L.A. Weather

4.5 This book is under-the-radar brilliant, despite the nod from Reese's book club. The only thing that kept it from 5 stars was my own inability to read the tone - satiric? sarcastic? earnest? The characters are lovable - the Alvarado family in all its foibles and honest failings - but also blissfully un-self-aware in an interesting bubble of embracing causes which they have a bit of personal immunity from. The most authentic character is Lola, the long-time family nanny, starting on another generation of Alvarado privileged kids. But I suspect this is the author's supreme talent: to walk this line and let the reader subtly in on the joke with a wink. The year is 2016 (tip-off right there) and the novel proceeds like a series of show more journal entries that some omniscient observer is keeping. Jan. 10 is the beginning, but also a potential end for the cozy domesticity of this tight-knit family of Oscar, Keila and three grown daughters, Claudia, Olivia and Patricia and their attachments. Olivia's 3-yr. old twins almost drown in Oscar and Keila's decrepit swimming pool and this sets off a chain reaction of re-examining relationships and also coming to terms with challenges the family faces in one monstrous year. This microcosmic unraveling is paralleled in the macrocosm of the country at large, and LA in particular as climate change becomes undeniable and hits close to home. Keila, after 39 years of marriage, asks Oscar for a divorce - he has become a 'zombie' in their relationship, focusing only on the Weather Channel and retreating from all social interactions. The daughters protest, insisting on a trial year to see if the marriage can be saved, and it is severely tested by influences from all sides: Claudia, a famous chef has a health crisis that alters her own marriage and occupation, Olivia, house-flipper/architect, after recovering from her twins' trauma faces her own marriage crisis when Felix her dominant husband insists that their frozen embryos be destroyed. Patricia, brand analyst/influencer, single mother to 12-yr-old Daniel, and inhabitant of her parents' house, faces parenting challenges and fidelity in her unconventional 2 household marriage. Through it all, the sisters are brutally honest with one another, but also unconditionally supportive and that is one of the (many) charms of this story. Keila and Oscar's relationship is also interesting - his zombie state is explained in part by a secret he is keeping which gets to the root of some of their underlying issues. It is a raucous bunch and much of the action takes place over the large family dinner table with delicious sounding meals served with a side of family loyalty that always loves even when it doesn't like. The dated entries move the action along, progressing through a painful year that includes historical details, but more personal ones - much the way our own lives are lived against the backdrop of our times. In all honesty, the personal takes precedence. Most enigmatic, but attuned outside himself is Oscar and his weather watch: "He could not stop thinking that it was this unashamed human encroachment into nature that was causing so much destruction." (79) "He googled the satellite pictures on his phone, recognized the smoke and burn scar on the surface of the Earth....Everyone seemed to be suffering around him, coyotes and mountain lions immolated by raging fires, birds with ignited feathers as they flew their last flight in the red air. The images in his brain killed him with despair." (181) What do you hang onto when your world is falling apart? Normally the answer might be family, but that is on shaky ground here too. Olivia: "She suddenly understood...the weight of her father's worries. Everything hinged on the weather. The way in which Earth spread heat and water all over its skin could save you or kill you, determine where you lived, whether your neighbor's house was spared from fire, but not yours...How many civilizations must have collapsed as a result of the weather? ...Relentlessly watching the Weather Channel was not the behavior of a lunatic....What she'd understood up until then as...an obsession that was jeopardizing her parents' marriage, was really a justified, fine tuned alarm." (213) A great family story with sly humor and social commentary. show less

3.5***

The Alvarado family has always been close-knit. But now the patriarch, Oscar, has retreated and seems to have lost all desire, content to obsessively watch the Weather Channel. His wife, Keila, has had it with Oscar’s moods and has instituted a “Crossed-Legs Strike,” and now at the weekly family dinner, she’s announced to their three adult daughters that their marriage is kaput.

This is a funny, engaging, endearing novel that looks at a year in the life of one affluent Mexican-American family. It starts with a near tragedy and the characters (and reader) hardly have time to recover from that event when yet another crisis looms. The girls have their own issues, and before long everyone in the family is spinning and show more bouncing from issue to issue, like balls in an out-of-balance pinball machine.

Unlike many popular BIPOC novels (and, I love them, too), this one does NOT focus on an immigrant story. No, the Alvarados have been in California since the King of Spain still ruled, and their family was given a land grant to help settle what was then a distant and mostly uninhabited land. And they’ve prospered over many generations.

It’s not really a novel about climate change, but the winds, drought and fires add more tension to the family’s internal strife, and ultimately help them focus on the things they CAN change, rather that what they have no control over. They still make bad decisions, and there is no HEA ending, but I was completely invested in these characters by the end, and I want more! show less

"A house is all about the love you put into it."

QOTD: What was a great escape read for you?

L.A. Weather by Maria Amparo Escandón is the escape read that I greatly needed. It had a telenovela feel without all the cheesiness. It centered a Latinx family, love and the ways they survive and live their daily lives. It featured a lot of social issues and commentary but never felt heavy. I loved that the issues weren't the characters whole identitiy but instead every day things that came up to be dealt with or not. I previously read Escandón's Gonzalez & Daughter Trucking Co. and fell in love with her storytelling. She did not disappoint with this one either. I was totally immersed in the story and in the character's lives. I loved the slow show more pace of this one because it allowed me to get to know each character individually.

I've seen some reviews where people said this one tackled too much but I think that was part of the beauty of the story for me. Latinx families are complicated, issues come up all the time, disasters happen repeatedly and they're expected to tackle all of these things while still being pressured to assimilate to American ideals. One of the things I appreciated about this book was its' ability to show each character's struggles in the greater context of what is happening in the world and while navigating Latinx identity. Latinx people, historically don't just get to "be". They're constantly being brought to the brink and have to figure things out for their families. This was the main strength of the story in showing the ways that families have to sacrifice and solve problems on their own and sustain themselves on love alone.

Family love is the backbone of this story. Love is what motivates them to tackle the next thing that comes along to try to break them. The Alvarados show that with each other, they can take on anything that comes their way. They also show that life is a process of constant change and transformation and how important a support system is through it all. The ending left me hopeful and felt realistic because things don't just stop happening just because you've overcome some problems.

Final Thoughts on this one:
1. Climate change is real and affects marginalized communities the most, especially undocumented farm workers.
2. Divorce is sometimes the only option.
3. Being a child of immigrants comes with a lot of pressure and responsibilities.
4. Queer kids thrive and flourish with family support.
5. Pursuing the American Dream because our ancestors couldn't can create situations where one is perpetrating on harm on their own people.
6. Secrets in families can tear them apart.
7. Chronic illness and near death experiences can shift the trajectory of your life and bring new focus.
8. Marraige is hard, takes work and isn't for everybody.
9. Communication is key for all types of relationships.
10. Leaning on others is hard but the rewards are everything.
11. Normalize mental health and trauma and the ways it shows up later in life. show less

This sounds like the perfect book for me: big family drama, three sisters, a Californian mix of cultures. But the characters are paper-thin and the plot is not a plot--it's a series of events with few causal connections. I saw on Goodreads that many people liked it and I know she is a successful writer, so maybe other books of hers are good. I also saw many readers had the same problems I had and that maybe she had based it on a telenovela. There were short, unnecessary scenes. Exposition-laden dialogue. Obvious epiphanies. Plot lines that went nowhere. Inconsistencies. Implausibilities. I had it on 1.6x speed most of the time so I could get through it because i wanted it to get better. I gave it a tiny boost for describing setting well show more and having good intentions, but oh my. show less

Thank you to Goodreads and Flatiron publishers for this ARC. Rounding up to 3.5 stars.

I really like books about families and this one was no exception. L.A. Weather was not just about the weather but about a family of a Mexican/Jewish family who's choices in marriages were all wrong with almost the parents Keila and Oscar but definitely with Claudia (the oldest) and Gabriel, Felix and Olivia (who had twins), and Patricia (Pats) who had the most unconventional marriage for sure. The weather played a part in in with a secret that noone in the family knew about and now I know why Oscar was so obsessed with the weather. I can relate since I love weather-related things too.

I've never read a book where all three women got divorced in a matter show more of months or so it seems. One sister thought she was doing it to upstage the other (kiddingly of course).

There was of course the question of Olivia's frozen embryos left from after having her twins via IVF. I won't spoil it but I was sort of surprised! show less

Good family drama with a variety of interesting relationships but the end was very political and it didn't really need it. overall I think I could have skipped it.

Good character exploration, but the circumstance felt too unrealistic.