Remedios by Deborah Clearman

Remedios by Deborah Clearman

Published by New Meridian ISBN 9781734383508

Trade paperback, $18, 228 pages

Two of the most intense television series I have watched are Breaking Bad and Ozark. Both deal with seemingly average people who become involved in the drug trade, dragging their families into the situation.

Deborah Clearman's novel, Remedios, is the literary equivalent of those two series. Fernando is a college professor, living with his wife and three children in Guatemala. They have a comfortable life, although Fernando borrowed money from a loan shark to renovate their home, and the payment is due. Fernando is unsure how he will be able to repay the money.

A childhood friend, Memo, shows up on his doorstep after nearly thirty years. The last time Fernando saw Memo was when they were teenagers, at a meeting that was violently attacked by the military. Fernando and his brother escaped, but Memo was caught and forced to become a soldier.

Memo now works for a dangerous Mexican cartel, and he comes to Fernando with a offer:  let them build a meth lab on his property. The money Memo will give him will enable him to pay off the loan shark, and  no one but Fernando needs to know what is going on. Fernando resists, but ultimately he agrees.

They concoct a story that Memo is building a cleaning supply manufacturing plant on Fernando's property, and Fernando is able to live with that until he discovers that his 14 year-old son Felix is working with Memo. 

Fernando's younger wife Sandra has also become entranced by Memo, bringing him food and spending time with him. Memo encourages Felix and Sandra's affections for him, pulling them deeper into his web. Fernando feels helpless and impotent to save his family. 

Remedios is a taut, intense novel that had my stomach in knots. Like Breaking Bad and Ozark, you watch as good people make bad decision after bad decision, wanting to warn them away from the danger. Reading Remedios also gave me a better understanding of the history of the civil war in Guatemala in the 1980s, and how drug cartels were able to use that to gain a foothold in that country.

If you're looking for a book that will get your pulse racing, a quick read at only 228 pages,  put Remedios on your list. I highly recommend it.

 

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Deborah Clearman's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Tuesday, September 8th: JulzReads

Wednesday, September 9th: Instagram: @bookin.good

Thursday, September 10th: Thoughts From a Highly Caffeinated Mind

Friday, September 11th: Helen’s Book Blog

Monday, September 14th: Barks Beaches Books

Tuesday, September 15th: bookchickdi

Thursday, September 17th: Kahakai Kitchen

Monday, September 21st: Literary Quicksand

Tuesday, September 22nd: Jessicamap Reviews

Wednesday, September 23rd: Girl Who Reads

Thursday, September 24th: Instagram: @mentallybooked

Friday, September 25th: Instagram: @my_read_feed 

Todos Santos

Todos Santos by Deborah Clearman
Published by Black Lawrence Press
Trade Paperback $18

Good fiction can do two things very well: make the reader empathetic and take the reader places she wouldn't normally go.

Todos Santos by Deborah Clearman takes the reader along on a journey to Guatemala with her character, Catherine Barnes. Catherine is having marital problems (her professor husband cheats on her), and her teenage son Isaac flunked 8th grade.

She decides to take Isaac to Guatemala, and work on illustrating her next book by visiting the remote town of Todos Santos. Catherine leaves Isaac to work in her sister Zelda's shop while she goes into the interior of Guatemala with Oswaldo, her handsome guide.

Catherine grows close to the owners of the hotel, particularly Nicolasa, a young woman married to a German man, who longs to move to Europe. The town of Todos Santos is wary of outsiders, and many of the residents are whipped into a frenzy by a politician who warns them of Americans who have come to steal their children.

Isaac makes a friend of his own, Ben, a boy from New Jersey who is living with his American family in Guatemala. They make plans to go on an adventure for the weekend, and after tragedy strikes, Isaac is kidnapped.

The author succeeds in immersing the reader in the sights and sounds of  Guatemala. You can taste the delicious foods, feel the heat, and she brings alive the vibrant and colorful marketplace, the center of the town.

If you close your eyes, you feel like you are on the crowded bus that Isaac and Ben take on their trip. At every stop, as more people pushed to get on, you get a sense of claustrophobia. When the boys are caught out in a storm on a boat, you feel the rising terror that they feel.

Clearman does a wonderful job with her characterization of Isaac. She really gets into the head of a teen boy- the sulky, sullen attitude they have, mixed with a desire to be adventurous. I felt like I understood where he was coming from, maybe from having two sons of my own.

I didn't feel like I understood the character of Catherine as well. When her son was kidnapped, she seemed to spend more time trying to find romance with Oswaldo than working on getting her son back. I didn't get the sense of terror that a parent would have, learning that her son was missing in a foreign country. I had a difficult time empathizing with her.

I would have liked to known more about sister Zelda; it seemed to me that she has a more interesting story to tell.

I would recommend Todos Santos for anyone who likes to read about other cultures; Clearman clearly knows of what she writes, having visited there many times.  The reader gets to see a Guatemala that most visitors don't in this novel.

Rating 3 of 5
Thanks to Sarah at Little Bird Publicity for providing me with a review copy.