Belong to Me
by Marisa de los Santos
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Book Reviews of Belong to Me
Book Review: The connections between some of the characters are a bit too contrived; the emotional transformations, sometimes a bit too neat
Summary: 3 Stars
When readers first meet Cornelia Brown, one of three protagonists in Marisa de los Santos's second novel, BELONG TO ME, it seems that her tale will be one of trading an exciting life in the big city for a quiet one in the suburbs. But what unfolds is much more complex and interesting.
Cornelia and her husband Teo have just moved from New York to a sleepy, upper-class Philadelphia suburb, and she's having a bit of trouble fitting in. She misses the pace, creativity and intellectual stimulation of the city and finds little in common with the other women, wives of professional men, she comes into contact with. She's particularly put off by her snotty neighbor, Piper Truitt. But when she meets the eccentric Lake, a single mom also new to town, she has hope that a solid friendship is developing.
Piper is a stereotypical affluent WASP ice princess. But, in de los Santos's able hands, she undergoes a radical yet mostly believable transformation. Piper and her husband Kyle are the alpha couple of the community. Piper is a mother of two, overly concerned with propriety and appearance. She is most at ease when caring for her kids and spending time with her best friend Elizabeth. When Elizabeth is diagnosed with cancer, Piper's world begins to crumble, but through the illness, she rebuilds it into one more genuine and compassionate. As all of her energy goes into caring for Elizabeth, she finds herself distanced from Kyle and her previous petty concerns and becoming close with Cornelia, the neighbor she once dismissed. Elizabeth's illness challenges Piper to change and to learn to accept not only other people but her true self as well.
Meanwhile, young Dev, a kind-hearted genius preoccupied with String Theory and poetry, is faced with his own set of challenges. Recently uprooted from his hometown after a disastrous seventh grade year, he finds himself at a new school in a new town and finally feeling happy and comfortable. Still, he wonders why his mother chose this location. Could it have something to do with the father he never knew? With the help of friends Aiden and Lyssa and first girlfriend Clare, he starts to put together the missing pieces of his life that, while exciting, unravels the carefully woven lies his mother has told him all along.
The stories of Cornelia, Piper and Dev intersect in a number of compelling ways, resulting in some good plot developments. Yet, overall, this is a character-driven novel, and it is the inner lives of the three main figures that make it such a page-turner. Cornelia's portions are written in first-person narration while those of Piper and Dev are told in third person. Her shift in perspectives is successful because the tone and pace remain consistent, and each character has a worthwhile and unique point of view. The secondary characters --- Elizabeth, Dev's friends, Teo and Cornelia's brother --- are all given just the right amount of attention, adding to and not distracting from the story.
Readers may be familiar with Cornelia, Clare and Teo from de los Santos's debut novel, LOVE WALKED IN, but BELONG TO ME stands on its own well. While the connections between some of the characters are a bit too contrived and the emotional transformations are sometimes a bit too neat, the writing is enjoyable enough and the themes of belonging, friendship and love challenged by secrets and change are universal enough to make this a recommendable title.
--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
Book Review: From S. Krishna's Books
Summary: 5 Stars
Belong to Me picks up the story of Cornelia Brown from de los Santos's debut bestseller Love Walked In, a book that is still on The New York Times paperback list. The book opens with Cornelia and Teo's recent move to the suburbs, where Cornelia is finding that it may be harder for her to fit in than she first believed. She has several run-ins with the local queen bee, Piper, who takes an instant dislike to Cornelia. But Piper is not as heartless as she first appears - her best friend, Elizabeth, is dying of cancer, and Piper feels like she's dying right along with her. Then there's Dev, an incredibly intelligent, sweet thirteen-year-old who has just relocated from California along with his mother, Lake, who quickly becomes friends with Cornelia. Belong to Me is the story of how these lives intertwine and how trusting someone unexpectedly can lead to great things (and conversely, how lying to someone can lead to ruin).
The most appealing characteristic of de los Santos's writing is its sheer beauty. She was originally a poet, which explains how she can string together such compellingly gorgeous sentences. Even if the subject of the story was horrid, merely her writing would make anything worth reading. Luckily, the story of Belong to Me lives up to the splendor of de los Santos's writing style.
Though many of the characters in Belong to Me were introduced in de los Santos' previous novel, it is not necessary to read Love Walked In first (though I highly recommend it, just for sheer enjoyment). They are two, separate parts of a complete whole. However, reading Love Walked In first does give further depth to Cornelia, Teo, and Clare, if only to be able to see how Cornelia has grown up so much yet stayed exactly the same. This is an accomplishment that seems effortless to de los Santos, and it is repeated throughout Belong to Me. The characters are written superbly and they draw you in from the second you open the novel. The fact that it is told from three different viewpoints (Cornelia, Piper, and Dev) only adds to the pleasure of reading the book. In many cases, when a book is told from multiple perspectives, it seems that at least one is inferior to the others. By the end of the book, the reader dreads these particular perspectives and races through them in order to get to the more interesting stories. However, that is not the case in Belong to Me. Each perspective is unique and interesting, and while the reader may pick a definite favorite (in my case, Cornelia because I am biased by Love Walked In), all three are a delight to read.
The difficult thing about Belong to Me is where to put it with regards to genre. Obviously, it is fiction. But what about subcategories? The most obvious would be chick lit. However, I would argue that Belong to Me runs a deeper than the typical chick lit book. It isn't really women's fiction either. Though the readers of Belong to Me will likely be overwhelmingly female, I would think that a man could pick up this book and be as delighted with it as any woman. Marisa de los Santos' appeal is universal - it is too difficult to define by any genre limits.
In the end, Belong to Me is a story about the connections between people. Why do we connect with some, yet shut ourselves off for others? And why do we seem to depend on the people we least expect? It's all about reaching out to others, trust, love, and what it really means to belong.
Book Review: Well-written but too contrived, boring plot
Summary: 2 Stars
Another current fiction bestseller that I picked up at the library in my attempt to keep up with what's hot in the bookstores at the moment. The author is new to me, as she may be to many, but she's a skilled writer. Unfortunately, her talent did not successfully trump the complete disinterest I had in the story and any of its characters.
The synopsis sounded good, certainly. From Amazon.com: Everyone has secrets. Some we keep to protect ourselves, others we keep to protect those we love. A devoted city dweller, Cornelia Brown surprised no one more than herself when she was gripped by the sudden, inescapable desire to leave urban life behind and head for an idyllic suburb. Though she knows she and her beloved husband, Teo, have made the right move, she approaches her new life with trepidation and struggles to forge friendships in her new home. Cornelia's mettle is quickly tested by judgmental neighbor Piper Truitt. Perfectly manicured, impeccably dressed, and possessing impossible standards, Piper is the embodiment of everything Cornelia feared she would find in suburbia. A saving grace soon appears in the form of Lake, a warm yet elusive woman who is also a recent arrival in town. As their individual stories unfold, the women become entangled in a web of trust, betrayal, love, and loss that challenges them in ways they never imagined, and that ultimately teaches them what it means for one human being to belong to another.
Much of the story is told in first-person narrative by Cornelia, alternating with third-person views from Piper and Dev, Lake's 14-year old `gifted' son. Piper, ironically, was the only one I actually liked. I was turned off by both Cornelia's and Dev's overly-witty tones and attempts at sardonic humor. With every line, I felt as if the the author were really writing "Aren't you amazed by my incredibly clever dialogue? Aren't I fresh and smart and cutting edge?" It was just so overdone, so early on, that I couldn't get past the sheer phoniness of it.
I also disliked the story itself, and thought the ending really stank. How banal and syrupy can you get?
There were some great literary moments, though, almost always told during Piper's narrative (she should have stuck with Piper's `voice' the whole way through, in my opinion), when what you read and what you see in your mind's eye mesh with perfect clarity: "It seemed impossible that you could stand in a kitchen making hot chocolate and grilled-cheese sandwiches with your best friend dying in the next room, the voices of her children tangled up with the voices of your own, that you could butter bread and watch, through the window, the trees relinquishing their leaves and hear the silvery tumble of water into a kettle, and be suddenly aware that what resided at the heart of every shape and sound was peace. A rightness hovering above all that was wrong, shimmering, like heat rising from a street in summer."
I did try to like it. I SHOULD have liked it. It's likeable! Everyone else will probably love it. I would not be opposed to reading something else by this author, just out of sheer appreciation for her writing skill. If she could tone down the constructed cleverness a little and tell a completely different kind of story, I'd love it. We'll see what she does next.
Book Review: This One Is Fun
Summary: 5 Stars
Three or four times a year, despite the odds against it happening, I end up really enjoying a book that in theory just should not have worked for me at all. Belong to Me was one of those books, the first one in that category this year, in fact. Two words sum up the reluctance I had about reading the book: Chick Lit. The book synopsis screamed "Chick Lit" to me loudly and clearly but the novel seemed to have such a good word-of-mouth buzz going that I took a second look at it. And, yes, it probably is Chick Lit, but at the same time it is the kind of novel that will appeal to readers of both sexes.
This is a book about relationships and what holds them together. It is about parents and children, husbands and wives, old friends and new friends, and the ever changing combinations that evolve from those relationships. It asks whether or not a person can ever really "belong" to another and whether it is selfish to expect that of anyone. It is a character-driven novel filled with enough interesting and quirky people to keep the reader turning pages until its gradually developing plotline reaches the point of making it impossible to put the book down. It is, in other words, a very good book.
Cornelia and Teo, her physician husband, have moved from New York City to a quiet Philadelphia suburb that reminds them of the neighborhood in which they spent their childhoods. The young couple might be a little wary of the lifestyle change they are making, but they want, and expect, to fit neatly into their new neighborhood. Cornelia, though, learns almost immediately that it won't come easy for them when she meets Piper (rhymes with viper), the Queen of the Neighborhood, who doesn't bother with much tact when explicitly pointing out to Cornelia what is expected of any neighbor of hers.
Lake Tremain and her son, Dev, enter the picture just in time to throw Cornelia a lifeline when she needs it most. The two have moved from California so that Dev can attend a prestigious high school while his mother tries to make ends meet by working as a waitress. Lake and Cornelia quickly become friends, giving Cornelia the ally she needs when it comes to dealing with Piper the Viper.
Dev is one of those characters I will remember for a long time. He's a fifteen-year old genius with a great sense of humor and an even greater sense of ethics and morality. I really liked this kid and was happy to see him emerge as one of the book's main characters. But this book is simply filled with likable characters, among them Dev's new girlfriend, Claire, an almost perfect, but not trouble free, match for him. Even Piper, a character whose first impression was far from positive, evolved into someone I could respect and like by the end of the story.
Belong to Me is a sequel to Love Walked In but I am proof that it is not necessary to read that one first. I believed that I was reading a standalone novel the whole time and had no idea that many of its characters had been introduced in an earlier book until after I finished it. This one was fun, a nice change-of-pace for someone like me who came to it so reluctantly.
Book Review: Great Storyline and Great Writing in This Book
Summary: 5 Stars
A refugee from intellectual city living, Cornelia Brown is the explorer of a new terrain: the burbs. She believes that her own wits and childhood environment have prepared her to live among the families who occupy its picturesque streets. However, as the book opens with her first cocktail party, Cornelia learns that settling in to her new life is not going to be as easy as she thinks; clearly, this is a foreshadowing of things to come. Her neighbor (the leader of the suburban pack) Piper quickly puts Cornelia in her place, although Cornelia is not sure just what that "place" is.
Thus begins the charming tale author Marisa de los Santos has presented in her second book, "Belong to Me." Thankfully, unlike many second novels from authors who have had a successful first book, readers can pick up and enjoy this book without knowing anything about de los Santos or the characters who inhabited her first novel. The joy from the beginning to the end of this story is complete unto itself, without history or explanation. De los Santos's strong characters and lyrical writing engage from the first pages and hold the reader's interest to the end.
Caught up in their own dramas, the women who inhabit the pages of "Belong to Me" are smart, tough, and sometimes catty. Their world encompasses the joys and pain of child-rearing, infidelity, and cancer, as well as the need to present a perfect image to the outside world. The glue that holds them together--as well as the story itself--is the human connection, the ability to reach out to a helping hand when things look most bleak.
This might sound like just another volume in the chick lit genre, but what de los Santos brings to her writing that takes this up a step is her beautiful phrasing. Pick up the book and open to any page. Somewhere therein, the reader will find some emotion or scene so beautifully described that it can only be placed in the realm of serious writers, of "literature."
This is really little surprise, given the author's vocation as poet, with a PhD in creative writing. All that study and writing practice by de los Santos has been carefully enfolded into a very compelling storyline in "Belong to Me." Without being distracted by her beautiful prose, she instead takes her (ok, largely female) audience on a lively journey that makes reading this book hard to put down, using her descriptions merely as enchantment along the way. She grounds her characters and stories in the foibles of daily life, never losing the central storyline despite her talent for turning a phrase.
In the end, "Belong to Me" is a great book because of its solid storytelling. It stands alone with its vulnerability and virtue, and it's likely that readers everywhere are going to be hearing a lot more about Marisa de los Santos.
Christine Zibas, Book Pleasures