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    Hard Red Spring
    Hard Red Spring
    Hard Red Spring
    Audiobook20 hours

    Hard Red Spring

    Written by Kelly Kerney

    Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    An ambitious and unforgettable epic novel that spans a hundred years of Guatemala's tumultuous history as experienced by four American women who are linked by the mysterious disappearance of a little girl In 1902, a young girl watches her family's life destroyed by corrupt officials and inscrutable natives. In 1954, the wife of the American ambassador becomes trapped in the intrigue of a cold war love affair. In 1983, an evangelical missionary discovers that the Good News may not be good news at all to the Mayan refugees she hopes to save. And in 1999, the mother of an adopted Mayan daughter embarks on a Roots Tour only to find that the history she seeks is not safely in the past. Kelly Kerney's novel tells a powerful story that draws on the history of Guatemala and the legacy of American intervention to vividly evoke The Land of Eternal Spring in all its promise and all its devastating failures. This is a place where a volcano erupts and the government sends a band to drown out the sound of destruction; where a government decree reverses the direction of one-way streets; a president decides that Pat Robertson and Jesus will save the country; and where a UN commission is needed to determine the truth. A heartrending and masterfully written look at a country in perpetual turmoil, Hard Red Spring brilliantly reveals how the brutal realities of history play out in the lives of individuals and reveals Guatemala in a manner reminiscent of the groundbreaking memoir I, Rigoberta Menchu.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 29, 2016
    ISBN9781501916021
    Hard Red Spring

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    • 3/5
      "I’ve always thought that fiction was the way to approach Guatemala. You see, there are more lies than truth in the history of that little country."The above quote, buried deep within the pages of her novel, gives readers a sense of what author Kelly Kerney had in mind when she wrote this book. Hard Red Spring is an ambitious historical novel covering one-hundred years of American intervention in Guatemalan affairs. It begins with a volcanic eruption that, by presidential decree, did not happen and ends with the genocidal killing of as many as 200 thousand indigenous people which also, if the Rev. Pat Robertson is to be believed, did not happen. The ‘novel’ part of the story consists of four long sections, each featuring American women who have traveled to Guatemala for one reason or another and who seem bound together by a shared sense of instability. Six year-old Evie, daughter of would-be cochineal farmers in 1902, struggles to understand a world which, figuratively and literally is blowing up around her. In 1954, Dorie fears her life is spinning out of control while her ambassador husband grows increasingly distant. In 1982, Lenore responds to a call for missionaries only to find a world vastly different than what she had been lead to expect. And in 1999, Jean travels with her war-orphan daughter back to the land of her birth in an attempt to help her learn her place in the world. I am in awe of the amount of research that Ms. Kerney must have done in writing this book. Every page shows an intimate understanding of Guatemala and her history that can only come from personal experience and an abiding passion for the subject. Sadly, the story collapses under the weight of the historical detail. It is clear that Kerney’s main objective in writing the story was to inform readers of the tragic events that have been going on in Guatemala but when you add too much information, the story stops being a story and starts to become a lecture. At one point, under the guise of a college class lecture, Kersey slyly inserts several pages taken verbatim from a United Nations atrocities report, only occasionally throwing in references to classroom noises to maintain the illusion of fiction. On a personal note, I have been to Guatemala and I cannot fault her description of it at all. Granted, I was there before the worst years of the war and I found Xela to be a beautiful city that went out it its way to make visitors welcome. Guatemala City on the other hand, was much different. I recall entering it in a bus full of laughing and happy college students. By the time we reached the city center, all joy had drained out of us and we sat silently looking out the windows. It isn’t that he city looks any different than other cities we had visited. It just exuded an aura that was as cold and soulless as greed and corruption could make it. None of us felt safe for a minute until the city was far behind us. Bottom line: If you are interested in learning about what has happened in Guatemala in the last 100 years, this is a very informative book. I found the information about Pat Robertson’s Operation: International Love Lift, a counterinsurgency program funded by contributions solicited from viewers of The 700 Club, particularly fascinating. For a novel, though, this is a pretty tough read. I give this book two of two stars for the research but only one for the story. *Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending. *1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.