people put on us. It is also a tale of loss and mistakes that change lives forever. We follow the story of two Puertorrican siblings from Brooklyn; Olga and Prieto. These two are complex as a puzzle, as they lost their father to addiction and their mother to her journey to free Puerto Rico.
I enjoyed Olga’s character, but it was very difficult for me to connect and sympathize with Prieto, cause even though he’s fictional and did his best to redeem himself, he still signed PROMESA and I can’t look after that. PROMESA is the bridge the government gave to dismantle educational places like the University of Puerto Rico, my alma mater. This law arrived when I started university, and almost 7 years later its effects on my university are more visible than ever. It is worse when you read that he voted for this law to go against his mother, who according to him was manipulating him through her letters (she was, I’ll talk about her further on). Let's also add that he was being blackmailed for being a closeted gay man. But taking this decision, which would be LIFE CHANGING for people on the island, was not something to do to spite your independentista mother. It doesn’t matter what was your reasoning for supporting a law like PROMESA; if you claim to be Puertorrican and still support this law, you are a sell-out of your country (so he deserved that box of worms). From this point forward, I couldn’t feel any type of sympathy for him, but I do have to say it felt very weird and violent the way he was “punished” by having to out himself as gay and dealing with a positive diagnosis of HIV.
As for Olga, the main character, she has a lot of issues that she sweeps under the rug to focus on her life as a wedding planner and her social goals in the affluent society of NYC. Her mother abandoned her, and this marked and affected her deeply. She struggled with relationships, keeping the idea of forming a bond with someone at arm’s length. However, she meets Matteo, and he changes the way she thinks. This doesn’t mean that he heals her immediately and all of her issues are gone, but he is a good influence in her life. Their relationship was sweet and passionate, but also very grounding for both of them. I really liked seeing a healthy relationship after seeing toxic after toxic relationships in this book, whether it was romantic or familiar. However, sometimes Olga rubbed me off the wrong way, and the one time that stood out the most to me was when after Hurricane Maria, she decided not to go and help with the recovery aid because it was the “white savior thing to do”. No, it isn’t. It’s the decent thing to do. It only turns into a white savior narrative when the person in question gloats to everyone they can find about going down to the island to help so they can get praised (Victoria Eikenborn, for example). How many Puertorricans would have liked to come here to help, but couldn’t because they lacked the resources?
Now, a character that I absolutely hated and made me feel disgusted was Richard Eikenborn III, also known as Dick. He was her lover, and he was also a piece of shit. He is also the CEO of an important chain of hardware stores, and part of a selected group of gringo vultures that see the destruction left in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria as an opportunity to fill his pockets. This man fetishizes and objectifies Olga, and is disgustingly possessive with her. He even hits and rapes her in their last encounter, and we have to read all of this from his point of view, which repulses me even more. I’ve seen reviewers claim this book is feminist, but as a feminist myself, I do not think having to read a rape scene from the perspective of the rapist is very feminist. There are other instances in the book where I can see feminism (Olga’s mom being the leader of an organization, Olga being a successful business owner, etc), but this is my opinion, and it is completely fine if you don’t agree with it.
Another character that quickly fell from my graces was Blanca Acevedo, Olga and Prieto’s mom. She was part of the Young Lords, and when her kids were teens, she abandoned them and their father to follow her pursuit to free Puerto Rico. She created her own organization called Pañuelos Negros, which was focused on the liberation of the people of Puerto Rico. They gave aid to the community in their moments of crisis and held the fort when FEMA left us to fend for ourselves. She was also extremely manipulative and a terrible mother to her children. She used to send them letters, trying to morph her kids into the mold of her liking, and when they didn’t come out how she wanted them to, flagged them as weak and disappointments. As someone who believes in the independence of Puerto Rico, I wouldn’t follow someone who couldn’t show compassion to her own children. Portraying this woman, who is supposed to represent the freedom of this island, as basically a villain felt like a disservice to the cause. I feel it is also important to point out that the social movements in Puerto Rico for independence are not controlled by one person but led by many small organizations like Colectiva Feminista PR and Jornada Se Acabaron Las Promesas that focuses on helping the community while bringing the problems of misogyny, colonialism, imperialism, corruption in the government, racism, among others to light. Like we say here, eso se cae de la mata, but I like clarifying for those who don’t know about the complex politics of Puerto Rico. Nothing here is black or white, and portraying it as such is, for the sake of redundancy, a disservice.
I believe the hardest part for me to read in this book was when Hurricane Maria happened. I am a survivor of this catastrophe, and I did all of the lines for ATMs, ice, gasoline, and food the author mentions. A small detail maybe many didn’t catch but it made me cry like a baby was when Prieto was hearing the municipalities check-in done through the AM radio. I vividly remember sitting in the dark with my mom beside the radio, listening to other Boricuas use what little phone signal and battery they had to call in the radio and say their names and location so their family members from other towns or even in other countries would know they were alive. It was also super interesting to see the POV of the politicians, CEOs, and billionaires who want to take over our island, who prey on us and our resources like vultures over rotting meat. The author really captured the essence of these neo-colonizers who want Puerto Rico without Puertorricans on it.
Overall, I really wanted to enjoy this book, but as I sat down after reading it and analyzing it, I feel a lot more could be done. The ending was so rushed and unexpected I had to stop and reread to understand why the flash-forward was happening. It completely killed the pace the book had and left me feeling underwhelmed. In the end, I couldn’t connect with either of the siblings. I understand the diaspora experience can be really difficult and complex, but when talking about the politics of an island filled with real people, one has to take their perspective into consideration. I hope more books that handle our politics in fiction come out in the upcoming years, both from the perspective of the islanders and the diaspora.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2023
trying to be one of the cool kids again (reading a popular book).
and i AM one of the cool kids because this was actually very good! i love these annoying characters and the problems they refuse to solve and in fact seem to have a vested interest in making worse.
almost every time a book switches perspectives and timelines, i think at least one is unnecessary, and that was still true here. but at least one outweighed the other.
and sure, maybe the ending of this being but you can't win them all.
and that's good enough for me.
bottom line: i will taking winning them most!
and i AM one of the cool kids because this was actually very good! i love these annoying characters and the problems they refuse to solve and in fact seem to have a vested interest in making worse.
almost every time a book switches perspectives and timelines, i think at least one is unnecessary, and that was still true here. but at least one outweighed the other.
and sure, maybe the ending of this being but you can't win them all.
and that's good enough for me.
bottom line: i will taking winning them most!
January 4, 2022
The opening chapter of Xochitl Gonzalez’s debut novel, “Olga Dies Dreaming,” is all about napkins — wildly overpriced wedding reception napkins.
That may sound like a small cloth in which to wrap a big book, but Gonzalez folds those napkins into a satire of consumer excess, an appraisal of business morality and a study of family relations.
In short: Don’t underestimate this new novelist. She’s jump-starting the year with a smart romantic comedy that lures us in with laughter and keeps us hooked with a fantastically engaging story. A Hulu pilot is already in the works starring Aubrey Plaza, and given this source material, it should be terrific.
Gonzalez’s heroine is Olga Isabel Acevedo, a 40-year-old dynamo from South Brooklyn. At a young age, Olga set her sights on success and never wavered — not when her mother abandoned her and not when her father died of AIDS. “Every single thing she had done with her life she had figured out for herself,” Gonzalez writes. Now as the owner of a business she built from scratch, Olga charges well-heeled women in New York, Dallas and Palm Beach a fortune to plan their weddings. If that involves fencing liquor from Russian mobsters and overcharging brides for phantom place settings, who’s counting? After all, as a regular guest on “Good Morning, Later,” Olga is the closest thing America has to a wedding-planner celebrity. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
That may sound like a small cloth in which to wrap a big book, but Gonzalez folds those napkins into a satire of consumer excess, an appraisal of business morality and a study of family relations.
In short: Don’t underestimate this new novelist. She’s jump-starting the year with a smart romantic comedy that lures us in with laughter and keeps us hooked with a fantastically engaging story. A Hulu pilot is already in the works starring Aubrey Plaza, and given this source material, it should be terrific.
Gonzalez’s heroine is Olga Isabel Acevedo, a 40-year-old dynamo from South Brooklyn. At a young age, Olga set her sights on success and never wavered — not when her mother abandoned her and not when her father died of AIDS. “Every single thing she had done with her life she had figured out for herself,” Gonzalez writes. Now as the owner of a business she built from scratch, Olga charges well-heeled women in New York, Dallas and Palm Beach a fortune to plan their weddings. If that involves fencing liquor from Russian mobsters and overcharging brides for phantom place settings, who’s counting? After all, as a regular guest on “Good Morning, Later,” Olga is the closest thing America has to a wedding-planner celebrity. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
January 30, 2022
This story was easy to read, and entertaining for the most part, but it is pure liberal clonwery. It's anti-revolutionary, and frames organizers in the same light as the people responsible for the gentrification of Brooklyn. Such a shallow analysis of gentrification, race, and class. The letters from the mother felt removed and unnecessary. Also, just simply not researched. It's so apparent the author is writing the mother as a villian, and I'm sure it was based on real life as her own mother was a socialist activist and the author's instagram makes it apparent she isnt. But the mother in the book is supposed to be in The Young Lords, yet describes another character who joins the Vietnam war as brave? Which would have been completely against the views of The young Young Lords at the time. I also found one of the storylines relating to a character's sexuality to be contrived and not resolved, along with the ethical issues that characters dealt with. I also didn't like some of the comments the main character made towards her partner, but he was also a clown. I know I already said this, but I truly cannot believe the absurd way this book talks about gentrification its actually hilarious!! Lastly, the writing gave YA vibes in a way that One Last Stop gave me, and I just didn't have a good time.
Overall what was this book supposed to teach us? The good points made about Puerto Rico were glossed over with this love conquers all narrative. If you want a good primer before going into the book I recommend Naomi Klein's short book on the subject.
Overall what was this book supposed to teach us? The good points made about Puerto Rico were glossed over with this love conquers all narrative. If you want a good primer before going into the book I recommend Naomi Klein's short book on the subject.
February 8, 2022
I felt so much heart in this novel even though I wanted more from its execution. Olga Dies Dreaming follows Olga and her brother Pedro “Prieto” Acevedo, siblings whose mother, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned them to fight for liberation. Olga now works as a wedding planner for rich people while Prieto represents their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood as a congressman. The story covers a lot of ground: Olga’s dissatisfaction with her career, Prieto’s closeted queerness, Olga’s lack of vulnerability in her romantic relationships, Prieto’s questionable political choices, how their mother’s abandonment affects both of them, and more.
Olga Dies Dreaming explores a lot of interesting ideas. I felt fascinated by the notion of a parent who turns to activism over their own kids (honestly reminding me of some of the emotionally unavailable/harmful leftists I’ve met, oops). The commentaries throughout the book about gentrification felt important and I liked how this book both addressed issues of power and privilege while still saying centered on the siblings’ lives and emotions. Olga and Prieto both grow in tangible ways throughout the novel which increased my satisfaction in reading it.
I give this book three stars because I felt like it tried to do a lot and I’m not sure that worked for me. Some books can do a ton of different things plot-wise and character-wise (I’m thinking of Kelly Loy Gilbert’s books Picture Us in the Light and When We Were Infinite ) while still having a core emotional center and I didn’t feel that way with Olga Dies Dreaming. So much happens yet I didn’t really feel emotionally impacted by the events even though I felt happy for Olga and Prieto’s growth. I wonder what it would have felt like if a few of the elements were removed to give the other elements more space to breathe and sink in for the reader. Still, I recognize the appreciable elements of this novel as well as Xochitl Gonzalez’s ambition to try and tackle a lot.
Olga Dies Dreaming explores a lot of interesting ideas. I felt fascinated by the notion of a parent who turns to activism over their own kids (honestly reminding me of some of the emotionally unavailable/harmful leftists I’ve met, oops). The commentaries throughout the book about gentrification felt important and I liked how this book both addressed issues of power and privilege while still saying centered on the siblings’ lives and emotions. Olga and Prieto both grow in tangible ways throughout the novel which increased my satisfaction in reading it.
I give this book three stars because I felt like it tried to do a lot and I’m not sure that worked for me. Some books can do a ton of different things plot-wise and character-wise (I’m thinking of Kelly Loy Gilbert’s books Picture Us in the Light and When We Were Infinite ) while still having a core emotional center and I didn’t feel that way with Olga Dies Dreaming. So much happens yet I didn’t really feel emotionally impacted by the events even though I felt happy for Olga and Prieto’s growth. I wonder what it would have felt like if a few of the elements were removed to give the other elements more space to breathe and sink in for the reader. Still, I recognize the appreciable elements of this novel as well as Xochitl Gonzalez’s ambition to try and tackle a lot.
January 9, 2022
I guess I wanted more from this one….
This book was very high on my list, a debut novel written by an author from Puerto Rico…. Sign me up! In Olga Dies Dreaming we meet Olga who is a wedding planner living in Manhattan and is the go too for celebrities and A-Listers planning their wedding. Olga’s got it all, top of her game, a go getter, owner of her business but still feels like she isn’t exactly where she should be. She is constantly reminded of this by her mother…
Her brother Prieto is a congressman who spent his career representing the Latinx community while fighting for the rights of his fellow countryman in Puerto Rico. Prieto is a bit of a people pleaser and has a dark secret that is currently being used against him.
Both Olga and Prieto have not seen their mother since she left to be a part of the movement to free Puerto Rico. Her presence is still felt by her children as she sends them letters letting them know how proud or disappointed she is in them depending on what they are doing. With a major hurricane hitting in Puerto Rico, their mother reached out, is this good or bad news for them?
Honestly, I wanted to LOVE this books and while it’s got some great moments- particularly the first four chapters, I felt the author was trying to do entirely too much. The mother writing letters to her children she left behind felt a bit heavy handed and not organic. While I LOVED the history lesson on Puerto Rico, I felt it could have been incorporated without feeling so forced. I really could have done without the mother character- I’m not sure why I have such a strong reaction to her but I do!
Overall, I just felt the book dragged in certain areas and tried to do too much. Will a read something else from this author… well of course!
This book was very high on my list, a debut novel written by an author from Puerto Rico…. Sign me up! In Olga Dies Dreaming we meet Olga who is a wedding planner living in Manhattan and is the go too for celebrities and A-Listers planning their wedding. Olga’s got it all, top of her game, a go getter, owner of her business but still feels like she isn’t exactly where she should be. She is constantly reminded of this by her mother…
Her brother Prieto is a congressman who spent his career representing the Latinx community while fighting for the rights of his fellow countryman in Puerto Rico. Prieto is a bit of a people pleaser and has a dark secret that is currently being used against him.
Both Olga and Prieto have not seen their mother since she left to be a part of the movement to free Puerto Rico. Her presence is still felt by her children as she sends them letters letting them know how proud or disappointed she is in them depending on what they are doing. With a major hurricane hitting in Puerto Rico, their mother reached out, is this good or bad news for them?
Honestly, I wanted to LOVE this books and while it’s got some great moments- particularly the first four chapters, I felt the author was trying to do entirely too much. The mother writing letters to her children she left behind felt a bit heavy handed and not organic. While I LOVED the history lesson on Puerto Rico, I felt it could have been incorporated without feeling so forced. I really could have done without the mother character- I’m not sure why I have such a strong reaction to her but I do!
Overall, I just felt the book dragged in certain areas and tried to do too much. Will a read something else from this author… well of course!
November 21, 2022
The history of Puerto Rico is truly enthralling and you get a great taste of it in this book through the multi-generational backstory of these passionate characters. The first chapter is so well written and enchanting you know the book is going to consume you, at times with a deep laughter, at times with intense sadness. You love the main characters and their flaws, for no one is perfect. Makes me want to go back to Puerto Rico and talk more with the locals in the tiny backstreet bars, on the well-worn back streets, watching them dance to old songs and chat with the locals who lived the history and loved telling it. Maybe Olga will meet me.
March 14, 2022
David Dies Reading
This was many things but "extraordinary" (one of many promises clearly featured on the book jacket) was not one of them. It turned out to be:
Too long
Frequently hyperbolic
Loaded with exposition (often delivered in epistolary form or within "romantic" conversations)
A strain on credulity
I took particular exception to the unwittingly unethical depiction of a healthcare provider, agreeing to run sensitive diagnostic tests - on an individual who is not her patient - in exchange for a political favor related to fundraising. Even more disappointing was the preponderance of characters who are gay and living in NYC in 2017 but filled with fear, self-loathing, and an obsessive drive to stay on the down-low at all costs. Puh-lease.
As lovingly as stateside Puerto Ricans are rendered in this story, I think the contemporary novel that Puertoriqueños deserve has yet to be written.
2.5 stars
This was many things but "extraordinary" (one of many promises clearly featured on the book jacket) was not one of them. It turned out to be:
Too long
Frequently hyperbolic
Loaded with exposition (often delivered in epistolary form or within "romantic" conversations)
A strain on credulity
I took particular exception to the unwittingly unethical depiction of a healthcare provider, agreeing to run sensitive diagnostic tests - on an individual who is not her patient - in exchange for a political favor related to fundraising. Even more disappointing was the preponderance of characters who are gay and living in NYC in 2017 but filled with fear, self-loathing, and an obsessive drive to stay on the down-low at all costs. Puh-lease.
As lovingly as stateside Puerto Ricans are rendered in this story, I think the contemporary novel that Puertoriqueños deserve has yet to be written.
2.5 stars
May 29, 2024
Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up because there's not a single chance I won't be watching the show & awaiting the next González book
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Spoilery Review: First, read this:
I spent a chunk of my 1980s in Nuyorican Sunset Park. I grew up around Spanish-speaking people (including my oldest sister, whose command of Mexican Spanish exceeds her command of English) and wasn't thrown by the blended Spanglish interwoven in the book...that's a positive feature to me. Closeted gay guys were a dime a dozen, then as now; closeted gay Nuyorican guys were even more common then than now. And a lot of 'em were/are married, with kids, and a sadly disproportionate percentage were/are also hooked on crack then, heroin now. So I came (!) to this read ready to rumble. Papi dead of AIDS ("this pato disease," as Mami calls it in a letter), Mami in the Cause and effectively dead...yeah, I was feelin' it in all my wypipo leftist soul.
I don't like Olga, or Prieto, at all.
Sellout is the kindest word I have for them, both of them, the grey and compromised souls they got from their rootstock. I think the thing they rebelled against, terrorism in place of activism, makes sense given that they lost their mother to it...and does she have a blinkin' nerve showing back up (even if only by letter) to "take command" after what she left behind!...but. But, but, but.
You are your choices. Own them, and accept the prices they exact; this is what not one of these characters did until something outside themselves actually *forced* them to. And Prieto, for whom the stakes and therefore the costs are so very high, was guilty of the rankest betrayals and most repugnant of sophistic self-justification; in the end, the chickens coming home to roost in the body of Mami...or in the box of worms the goddamned woman sends him...let me just say that this subplot is terrible, realistic, and very, very angering for me on more levels than I can count.
So the story's a banger, right?! YES! This is gonna be epic fucking television! A telenovela in Spanglish for me and my fellow wypipo! (You do not know cross-cultural humor until you've seen English closed-captioned telenovelas.)
I have some problems. My rating says so.
Mami's an evil bitch, a stone-cold rotten-souled foul excresence of a person whose cold, cold heart would shame the Devil Herself.
Her heartlessness is a calculated creation by an author to make a point. Yes, yes, yes, I am a reasonably skilled decoder and can in fact separate reality from fiction. But this is fiction that illuminates a reality far too often ignored in our world. Wrong is being done everywhere, wrong met with wrong, and perpetuating a cycle of use and abuse and victimization that simply won't end.
And what is new about that, you ask. Nothing, not one thing, and that's where I got off the train. Because there needs to be some reckoning for whose lives are paying this price, and not on an institutional level....
Olga and Prieto are compromised, like I said above; I like to read about grey characters because frankly ain't too many all-pure-n-shiny knights out there. What I find so hard to make part of this as a tale of feminist redemption is the fact that Olga knowingly fleeces her clients, launders money for people best left to God or the Devil to deal with, and still manages to fuck up her response to Hurricane María by deciding she shouldn't be a "white savior" and go help the suffering to recover.
Prieto, meanwhile, faces off against their mother in her native element—Revolución!—and comes away knowing 1) she doesn't love him; 2) she's known he's gay all his life; 3) she thinks he's weak and useless, like his (crack-addicted) father. And this is touching bottom for him. This, not the HIV he could've avoided possibly passing on to someone before he knew he had it; this, not allowing his moral compass to be set by vile, evil people because he wanted to stay in politics.
Not down with this, Author González. Not at all, these are some bad actors becoming "good"...okay, they wouldn't claim that, better...by force majeure. And that sits wrong with me, not that it took this to get them to face up to themselves but that this is what it took to get them to face up to themselves. There's compromised and then there's complicit, and these're some complicit folk here.
So my fifth star went away, maximally I was at four.
But then there was that epilogue-y thing set in 2025. Another half-star. It was not a good idea. It wasn't any better or worse, writing-wise, than the rest of the book, but it was...ill advised, I'll stop there. And that's how a delightfully fun, deeply absorbing, hard-charging and target-aiming home run of a read turned into a sacrifice bunt that put the runner in scoring position.
And left her there.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Spoilery Review: First, read this:
There were, inevitably, children’s clothing stores, furniture shops still offering bedroom sets by layaway, and dollar stores whose awnings teemed with suspended inflatable dolls, beach chairs, laundry carts, and other impulse purchases a mom might make on a Saturday afternoon, exhausted by errand running with her kids. There was the sneaker store where Olga used to buy her cute kicks, the fruit store Prieto had worked at in high school, the little storefront that sold the kind of old-lady bras Abuelita used to wear. On the sidewalks, the Mexican women began to set up their snack stands. Mango with lime and chili on this corner, tamales on that. Until the Mexicans had come to Sunset Park, Olga had never tried any of this food, and now she always tried to leave a little room to grab a snack on her way home. Despite the relatively early hour, most of the shops were open, music blasting into the streets, granting the avenue the aura of a party. In a few more hours, cars with their stereos pumping, teens with boom boxes en route to the neighborhood’s public pool, and laughing children darting in front of their mothers would add to the cacophony that Olga had grown to think of as the sound of a Saturday.
I spent a chunk of my 1980s in Nuyorican Sunset Park. I grew up around Spanish-speaking people (including my oldest sister, whose command of Mexican Spanish exceeds her command of English) and wasn't thrown by the blended Spanglish interwoven in the book...that's a positive feature to me. Closeted gay guys were a dime a dozen, then as now; closeted gay Nuyorican guys were even more common then than now. And a lot of 'em were/are married, with kids, and a sadly disproportionate percentage were/are also hooked on crack then, heroin now. So I came (!) to this read ready to rumble. Papi dead of AIDS ("this pato disease," as Mami calls it in a letter), Mami in the Cause and effectively dead...yeah, I was feelin' it in all my wypipo leftist soul.
“Debt is one of The Man’s great tools for keeping people of color oppressed.”
–and–
“You must remember, mijo, even people who were once your sails can become your anchors.”
I don't like Olga, or Prieto, at all.
Sellout is the kindest word I have for them, both of them, the grey and compromised souls they got from their rootstock. I think the thing they rebelled against, terrorism in place of activism, makes sense given that they lost their mother to it...and does she have a blinkin' nerve showing back up (even if only by letter) to "take command" after what she left behind!...but. But, but, but.
“Because I understand all the problems, I just fundamentally don’t believe we can fix them. However, I fully support those on the bottom taking as much advantage of the top as humanly possible.”
You are your choices. Own them, and accept the prices they exact; this is what not one of these characters did until something outside themselves actually *forced* them to. And Prieto, for whom the stakes and therefore the costs are so very high, was guilty of the rankest betrayals and most repugnant of sophistic self-justification; in the end, the chickens coming home to roost in the body of Mami...or in the box of worms the goddamned woman sends him...let me just say that this subplot is terrible, realistic, and very, very angering for me on more levels than I can count.
So the story's a banger, right?! YES! This is gonna be epic fucking television! A telenovela in Spanglish for me and my fellow wypipo! (You do not know cross-cultural humor until you've seen English closed-captioned telenovelas.)
I have some problems. My rating says so.
Mami's an evil bitch, a stone-cold rotten-souled foul excresence of a person whose cold, cold heart would shame the Devil Herself.
"Olga, I love your mother as much, if not more, than my actual sibling. But there's a reason that I never had kids. Mothering and birthing a child are not the same. Children don't ask to be born. They don't owe anybody anything. This is one area your mother and I never saw eye to eye on, frankly."
Her heartlessness is a calculated creation by an author to make a point. Yes, yes, yes, I am a reasonably skilled decoder and can in fact separate reality from fiction. But this is fiction that illuminates a reality far too often ignored in our world. Wrong is being done everywhere, wrong met with wrong, and perpetuating a cycle of use and abuse and victimization that simply won't end.
The price of Imperialism is lives. —JUAN GONZÁLEZ (epigraph of the book)
And what is new about that, you ask. Nothing, not one thing, and that's where I got off the train. Because there needs to be some reckoning for whose lives are paying this price, and not on an institutional level....
Olga and Prieto are compromised, like I said above; I like to read about grey characters because frankly ain't too many all-pure-n-shiny knights out there. What I find so hard to make part of this as a tale of feminist redemption is the fact that Olga knowingly fleeces her clients, launders money for people best left to God or the Devil to deal with, and still manages to fuck up her response to Hurricane María by deciding she shouldn't be a "white savior" and go help the suffering to recover.
Prieto, meanwhile, faces off against their mother in her native element—Revolución!—and comes away knowing 1) she doesn't love him; 2) she's known he's gay all his life; 3) she thinks he's weak and useless, like his (crack-addicted) father. And this is touching bottom for him. This, not the HIV he could've avoided possibly passing on to someone before he knew he had it; this, not allowing his moral compass to be set by vile, evil people because he wanted to stay in politics.
Not down with this, Author González. Not at all, these are some bad actors becoming "good"...okay, they wouldn't claim that, better...by force majeure. And that sits wrong with me, not that it took this to get them to face up to themselves but that this is what it took to get them to face up to themselves. There's compromised and then there's complicit, and these're some complicit folk here.
So my fifth star went away, maximally I was at four.
But then there was that epilogue-y thing set in 2025. Another half-star. It was not a good idea. It wasn't any better or worse, writing-wise, than the rest of the book, but it was...ill advised, I'll stop there. And that's how a delightfully fun, deeply absorbing, hard-charging and target-aiming home run of a read turned into a sacrifice bunt that put the runner in scoring position.
And left her there.
January 15, 2022
In "Olga Dies Dreaming", the sarcastic tone 'jumped' into my face from the get-go!
The first story about napkins at a wedding was dreadful (story and humor) --
"The Hoarder" didn't move me either --
"November 1990" was a little better--Olga was 13 -- beginning to learn about the world -(the reality) --between Puerto Rico and the United States relations....and the understanding about her mother: radically abandoned her children for a political cause.
July 1917 -- "Morning Routine -- the story gets darker -- and mostly stays darker with a little lightness -fluff interweaving.
The story improved a little to "Sunset Park" -to 2025 (more wedding chatter again) --
The tone between the light and dark - silly & serious- felt awkward to me.
I was happy for the book to end -- while also wishing Olga happy contentedness with her life.
a low 3 stars
The first story about napkins at a wedding was dreadful (story and humor) --
"The Hoarder" didn't move me either --
"November 1990" was a little better--Olga was 13 -- beginning to learn about the world -(the reality) --between Puerto Rico and the United States relations....and the understanding about her mother: radically abandoned her children for a political cause.
July 1917 -- "Morning Routine -- the story gets darker -- and mostly stays darker with a little lightness -fluff interweaving.
The story improved a little to "Sunset Park" -to 2025 (more wedding chatter again) --
The tone between the light and dark - silly & serious- felt awkward to me.
I was happy for the book to end -- while also wishing Olga happy contentedness with her life.
a low 3 stars
May 15, 2022
Discussing the Puerto Rican experience, machismo, generational trauma, colonialism, capitalism, and sexuality within the Latine community, this novel was incredibly engaging, insightful, and an all-around great read.
December 24, 2021
Initially, I wasn't sure about the breezy tone of González' writing but the more I read, the more I liked her vibrant style. Olga is a prickly wedding planner who is so busy acquiring success that she ignores its personal costs. Her brother, a congressman, also lives a life on the surface, keeping what matters most to him covered. Interspersed with their personal narratives and awakenings is the story of their revolutionary mother, the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and issues of gentrification in Brooklyn. Sounds like a lot but it works!
December 19, 2021
4.5 stars. An absorbing snapshot of the personal and the political, the micro and the macro, the complexities of our current world.
Set mostly in 2017 just as Puerto Rico is in the midst of a disastrous hurricane season, it centers on siblings Olga and Prieto Acevedo. The children of Puerto Rican radicals, born and raised in pre-gentrified Brooklyn, they have worked their way up to positions of prestige, he as a congressman and she as a wedding planner for the ultra-rich. Now in their 40s, neither has fully come to grips with their personal lives or their roles in the world. Their tumultuous childhood still weighs heavy on them both and yet they both move through the world pretending it never happened.
The primary factor in this weight is their absent mother, who left when they were children because she wanted the life of a true radical, not weighed down by family. But both before she left and in letters for years afterwards, she has sought to teach her children her values of revolution. As children do, both Olga and Prieto have rebelled from their mother's teachings in a variety of ways, but their touchiness around their mother's politics and affection has left them both living half-lives.
The story here is how they both move to be more honest versions of themselves, both as individuals and as people living in a capitalist nation that doesn't care about the needs of people of color. It is common nowadays to note that the personal is political, but it doesn't always come across well in fiction. It can feel void of emotion or it can feel so focused on the personal or a metaphor that it doesn't ever feel like the real world. But the world González builds for us feels exactly like the real ones, the concerns of Prieto and Olga are concerns regular people have. In particular, their sense of helplessness when Hurricane Maria strikes, that feeling of trying to figure out how you can help in the face of a massive crisis, rings true.
This all makes the book sound very serious but what's so great about it is how it manages to be light and funny even in the midst of all the serious topics it takes on. It is compulsively readable. I never wanted to stop. Even when you want to shake Olga and Prieto for their shortsightedness (which is often) you care about them deeply and you can see exactly how they got to where they are.
This is a New York novel, and a very good one. So many New York novels are about rich white people, Olga's clients. Or they're about aimless white young people who never seem to be in any real financial danger, who meander through life without taking much note of the world they walk through. This is not that. This feels like the actual New York, even if Olga and Prieto are technically well off and have enjoyed their share of privileges, they grapple with how this can separate them from their family and their community.
This would pair well with MAKE YOUR HOME AMONG STRANGERS, which also features a Latinx woman suddenly thrown into a world of well-off white people, and also balances the personal and political to excellent effect.
I did this on audio, and thoroughly enjoyed that medium.
Content warnings for sexual assault, suicide, heroin addiction, and truly terrible rich people.
Set mostly in 2017 just as Puerto Rico is in the midst of a disastrous hurricane season, it centers on siblings Olga and Prieto Acevedo. The children of Puerto Rican radicals, born and raised in pre-gentrified Brooklyn, they have worked their way up to positions of prestige, he as a congressman and she as a wedding planner for the ultra-rich. Now in their 40s, neither has fully come to grips with their personal lives or their roles in the world. Their tumultuous childhood still weighs heavy on them both and yet they both move through the world pretending it never happened.
The primary factor in this weight is their absent mother, who left when they were children because she wanted the life of a true radical, not weighed down by family. But both before she left and in letters for years afterwards, she has sought to teach her children her values of revolution. As children do, both Olga and Prieto have rebelled from their mother's teachings in a variety of ways, but their touchiness around their mother's politics and affection has left them both living half-lives.
The story here is how they both move to be more honest versions of themselves, both as individuals and as people living in a capitalist nation that doesn't care about the needs of people of color. It is common nowadays to note that the personal is political, but it doesn't always come across well in fiction. It can feel void of emotion or it can feel so focused on the personal or a metaphor that it doesn't ever feel like the real world. But the world González builds for us feels exactly like the real ones, the concerns of Prieto and Olga are concerns regular people have. In particular, their sense of helplessness when Hurricane Maria strikes, that feeling of trying to figure out how you can help in the face of a massive crisis, rings true.
This all makes the book sound very serious but what's so great about it is how it manages to be light and funny even in the midst of all the serious topics it takes on. It is compulsively readable. I never wanted to stop. Even when you want to shake Olga and Prieto for their shortsightedness (which is often) you care about them deeply and you can see exactly how they got to where they are.
This is a New York novel, and a very good one. So many New York novels are about rich white people, Olga's clients. Or they're about aimless white young people who never seem to be in any real financial danger, who meander through life without taking much note of the world they walk through. This is not that. This feels like the actual New York, even if Olga and Prieto are technically well off and have enjoyed their share of privileges, they grapple with how this can separate them from their family and their community.
This would pair well with MAKE YOUR HOME AMONG STRANGERS, which also features a Latinx woman suddenly thrown into a world of well-off white people, and also balances the personal and political to excellent effect.
I did this on audio, and thoroughly enjoyed that medium.
Content warnings for sexual assault, suicide, heroin addiction, and truly terrible rich people.
January 13, 2022
My review for this book is “Brittany dies reading.”
December 8, 2022
A lot of things that this book talked about but they seems crammed up together and sometimes felt forced on the main characters.
August 21, 2022
The author takes on quite a bit here - politics, crime, queerness, AIDS, sexual assault etc., etc., but all of it is written in a superficial way. Frankly, the writing style only fits the romance subplot here, and maybe that's what this book should have been.
April 30, 2022
This book starts off like chick lit and I was thinking, why did I think I’d like this book. Linen napkins as a status symbol for a wedding. Luckily, I read a few reviews that said to stick with it. And it does get down to more serious issues.
Olga is a Latina wedding planner. Her brother is a congressman. While both are well known in their community, their private lives are a mess. Their mother abandoned them 27 years ago to follow a militant radical cause, leaving them in the care of their grandmother. Both of them are well defined but I also didn’t feel they were completely realistic. But maybe that’s me.
The book deals with their sense of identity, their issues with their parents, their private vs public faces, and their willingness to open themselves up to others.
I loved the last 25% of the book but I felt the first ¾ of the book dragged and rambled. I also wasn’t convinced by Olga’s sudden change of heart concerning her “capitalist plans”.
I listened to this and the narrators did a great job.
Olga is a Latina wedding planner. Her brother is a congressman. While both are well known in their community, their private lives are a mess. Their mother abandoned them 27 years ago to follow a militant radical cause, leaving them in the care of their grandmother. Both of them are well defined but I also didn’t feel they were completely realistic. But maybe that’s me.
The book deals with their sense of identity, their issues with their parents, their private vs public faces, and their willingness to open themselves up to others.
I loved the last 25% of the book but I felt the first ¾ of the book dragged and rambled. I also wasn’t convinced by Olga’s sudden change of heart concerning her “capitalist plans”.
I listened to this and the narrators did a great job.
January 17, 2022
A creative writing teacher always told me to give the book at least 100 pages before giving up. I was never more eager to stop reading something.
I never want to give authors a bad review because someone took the time to write a whole book- but this. This was 🗑 I wanted to love this book with my whole heart- but there was too many elements to make sense of the story. I felt I was reading backstory after backstory.
Also- As a boricua, I didn’t like the representation of the two characters who hide/lie/steal/cheat to establish their careers. People already put those stigmas on us! And I’m sorry my grandparents didn’t struggle for THAT.
If this book was intended to ruffle my feathers- then I guess it served it’s purpose. LOL But there was no literary value for me here 😩 and I’m really sad there wasn’t.
I never want to give authors a bad review because someone took the time to write a whole book- but this. This was 🗑 I wanted to love this book with my whole heart- but there was too many elements to make sense of the story. I felt I was reading backstory after backstory.
Also- As a boricua, I didn’t like the representation of the two characters who hide/lie/steal/cheat to establish their careers. People already put those stigmas on us! And I’m sorry my grandparents didn’t struggle for THAT.
If this book was intended to ruffle my feathers- then I guess it served it’s purpose. LOL But there was no literary value for me here 😩 and I’m really sad there wasn’t.
dnf
November 22, 2021I'm only 7% in but boy do I find the humor to be forced and cringey. I think I've also never been a fan of the 'strong independent woman' type of character who is actually just a combination of rude and insufferable...and Olga seems to belong to this group. Maybe I'll revisit this at a later date and feel differently about it but for now...dnf.
February 1, 2022
Half way into the book I asked myself why I wasn't liking it since it has so many 4 & 5-star ratings. I'm not sure except there was not one person I liked. I disliked Olga most of all so I gave it up.
February 9, 2022
Xochitl Gonzalez's debut novel is a powerful, well-written saga of family, heritage, politics, sexuality, secrets, and lies.
In 2017, Olga Acevedo is a sought-after wedding planner for NYC‘s elite, while her older brother Prieto is an affable U.S. congressman representing their Brooklyn neighborhood. But while their lives seem charmed from the outside, in private, things aren’t as perfect. Olga can make magic happen for couples but can’t find her own happiness, and Prieto is haunted by secrets and decisions that he has made.
Their father was a drug addict who died of AIDS, while their mother abandoned the family when the children were young to pursue a radical political agenda in her native Puerto Rico. She barely keeps in touch with them except to have letters delivered to them, letters in which she berates Prieto for his political choices and tries to convince Olga she is wasting her intelligence by not focusing on the cause.
When Hurricane Maria devastates Puerto Rico, their mother resurfaces in a number of ways, trying to convince both of them to do her bidding. They don’t support her methods—nor do they want to get entangled in her mess—but they see the American government’s mistreatment of and horrible neglect toward Puerto Rico and its residents, and they feel compelled to act. But what sacrifices will they have to make in exchange?
Olga Dies Dreaming was one of my Book of the Month picks in December. There was much to love about Gonzalez’s novel, and I found both Olga and Prieto to be fascinating characters. But while I found the book spot-on in its indictment of America’s cruelty toward Puerto Rico, I lost interest in the book when it focused on their mother and her machinations.
If you’re a fan of character-driven books, this is worth a read. There’s definitely a great story and strong characters at its heart.
Check out my list of the best books I read in 2021 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2021.html.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
In 2017, Olga Acevedo is a sought-after wedding planner for NYC‘s elite, while her older brother Prieto is an affable U.S. congressman representing their Brooklyn neighborhood. But while their lives seem charmed from the outside, in private, things aren’t as perfect. Olga can make magic happen for couples but can’t find her own happiness, and Prieto is haunted by secrets and decisions that he has made.
Their father was a drug addict who died of AIDS, while their mother abandoned the family when the children were young to pursue a radical political agenda in her native Puerto Rico. She barely keeps in touch with them except to have letters delivered to them, letters in which she berates Prieto for his political choices and tries to convince Olga she is wasting her intelligence by not focusing on the cause.
When Hurricane Maria devastates Puerto Rico, their mother resurfaces in a number of ways, trying to convince both of them to do her bidding. They don’t support her methods—nor do they want to get entangled in her mess—but they see the American government’s mistreatment of and horrible neglect toward Puerto Rico and its residents, and they feel compelled to act. But what sacrifices will they have to make in exchange?
Olga Dies Dreaming was one of my Book of the Month picks in December. There was much to love about Gonzalez’s novel, and I found both Olga and Prieto to be fascinating characters. But while I found the book spot-on in its indictment of America’s cruelty toward Puerto Rico, I lost interest in the book when it focused on their mother and her machinations.
If you’re a fan of character-driven books, this is worth a read. There’s definitely a great story and strong characters at its heart.
Check out my list of the best books I read in 2021 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2021.html.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
August 21, 2022
I have mixed feeling about this book. Some parts I really liked and others I just could not connect to. Olga Acevedo is a Wedding Planner for Elite Clients. She has worked hard completely on her own to become successful. I really admired her ability to push forward and she is unconcerned about how others view her. Her brother, Pedro has become a Congressman in the Southern Brooklyn district they grew up in. I really liked the relationship between Sister and Brother. Both could lean on each other.
Yet, something is missing in Olga’s life. I liked that she is searching for her own identity, yet feels such a strong connection to her community, and the family she has now. She grew up in Southern Brooklyn and the area is gentrifying which understandably makes her feel like she is becoming invisible. Where can she go to find her roots and identity if not her sacred love for the Brooklyn she loves? She is great at helping others with their love life, but has a really hard time connecting to someone. She meets Matteo, and I really loved this part. He centers Olga and gives her a sense of real love that she has been missing. It is so hard for her to make a commitment, but she really wants to change.
I had a really hard time with Olga’s mom, Blanca. She has left Olga at 13 years old to become a revolutionary to Free Puerto Rico. So, this book is starts off sort of light and funny and suddenly it feels very heavy handed. Blanca only communicates with her children through letters that are manipulative and often very cruel. She only accepts her children’s choices if they are doing what she wishes for ‘the movement’ and that to her means a violent overthrow of the government. So, this becomes a jarring education on the fate of Puerto Rico through her eyes. Yes, when Hurricane Maria happened it was devastating for Puerto Rico and definitely much more should have been done. Still, this part was just hard to read. How could a mother meet her son and not care anything about him and his life. The same with Olga, she does not care at all about her, only asks if she can influence an awful person so she can help the revolution. This really was a bit too much. The book changed so much when I was reading this. Save this for another book.
So, I liked Olga and really wished the best for her. I liked that she has loves family, Matteo, and her community. She is free to choice to run her own life and actually feel some hope and joy. That was the best message the book gave. Plus, it really is a love story to Brooklyn and that was touching. I just think the book went in too many directions.
Thank you NetGalley, Xochitl Gonzalez, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this Audio Book.
Yet, something is missing in Olga’s life. I liked that she is searching for her own identity, yet feels such a strong connection to her community, and the family she has now. She grew up in Southern Brooklyn and the area is gentrifying which understandably makes her feel like she is becoming invisible. Where can she go to find her roots and identity if not her sacred love for the Brooklyn she loves? She is great at helping others with their love life, but has a really hard time connecting to someone. She meets Matteo, and I really loved this part. He centers Olga and gives her a sense of real love that she has been missing. It is so hard for her to make a commitment, but she really wants to change.
I had a really hard time with Olga’s mom, Blanca. She has left Olga at 13 years old to become a revolutionary to Free Puerto Rico. So, this book is starts off sort of light and funny and suddenly it feels very heavy handed. Blanca only communicates with her children through letters that are manipulative and often very cruel. She only accepts her children’s choices if they are doing what she wishes for ‘the movement’ and that to her means a violent overthrow of the government. So, this becomes a jarring education on the fate of Puerto Rico through her eyes. Yes, when Hurricane Maria happened it was devastating for Puerto Rico and definitely much more should have been done. Still, this part was just hard to read. How could a mother meet her son and not care anything about him and his life. The same with Olga, she does not care at all about her, only asks if she can influence an awful person so she can help the revolution. This really was a bit too much. The book changed so much when I was reading this. Save this for another book.
So, I liked Olga and really wished the best for her. I liked that she has loves family, Matteo, and her community. She is free to choice to run her own life and actually feel some hope and joy. That was the best message the book gave. Plus, it really is a love story to Brooklyn and that was touching. I just think the book went in too many directions.
Thank you NetGalley, Xochitl Gonzalez, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this Audio Book.
November 9, 2021
Everything about this book is more than I could have expected. I didn't know much about it going into the story, but I was caught up in the pages. The characters, the story, the representation all dug right into my heart. Some parts were a bit slow. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the end just yet, but I truly enjoyed this gem.
July 20, 2022
Man this is good shit.
I feel like I've waded through so many bullshit debut novels so I could get to this masterpiece.
It's not perfect, but it is really fucking fantastic.
There is so much going on, but not in a chaotic way. In a life is busy and it doesn't slow down so you focus on one fire. It's a bunch of fires all the time of varying sizes.
1. I loved the conversation about how to deal with colonization in the modern world. For anyone who is from a country whose native lands were repurposed into vacation spots for white people, you're familiar with this ongoing discussion. I felt the author did a great job of representing the major positions. We have the people whose goal it is to assimilate, because when you've been fed that European culture is superior for so long you eventually believe it. We have the people who want to work from within the system of the Oppressor to get them to back down, but are generally only ever able to make incremental improvement. And then you have those like Olga's mom, who are willing to do anything to win the one sided war against an entity who barely acknowledge them.
2. Mateo is a strong example of what cultural appreciation vs appropriation looks like. When he speaks Spanish to Olga it is from a place of love, love for her sure, but also love for his childhood and a community that helped raise him.
3. Olga and her brothers relationship with their mom was so well written. Emotional abuse from a distance. It was frustrating at times as an outsider, but it makes complete sense when you think of the death of their dad, cultural/familial expectations and Catholic guilt.
This book is not for everyone. A lot of people will be uncomfortable with the discussion of racial inequality and others aren't ready to hear that the United States is straight up the villain in some scenarios.
I've read some of the other reviews and the complaints in the low star ones are interesting.
One person said that the issue of gentrification in Brooklyn was more topical ten years ago, as if we stop talking about issues when they are still unresolved just because we've talked about them for a certain amount of time. Temporary interest like this is one of the reasons Flint's water took so long to fix.
I saw in other reviews that they had hoped for more justice in the end. Look I get it, I would love if all rich rapists went to jail, but this isn't Law and Order. A single woman with what some would consider a motive for lying, accusing a wealthy white man of rape wouldn't have even make it to trial, example: Prince Andrew.
I feel like I've waded through so many bullshit debut novels so I could get to this masterpiece.
It's not perfect, but it is really fucking fantastic.
There is so much going on, but not in a chaotic way. In a life is busy and it doesn't slow down so you focus on one fire. It's a bunch of fires all the time of varying sizes.
1. I loved the conversation about how to deal with colonization in the modern world. For anyone who is from a country whose native lands were repurposed into vacation spots for white people, you're familiar with this ongoing discussion. I felt the author did a great job of representing the major positions. We have the people whose goal it is to assimilate, because when you've been fed that European culture is superior for so long you eventually believe it. We have the people who want to work from within the system of the Oppressor to get them to back down, but are generally only ever able to make incremental improvement. And then you have those like Olga's mom, who are willing to do anything to win the one sided war against an entity who barely acknowledge them.
2. Mateo is a strong example of what cultural appreciation vs appropriation looks like. When he speaks Spanish to Olga it is from a place of love, love for her sure, but also love for his childhood and a community that helped raise him.
3. Olga and her brothers relationship with their mom was so well written. Emotional abuse from a distance. It was frustrating at times as an outsider, but it makes complete sense when you think of the death of their dad, cultural/familial expectations and Catholic guilt.
This book is not for everyone. A lot of people will be uncomfortable with the discussion of racial inequality and others aren't ready to hear that the United States is straight up the villain in some scenarios.
I've read some of the other reviews and the complaints in the low star ones are interesting.
One person said that the issue of gentrification in Brooklyn was more topical ten years ago, as if we stop talking about issues when they are still unresolved just because we've talked about them for a certain amount of time. Temporary interest like this is one of the reasons Flint's water took so long to fix.
I saw in other reviews that they had hoped for more justice in the end. Look I get it, I would love if all rich rapists went to jail, but this isn't Law and Order. A single woman with what some would consider a motive for lying, accusing a wealthy white man of rape wouldn't have even make it to trial, example: Prince Andrew.
July 2, 2022
3.5 - An interesting look at both a culture and history I did not know that much about & want to learn more... but this did bog down in spots. The title MC and her brother are well-written, dealing with their maternal abandonment issues and struggling to live their lives authentically. Glad I read this.
March 4, 2022
“.... you’re saving me- all of us- from being washed away. You’ve put down little anchors, even if it’s just a few. Even if we’re just little dinghies floating in this big sea. I didn’t think I could love you more”
“Oh Yeah?” Matteo asked with a smile.
“Or, frankly, find you hotter.”
“Oh Yeah ?”
“Have you ever fucked in the Christmas room ?”
“Girl” he said as he crawled closer, “what we’re doing is making love”.
Nuff said.
“Oh Yeah?” Matteo asked with a smile.
“Or, frankly, find you hotter.”
“Oh Yeah ?”
“Have you ever fucked in the Christmas room ?”
“Girl” he said as he crawled closer, “what we’re doing is making love”.
Nuff said.
May 13, 2021
As a bookseller I look for strong and powerfully driven characters combined with historical content, especially in Puerto Rico. I absolutely LOVED this debut novel. I was instantly drawn from the first chapter and was rooting for Olga throughout. Xochitl's prose is unlike anyone I have ever read and I'm looking for this to this powerful debut to be out in the world. Can't wait to uplift and support this title. Olga Dies Dreaming is my personal and the bookstore's most anticipated novel for 2022. Congratulations Xochitl!
April 12, 2022
this is not a review i have fifty pages left in this i cannot get myself to keep going this has literally been in my cr since november and i just picked it up today to try to finish but i don't even remember the characters so i'm just gonna take my favorite bookmark out of it and be done with it no i'm not proud of myself but i think i remember enjoying it kinda so three stars woowoo
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