Roots and Wings (review)

Pittsburgh has been Grace's lifelong home, but when her grandmother dies, she and her mother decide they must take her ashes back to Florida. St. Petersburg is home to the Cambodian community in which Grandma had made her American home and raised Grace's mother, and it's where she'll have her Cambodian funeral and finally rest in peace; Grace is also hoping she'll finally manage to meet her father, whose identity her mother has never revealed. St. Petersburg introduces Grace to an intense, close-knit Cambodian world the like of which she's never known, and she gets perspective on all of her family that helps her find her own peace with her mother and her grandmother's memory. Ly, author of Home Is East (BCCB 10/05), draws a vivid picture of a small family that's been close yet uncomprehending of one another, wherein love, loyalty, and yearning can quickly break three into two against one or a trio of solitary individuals. The book capably blends the universal story of a daughter seeking individuation from a strong-minded mother with a more culturally specific tale, with "during Pol Pot" the turning-point time for all in the older Cambodian generation, and their American-grown daughters and granddaughters searching to find their own relationship with Cambodian tradition. This rich and interesting story is marred by slow and sometimes turgid storytelling, with shifts between past and present further undercutting the immediacy, and since Grace is actually less vivid a character than her mother and grandmother, it's a challenge to find an emotional connection with her experience. Nonetheless, teens from all kinds of backgrounds will relate to the challenge of understanding puzzling family history, and they'll be glad to see Grace building a new relationship with her mother and gaining a deeper sense of herself.