Who Am I?

Bela Monteiro's father moved with his wife and children to Angola from Cabo Verde sometime in the 1960s. While his wife was away caring for one of their children who had been in a serious car accident, papa Monteiro fathered Bela with the maid's daughter. When his mistress again became pregnant, he convinced her that he should take two year old Bela with him to Cabo Verde to escape the conflict that was happening in Angola, and that he would send for her and their second child when he could; unsurprisingly, he never sent word.

Monteiro's later life contained much the same drama as her infancy: her stepmother wanted nothing to do with her, so she spent a large chunk of her childhood with an aunt; a neighbor molested her when she was nine; show more her stepmother eventually decided to allow Bela into her home, but the family had moved to the US by then, so young Bela was uprooted from the only home she had known to be flown halfway across the world. The family lived in Brockton, Massachusetts which is home to a large community of Cabo Verdean expats, so Monteiro was able to acclimate relatively well; unfortunately, she also acquired a string of bad boyfriends, was involved in a motorcycle accident, and tried to kill herself at least twice.

So, this was a short read full of much misery with some moments of joy thrown in. I wish I could say that it is well-written, but it is not. Monteiro is really bad with dates so I was never sure when something was happening, she jumps around so I was never sure where something was happening, and she would often start talking about people she had never mentioned before as if the reader was already intimately acquainted with them. I'm sorry for Monteiro's suffering and glad she has found happiness, but I really wish she had found someone who wasn't a friend to read her manuscript before she decided to self-publish it. show less