BOOKS

Local author’s meandering narrative a pleasure to read

Reviewed by Andrew Junker | June 18, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

I have to admit that I often enjoy books whose plots take a meandering path and encounter all sorts of interesting asides.

When Victor Hugo, nearly finished with his monstrously large “Les Misérables,” decides to devote 90 pages to the history and construction of Paris’ sewers, I’m right there with him. I could have read another 50 pages.

When this narrative style works, it can draw the reader more deeply into the writer’s created world — at least, it works for me.

You can bump into a secondary characters whose previous appearance was 120 pages ago; you can spend 40 minutes following the life of an oak tree sitting on the protagonist’s property throughout the seasons; you can become very familiar with the Parisian sewer system.

Most of the charm of local author Ruth Douglass’s book, “Triumph of Dreams,” derives from this narrative style. Her autobiographical book recounts her life as an immigrant to Los Angeles from Colombia.

Populating the book with Douglass is a cast of characters who wander in and out of its pages. They are her family members and friends, co-workers and fellow students, and Douglass is at her best when she tells their stories.

Douglass writes that the stories in the book are all true, though in many cases she changed the names of the characters to grant them a level of anonymity.

And while the stories may be true, Douglass engages in a fair amount of imagining and creating dialogue between these characters. Sometimes this dialogue can feel stilted and contrived, but Douglass writes with genuine love and care about her subjects, which tends to outshine any stylistic oddities.

Take Douglass’s story about Veronica, a 22-year-old Colombian the author met in Los Angeles. Veronica was a pretty, bright woman studying in California on a student visa.

Besides leaving behind her mother and father in South America, she also left a long-term boyfriend who had pledged his undying love for her. In America, Veronica met Greg and saw him for dinner a few times before deciding to go back to Colombia to her true love.

Of course, she returns only to find her boyfriend in another relationship. Devastated, she returns to the United States and asks Greg for another chance — but he’s already dating someone new. Back and forth it goes, but it all ends happily with a marriage.

I feel like I just summarized a soap opera or a Jane Austen adaptation. It’s the kind of plot that sounds a bit banal when summed up, but Douglass manages to draw a considerable amount of pathos out of Veronica’s story.

And then just like that, Veronica’s gone, and Douglass is telling a new story about her life or the lives of those who populated her world.

It’s a great way to give a full picture of what life was like for Douglass and those around her who moved to America for school and employment opportunities. It’s also refreshing to read a local author whose autobiography isn’t so completely centered on her.

Even if Douglass’ prose falters on occasion, “Triumph of Dreams,” makes for a surprisingly compelling read.

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Media critic Andrew Junker is a staff writer for The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.