Belong to Me

I think this book will be percolating in my head for a long time. Belong To Me is beautifully written, and is one of the best approaches I've seen to a multi-perspective story. Especially in the early chapters, de los Santos gives such keenly insightful glimpses into how women relate to each other and see themselves, and how guardedly they dip their toes into trust and friendship that it's almost uncomfortable to read. In the end, though, her reflections on family and love and the sometimes serendipitous-seeming miracle of how people come to belong to us (and vice versa) were very moving. Also, it's just a great story!

I adored this book. This book may be about love, but I should clarify: it definitely is not a “chick book.” The writing is exuberantly intelligent, outrageously perceptive, witty, touching, and sometimes even revelatory.

Cornelia and Teo Sandoval move from the city to a moderately wealthy suburb whose inhabitants have a “country club mentality” about the acceptability of appearances, norms, and behavior. Even though Teo is an oncologist, and thus has a proper social status, and has gorgeous eyes and a sexy grin to cover up any lapses from propriety (the rules for which in any event apply less to men than to women), Cornelia follows her own drummer, and is at first a pariah because of it.

At their first social dinner, for example, show more Cornelia wore what she thought was an “entirely appropriate” dress and high-heeled sandals. As soon as she entered the gathering, she saw it was all wrong:

"In fact, as far as I could tell, any dress would’ve been wrong because Megan and every single other woman in the room was wearing pants. Linen pants. Linen pants with sleeveless silk blouses or cotton sweaters. It was a pastel-colored prairie of linen pants and sleeveless tops, stretching in every direction as far as the eye could see.”

What was hilarious about the book is that the next thing you know, you’re hearing a description of the party from Cornelia’s snobby neighbor, Piper:

"Piper had told Elizabeth about the cocktail party, about Cornelia’s ludicrously skimpy black dress and … four-inch-high ‘do-me’ shoes. ‘Fuck-me’ is what she’d meant, but Piper only ever swore in her head. If she had been being completely honest, she’d have to retract the bit about the shoes. Yes, they were high, but they were understated enough in other ways, little pale gold sandals with thin straps. But Piper could tweak a detail here and there if she felt like it, couldn’t she? She wasn’t a reporter for the New York Times, was she?”

The book is full of such wickedly funny satirical observations about this social group, and yet, even they turn out not to be the one-dimensional Stepford people they appear to be at first.

One theme that runs through the novel – the social implications of Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest – plays out in a way perhaps best expressed by Cornelia’s academically-inclined sister Ollie:

"…as I see it, the problem with you, Cornelia, is that, in managing the stressors in your new environment, you’re relying on the ‘fight-or-flight’ response, a biobehavioral pattern that was long assumed to apply to both men and women. The new and well-supported thinking on this subject suggests that, in fact, women more readily and effectively cope with stress through ‘tend-and-befriend’ behavior, which, like most behaviors, is undoubtedly the result of evolutionary pressures.”

Cornelia thinks she has found a friend in Lake, a smart and articulate waitress with a very gifted 13-year old son, Dev. But Lake pulls away from Cornelia out of the blue. Just as oddly, Piper gravitates toward her. And when Cornelia and Teo’s “surrogate” daughter Clare arrives for a visit, Dev forms a bond with Clare that transcends time and distance and all social barriers.

The relationships among all of the characters become extremely complex in unexpected ways as they all get to know each other better. “How cool,” Dev says at one point, “to be someone’s there.” To belong together. It’s something everyone in this story wants. But it doesn’t always come easily; it takes work, and compassion, even (and especially) for oneself.

Discussion: I love the way the author plays with perceptions, showing us that one person's "cute black dress" is another person's nightmare. Or this wonderful insight about the egocentric nature of our perceptions writ large made by Dev, when he is talking about Darwin in school:

"Well, you can sort of see how people might think that humans are the pinnacle of evolution because we have high reasoning and creativity and supercomplex brains. I think a lot of people think that, in fact. ... [But] It's not about us. We think we're the center of everything because we're smarter than other animals, but even that's not fair because we invented the whole idea of 'smart' and we decided smart means the thing that we are. When you think about it, whales are smarter than we are when it comes to surviving in the deep ocean, right?"

...Which is all to say that you can hardly find a more entertaining metaphorical treatment of the process of evolution and survival of the fittest than this novel. And yet, you don't even have to be aware of that aspect of it to love it for its lively, witty prose that is nevertheless steeped in compassion for the human condition.

Evaluation: There is so much good about this book. There isn’t one character I wasn’t in love with by the end of the book. In a guest post that the author did, she wrote about one of Dev’s friends Lyssa: “After all, the OCD was not all that defined Lyssa. She is bossy, judgmental, funny, sarcastic, lonely.” I felt (with delight) that this description could easily fit most of the characters. This story examines almost every permutation you can imagine of the interrelationships between friends, enemies, and lovers. Highly recommended!

BUT!!!! I have to tell you, there is a prequel, which I didn't know before reading this book. (GAAAAAAH) And I loved this author's writing so much, that without having read the prequel, I recommend you read the prequel first. That way, you won't have to suffer the angst of loving the book and the author but feeling too OCD-bizarro about going backwards in the series. show less

When I learned that Belong to Me was a continuation of Cornelia Brown’s story from Love Walked In I knew I had to read it, but I wondered if Marisa de los Santos could do it again: could make me feel so full, so satisfied, so in love with her beautiful writing and wonderful characters. Well, she did not disappoint. I would have been happy if Belong to Me was 1,000 pages or went on forever so I would never have to leave this marvelous world the author has created. Old favorite characters were back, new ones introduced. Once again I was surprised by the behavior of some characters and had my faith in others validated. The setting and atmosphere made me feel I was part of the story, and there was just enough uncertainty and surprise in show more the plot to keep my interest until the very last page. Another very satisfying read from Marisa de los Santos that I highly recommend. show less

Originally posted on A Reader of Fictions.

Though, for some reason, Belong to Me is treated as a standalone, it's really not. I'm not sure why the publisher decided not to market them as a series, since they are directly linked. Oh well. I read the first book, Love Walked In, a few years ago, and I was really impressed. Ever since, I've recommended it to people, but, with my memory and the way my taste in books can change and grow over time, I wondered if it was really as good as I remember it being. Well, if Belong to Me is any sort of reliable indicator, then yes. I highly recommend reading Love Walked In first, then moving to Belong to Me.

All the same characters from Love Walked In are back. On the surface, de los Santos' books look show more like chick lit, like girly, light, fluff books, at least that's what I get from the covers and the titles. While her books do, admittedly, have way more female appeal, I would in no way mark them as 'chick lit,' though the boundaries between 'chick lit' and 'women's fiction' and 'literary fiction' are hazy to me at best. De los Santos' novels are packed full of emotion and wit and hope, and are incredibly beautifully written. There are authors whose prose I just glory in, immersing myself in their words as though they were the perfect temperature pool, and de los Santos belongs on that list.

Belong to Me may be a bit of a cheesy title, but it speaks directly to the main thrust of the novel: belonging. Each of the main characters struggle with finding a place to belong, and, perhaps even more, with finding a place where they belong that doesn't fit their initial expectations. These themes move me so much, because, really, aren't we all looking for that place where we belong, that person that makes us feel at home wherever we are? This is one of those books that makes me want to believe so hard that happy endings are possible, not so much because 'true love' is real, but because a more basic, more enduring, more real love is out there and that people will work to preserve it.

De los Santos writes from multiple perspectives, a common, though still daring, writerly move. Not only that, but she writes with one first person perspective and the others in third person limited. In both books, the reader lives in Cornelia's head, follows her around in first person, feels directly with her. In Love Walked In, the other perspective is that of Clare, a girl whose connection to Cornelia is not immediately apparent. In Belong to Me, we have Cornelia's and two more: Piper, the queen bee of Cornelia and Teo's new suburban neighborhood, and Dev, a brilliant young teen.

Cornelia and Teo have just moved into a house in the suburbs for his new job. She's a city girl, and doesn't like the sniping of the local women; she feels lost without friends, without the buzzing of the city. I may be biased by the storytelling methods, but Cornelia is my favorite character. In fact, for the first hundred pages or so, my mind wandered a bit when the story went to the other perspectives, because I just didn't care as much about the others. A wholly forthright person, she protects people, loves poetry and sometimes lets her temper get the better of her. Cornelia has a unique way of phrasing thing and a brutal honesty about the selfishness of her emotions that makes me relate to her so much.

I hated Piper so much at first. You're supposed to, of course, but that doesn't make her any less awful. She's one of those people: perky, bitchy, obsessed with being the best, etc. As I read her perspective, I just kept fantasizing about stabbing her with a nail file. Then, though, she changed, rather suddenly, but not unbelievably. Her very best friend, possibly her only true friend, is dying of cancer. She throws herself into caring for Elizabeth, and, for the first time in her life almost, gives no thought to her image. Her struggle is to discover that she doesn't belong where she thought she did, as the queen of society, but as a person with wants and desires, even if they don't make her popular. It's amazing to me that de los Santos made me care for her character.

One of my very favorite over-used characters is the genius child. Yeah, I know there are far more genius children in fiction than in real life, but I just don't care. If I have to read about children, they damn well ought to be clever. Dev fits that perfectly. He has such a thirst for knowledge, about poetry, string theory, friendship, and his father, who he doesn't know. His mother left his father because she knew he couldn't take care of the baby, but Dev resents the man for not coming to find him, while also hating himself for still clinging to that fantasy.

So, yes, the characters are marvelous. You know what's even better? Their relationships with one another. It's one thing to have great characters, and another thing entirely to make their friendships and romances ring authentic and awkward and painful and true, but de los Santos hits those notes just right. I'm not a big crier, but my eyes did get a bit teary, both from sadness and happiness, more than once. Friendship isn't often enough of a focus, but each of these characters have friends who feel real, and who will have their backs.

The one last thing I feel that I must say about this novel before I wrap the review: de los Santos surprised me. Finding a book that can really sweep a rug out from under your feet is a rare thing, at least for me. She has this way of weaving story lines together in such a way that I think I know where things are going, but then BAM! they go somewhere else. I may have yelled at the book a bit in frustration when I got to the twist, because I didn't want the characters to be unhappy at all.

Obviously, I just love this book. I'm honestly not entirely certain who to recommend this book to, because I'm having trouble sticking it in a box. Basically, if you enjoy beautiful writing, pop culture references, and women's issues, then you should really read Marisa de los Santos. show less

LOVED this! Characters were so developed...they felt like they were sitting right next to you. One drawback was that sometimes she tried to get you to know them too well.

Can I just say, I love the cover of Belong to Me? I love the cover. It is beautiful, it conveys the heart of the story with great efficiency and grace, and it has no human figures on it. Practically perfect.

Belong to Me is the sort-of sequel to Love Walked In, and if it is not quite the equal of its predecessor, it has strengths of its own; I'm pretty sure you could read it with pleasure even if you had not read Love Walked In. (But do read Love Walked In, because it is lovely). Cornelia Brown and her husband have left their urban joys to try a life in the suburbs - a life on a street like the one they grew up on. Their new home may be charming, but new neighbor Piper is not. In fact, tight-wound Piper is a Mean Girl grown up...and show more arty, free-spirited Cornelia is not really Piper's cup of tea.

I've said before that Marisa de los Santos won my heart by loving her characters, and I was delighted with the evolution of Piper, whose steely, evil-tempered courage in the face of overwhelming grief made her, in the end, my favorite character. Honestly, Piper's edginess almost made Cornelia too sweet by contrast - and Cornelia has a bit of edge herself. Belong to Me has two major story arcs - Piper's and Cornelia's - and although both are interesting and well-developed, they don't truly intersect, and I thought the book suffered because of that. But de los Santos's trademark witty dialogue and masterful word-wrangling made me lick my chops over every chapter.

Despite some flaws in construction, I would have given this novel four and a half stars if I could have. I can't say enough about this author's way with characterization - she just can't seem to write a one-note character. There are no villains or heroes in Belong to Me - just real people, warts and all, angry and loving and good and bad and longing to find a a situation, or a place, or a person, to whom they can truly belong. show less

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 show more 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.

Rated at: 5.0 show less