4 out of 4 stars
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The Ordinary Life is a book written by Mario Kiefer. It talks about the immigrant family of Corrado and Violeta. Corrado was Italian while Violeta was Mexican. They settled in America and worked hard on the fields. The more the number of children Violeta bore, the better for them as they would have more hands working on the fields, leading to more pay. This was not the case though, as it led to more mouths to feed. One of their granddaughters called Lucia went through psychological abuse and when she married a white man, she did not know that white men beat their wives just like Black men did. With history repeating itself, her two older sons, Julian and Mateo go through psychological and sexual abuse making them struggle with life as they grow into adults.
This book is in the genre of other fiction and has about 310 pages. I found it unique that the titles of the chapters, when read from the first one to the last, form sentences that pass a message. I liked that Lucia’s son, Mateo, always took the beating to protect the ones that he loved. I found this to be an expression of true love. His message was that sometimes you give all that you have to give, and in the taking and giving, so much more is returned.
I was a bit disappointed that Mateo was being blamed for the death of his friend Bradan, yet nowhere in the book are we told how Bradan died. I sympathized with Mateo when he was turned away at Bradan’s funeral. I did not like that Mateo was under so much stress that he engaged in casual sex as a sport for distraction from his everyday existence. The torment he went through in childhood later affected him negatively in adulthood. He gives us the advice that we should leave unnecessary baggage behind and walk light, signifying the shading of unnecessary burdens in life to reduce stress.
I enjoyed reading this book especially where Mateo and Julian give their own stories, some of which are unbeknownst to their family members. I give this book a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. This book has minor grammatical errors that do not detract from the story. I have no reason to rate it lower. The formatting is well done making it an easy read.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a story on how we should not judge a book by its cover. Delve into the book to have a better perception.
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The Ordinary Life
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