Jude cautiously rebuilds his life in Seattle, becoming an accomplished pianist, but his his wings have been clipped and he cannot seem to soar in his relationships. Only family remains a constant source of strength and joy, until a DNA test reveals something that shocks all the Tholets: Jude is not their child.
Stunned by the test results, the Tholets must dig into their painful past, re-examine their lives in 1973 Santiago and the events surrounding Jude's birth story. It’s a tale rooted in South America’s Operation Condor. It spreads through Pinochet’s terrifying regime of detention camps, torture, disappeared civilians and stolen children. The journey forces Penny Tholet to confront the gaps in her memory while Cleon must re-live an ordeal he’s long kept hidden away in a secret world. The tale ends with Jude digging through his genetic code in a quest to find his biological parents. Are they alive?
Or are they among Los Desaparecidos—the Disappeared Ones? Suanne Laqueur’s third book in the Venery series explores the desperate acts of love made in times of war, and the many ways family can be defined.
Disclaimer: I'm not going to be able to do this book justice with this review.
I went in warily since reviews were mixed and my own past experiences with this author have been uneven. To be perfectly frank, Ms. Laqueur has a penchant for penning painful books that tend to wring me out emotionally so I've learned to gird my loins. Her writing is some of the best there is, lyrical at times and evocative to the very end.
Why are these women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
Their faces fixed like stone?
I can't see what it is they despise
Dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
Dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone
A Scarcity of Condors was no different than the previous two books in this series in that regard but this one carved out a special place in my heart and maybe, just maybe, turned me into a fan. No one was more surprised by this development than I since not only is this not a romance but it also delves deep into a very painful period in Chile's history filled with rape, genocide and unimaginable tortures during the reign of Pinochet.
So, you can imagine my surprise when I found myself not just engrossed, not just unable to put it down but moved to tears more than once usually over fairly innocuous exchanges between the characters.
These characters are exceptionally crafted and without that the whole thing would've fallen apart. The Tholets share the spotlight in A Scarcity of Condors. Penny and Cleón, the matriarch and patriarch of the family survived Operation Condor and fled to Canada with Jude in 1973 only to see their first born, Jude, survive a vile act of homophobia in high school forcing the Tholets to flee yet again to the U.S.
The narrative bounces around in time explaining their collective pasts, stirring into the mix the delightful and unflappable Serena Tholet, sister extraordinaire, as well as Tej Khoury. Tej is audacious and irresistible. He and Jude crash into each other and choose to stay crushed. Their chemistry is undeniable and I enjoyed their angst-free, genuine and heartfelt evolution from first-time into forever.
So there are romantic elements but by and large A Scarcity of Condors is a tour de force ensemble fiction that not only kicks over the rocks of humanity to examine the ugly underbelly but obliterates them. Ms. Laqueur rarely shies away from the darkness that exists in the human psyche but here she deftly paired it, again and again, with the triumphs over said darkness especially through reliance on family, however that may be defined or redefined, as it were.
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
~Sting
The Tholets were woven into the Venery thread seamlessly, like they'd been there all along and that too touched me. I'm even hopeful there will be another book forthcoming in this series. Technically this book could probably be read as a stand-alone but I don't think it will resonate as much without having read the previous two but especially An Exaltation of Larks, where the Pinochet storyline was introduced. In many ways, this seems like a venerable love letter to Chileans, particularly those that were disappeared.
If you're looking for a read that will dig its claws into you and not let go, look no further.
A copy was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you. Thank you. And again, thank you.
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