Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Scattered 'cross my family line

I'm so good at telling lies

That came from my mother's side

Told a million to survive

Scattered 'cross my family line

God, I have my father's eyes

But my sister's when I cry

I can run, but I can't hide

From my family line

Family Line - Conan Gray

Neruda On The Park is a story about a Dominican-American family living in New York facing the consequences of gentrification, battling with the feeling of ‘home’, and how to navigate different relationships throughout their lives. The main storytellers of this novel are the Guerreros; Eusebia, the mother, and Luz, the daughter. Having dual perspectives on the ‘same story’ is a great way for the author to play devil’s advocate while also trying to showcase how much can go on in one family’s lives while the members all think they are ‘present’.

The novel starts out with Luz being fired from her firm as a lawyer battling with the decision on how to tell her parents. As story tellers, we follow Luz through her family’s neighborhood, Nothar Park; to which her family has lived for twenty years. This neighbor consists of many Dominican-American families, but throughout the telling of the story, us as readers learn that these families are at risk of being forced out of their homes due to a condo complex in development across the street. The new development throws Eusebia for quite a loop, and in turn then puts a wrench in the already strained relationship she has with her daughter.

To bring some context to the story, I will start off with Luz. Luz ends up meeting, and dating, the head man running the new development that her mother is so against. Luz decides to keep that information to herself, which is her right as a human being, but living a lie continued with her mother in turn hurts their relationship even more than the everyday strain they feel. From Luz’s point of view she knows how Eusebia feels about the new development, but Luz just assumes that it is something that happens in New York and that her parents would retire to the Dominican Republic anyways.A clear reason why Luz is so confused that Eusebia is taking this new development so personally when she will be leaving New York soon anyways. Luz’s dad, Vladimir, however, is not against the new development. In his mind, he wants to take the buyout money and use it to finish the house he is building in the Dominican for when him and Eusebia retire there. It is a win-win situation!

Now Eusebia on the other hand, to put it plainly, views the new development as heinous. Eusebia feels forced out of her home and belittled, as well as she is trying her best to get the new development to be stopped immediately. Eusebia comes up with a plan to ‘run out’ the contractors by orchestrating crimes within Northar Park. Eusebia recruits other individuals who live in Nothar Park to help her with these said ‘crimes’; a group of women who Eusebia calls ‘The Tongues’. Even though what Eusebia is trying to do, ie. show the developers that the neighborhood they live in is ‘unsafe’, her actions in turn are doing the opposite. Due to these crimes Eusebia is creating, it is hurting and spreading fear throughout the community of Nothar Park. Now the individuals who live there assume that it has become unsafe and wish to leave anyways. Eusebia then feels forced to amp up her crimes, but sadly they get out of hand.

Throughout the book you learn of the difficult relationship that Luz and Eusebia have together, which of course the aspect of the new development adds to the difficulties in their relationship. They would like to think that they understand each other, but that can’t be further from the truth. They both keep secrets in the guise of ‘protecting their family,’ but you learn that those secrets that were kept, end up hurting the ones they love. Whether it be Luz’s new boyfriend or quitting her law firm, or on Eusebia’s side, hiding her crimes to scare away the developers. We learn that both Luz and Eusebia sacrifice parts of themselves, as well as their livelihood to protect who they love, the life they life, achieve success in their everyday lives as well as try and find their sense of ‘home’.

As mentioned above, this story focuses a lot on the feeling of ‘home’, whether that can be something described as liberating as well as confining for immigrants and the families they have migrated with. The sense of safety and longevity are put on the line, all because of a ‘new world’ coming into their lives. Growing up and living your life, you struggle a lot with what or who your ‘home’ can be, without someone else coming in and taking that from you. It is a stage everyone goes through, but Neruda On The Park puts in perspective the battles that immigrants go through on a daily basis. Gentrification is something that can be described as good or bad, but in this day and age, shoving someone out of where they live or increasing the cost of living so high they can’t afford their own lively hood, would that be considered good? I don’t think so.

Family Line by Conan Gray I think perfectly depicts the inner conflict Luz and Eusebia are both feeling. ‘I’m so good at telling lies, that came from my mother’s side,’ showcases that parents make the same mistakes as children, and even though some lies could be made to protect someone you love, they can also lead to a much harder realization. It proves that the person who you might struggle or fight with the most, is actually who you reflect the most. 

Rating this book a 4 out of 5 is something I want to address. First, I loved the double story telling in this novel. It was so intriguing to see the same story, but from two different perspectives, especially when both of those perspectives had secrets they weren’t telling the other. The only reason I am knocking it down a star is because some of the way the author meshed the plot seemed a little confusing. There were parts of the ‘crimes’ that could have gone into more depth as well as how Luz was actually navigating her feelings towards her boyfriend as well as mother. The way Luz felt about her boyfriend was quite dull and I wished that either the author branched out on it more or came up with a different ‘conflict’ Luz had with the new development. Either way, the final reveal at the end of the novel did make me gasp so loud my dog jumped, if that tells you anything. Alright now go pick up Neruda On The Park to find out how Eusebia and Luz’s story ends.