A Good Provider is One Who Leaves by Jason DeParle

A GOOD PROVIDER IS ONE WHO LEAVES by Jason DeParle is a non-fiction work that deals with “One Family and Migration in the 21st Century.” DeParle, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, builds on his decades long acquaintance with Tita Comodas to tell her family’s story of life in the Philippines and assimilation by her daughter (Rosalie) and grandchildren in the United States.  He was able to immerse himself in their experience – recently (beginning in 2012) following shifts at work, observing the children in classrooms and having nearly daily contact for a few years. DeParle says, “[the family’s] experiences across three generations can only be understood as part of a broader epoch of migration that is transforming much of the world.” 

In an accessible and engaging manner, he splits the book into two parts: There and Here, combining anecdotes about Rosalie’s becoming a nurse in the Philippines (and working in Saudi Arabia and UAE before moving to Texas) with immigration facts and context. Roughly fifteen percent of DeParle’s book is devoted to extensive notes and a helpful index. The facts that he relates in the prologue alone are pretty amazing: consider that one in four children in the United States is an immigrant or a child of one; or that there are 258 million migrants around the world, assuming an equal size (if not bigger) population back home that they support, this group of half a billion would together form the world’s third largest country. DeParle writes, “my own light bulb moment came in learning that remittances – the sums migrants send home – are three times the world’s foreign aid budgets combined.”  A GOOD PROVIDER IS ONE WHO LEAVES received starred reviews from Booklist (“family story [that] will captivate YAs interested in immigration and globalization”), Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. For more of his observations follow the link to an interview on NPR.

Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik

SONG OF A CAPTIVE BIRD by Jasmin Darznik received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. This debut novel definitely deserves attention and it will entertain, shock, and inform readers about the history of Iran and about the life of controversial poet Forugh Farrokhzad. Darznik herself was born in Tehran and uses Farrokhzad’s writings, films and interviews to illustrate her feminist spirit in this fictionalized account.  Farrokhzad’s loneliness and rebellious nature in the face of an oppressive society are evident throughout the book:  “‘Besooz o bezaaz’ went the timeworn injunction to brides.  Burn inwardly and accommodate.  If I told anyone my troubles, I would have been met with exactly this phrase.” Ultimately, Farrokhzad’s story is both sad and hopeful:

A day will come when your eyes

will smart at this painful song.

You’ll search for me in my words

And tell yourself: my mother,

That’s who she was.

                -from “A Poem for You”

     (Dedicated to my son, Kamyar, with hopes for the future)

Although Farrokhzad died young (just 32) in a car accident in 1967, her writing lives on and was banned in Iran for at least 10 years after the 1979 Revolution. SONG OF A CAPTIVE BIRD could be a very interesting book group title (publisher’s reading guide), especially given its feminist theme and many connections to other cultures and works like the poetry of Sylvia Plath and the current day Landays of Afghanistan.

Driving by Starlight by Anat Deracine

DRIVING BY STARLIGHT by Anat Deracine is set in modern day Saudi Arabia and revolves around life for young women there. The author herself grew up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia although her university studies were in England and the US where she now lives. Deracine is very effective in conveying the oppressiveness of the patriarchal society while also introducing characters who hold a variety of views regarding religious rules and their enforcement. She raised many questions for me and my biggest reaction to DRIVING BY STARLIGHT was wishing that I could talk about this title to someone (like the characters Leena or her friend Mishail) who had actually lived the experience.

DRIVING BY STARLIGHT, with its beautiful cover, is an emotional, suspenseful story that received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.  Its lexile is a relatively low 860 and I think this would make for a very interesting choice for literature circles, particularly if it could be paired with a non-fiction work like Daring to Drive. Deracine (a pseudonym) refers to the efforts to secure the right to drive for women in Saudi Arabia and raises many other questions about women’s rights and the complexity of resistance. Some of these have been reflected in a recent Vanity Fair article as well as in this New York Times editorial.

If there is interest in exploring other cultures and diverse books, another option would perhaps be to pair DRIVING BY STARLIGHT with the graphic novel titled Dare to Disappoint by Özge Samancı about growing up in Turkey.