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The Given World
Spanning over twenty-five years of a radically shifting cultural landscape, The Given World is a major debut novel about war’s effects on those left behind, by an author who is “strong, soulful, and deeply gifted” (Lorrie Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Birds of America).
In 1968, when Riley is thirteen, her brother Mick goes missing in Vietnam. Her family shattered, Riley finds refuge in isolation and drugs until she falls in love with a boy from the reservation, but he, too, is on his way to the war. Riley takes off as well, in search of Mick, or of a way to be in the world without him. She travels from Montana to San Francisco and from there to Vietnam. Among the scarred angels she meets along the way are Primo, a half-blind vet with a secret he can’t keep; Lu, a cab-driving addict with an artist’s eye; Phuong, a Saigon barmaid, Riley’s conscience and confidante; and Grace, a banjo-playing girl on a train, carrying her grandmother’s ashes in a tin box. All are part of a lost generation, coming of age too quickly as they struggle to reassemble lives disordered by pain and loss. At center stage is Riley, a masterpiece of vulnerability and tenacity, wondering if she’ll ever have the courage to return to her parents’ farm, to its ghosts and memories—resident in a place she has surrendered, surely, the right to call home.
In 1968, when Riley is thirteen, her brother Mick goes missing in Vietnam. Her family shattered, Riley finds refuge in isolation and drugs until she falls in love with a boy from the reservation, but he, too, is on his way to the war. Riley takes off as well, in search of Mick, or of a way to be in the world without him. She travels from Montana to San Francisco and from there to Vietnam. Among the scarred angels she meets along the way are Primo, a half-blind vet with a secret he can’t keep; Lu, a cab-driving addict with an artist’s eye; Phuong, a Saigon barmaid, Riley’s conscience and confidante; and Grace, a banjo-playing girl on a train, carrying her grandmother’s ashes in a tin box. All are part of a lost generation, coming of age too quickly as they struggle to reassemble lives disordered by pain and loss. At center stage is Riley, a masterpiece of vulnerability and tenacity, wondering if she’ll ever have the courage to return to her parents’ farm, to its ghosts and memories—resident in a place she has surrendered, surely, the right to call home.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 14, 2015
18 people are currently reading
2207 people want to read
About the author
Marian Palaia
2 books40 followersMarian Palaia lives in San Francisco, California, and sometimes, when it is not winter, in Missoula, Montana. She is a graduate of the MFA program at Madison, Wisconsin, where she received the 2012 Milofsky Prize, and of the MA program in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. She was a 2012-2013 John Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University and a 2014 recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
June 9, 2015
In this raw and unflinchingly honest novel, Palala writes a novel about a family severely impacted by the Vietnam War. Riley in thirteen when her beloved older brother Mick goes missing in the tunnels of Vietnam. Unfortunately just when she needs her the most, her mother is bowled over with grief, and unable to meet Riley's needs. This will set Riley off on a journey to try to find the place she belongs, going to San Francisco and Vietnam and finally 25 years later she will return home.
I loved Riley, she makes so many mistakes, drugs, alcohol, leaving jobs, leaving relationships, never letting anything nor anyone become too important. So afraid of loss, she must always leave first. She does try to help those who she thinks need help the most, drug users, former vets, and people whom have lost their way. She never apologizes for who she is. This is such a gritty story, the sixties and the seventies and the drug culture, the draft and the war also of course the eighties and the AIDS epidemic. She will return home and knows than that she is lucky that there is still a chance and maybe a little something still left there for her.
This is this author's first novel and it is amazingly written. Easy to identify with because there cannot be that many of us that have never made a bad decision in life, or wish that we could turn back the clock and do something differently. Not a easy novel but a worthy one.
I loved Riley, she makes so many mistakes, drugs, alcohol, leaving jobs, leaving relationships, never letting anything nor anyone become too important. So afraid of loss, she must always leave first. She does try to help those who she thinks need help the most, drug users, former vets, and people whom have lost their way. She never apologizes for who she is. This is such a gritty story, the sixties and the seventies and the drug culture, the draft and the war also of course the eighties and the AIDS epidemic. She will return home and knows than that she is lucky that there is still a chance and maybe a little something still left there for her.
This is this author's first novel and it is amazingly written. Easy to identify with because there cannot be that many of us that have never made a bad decision in life, or wish that we could turn back the clock and do something differently. Not a easy novel but a worthy one.
September 24, 2016
The Given World gave me a headache. Why is it that when "serious" fiction "examines" life that it only focuses on the bad stuff?
Riley is a young girl in Montana who worships her brother. He's drafted and shipped off to war in Vietnam. It breaks her heart and she systematically begin to ruin her life, because she can't get past it. She eventually leaves home, gets lost in worlds of drugs, domestic violence, and alcoholics on the California coast. Everyone she meets is as dysfunctional as she is or on their way to dysfunction. Personal opinion here: if society was only composed of people like that, it would have fallen apart a long time ago.
Riley is a character that I tried to like but just couldn't. She always made the worst decisions and if there was a way to improve her situation, she didn't choose it. It was like she had blinders on to the possible goodness in life and jumped enthusiastically into the darkness. She turns her back on her family, blames everyone else in life for her problems, and consistently isolates herself from anyone who could possibly lend comfort or stability. In this passage, she's talking about her father: "The way they smoke, so casually oblivious, reminds me of my father- on the porch, maybe, or out in the yard at night, looking up at the sky, for weather, but it's not as if he could miss the stars. I hear my name in his voice: "Riley..." Never loud or angry, just gentle reminders: try to grow up with some degree of intentionality and grace; try to believe the world is more benevolent than not. I wonder if he knows I did hear him." pg 10, ebook. Riley, I don't think you did.
I did grow to feel sorry for Riley. She didn't ask for her family to be ripped apart by war. I guess, after experiencing that sort of emotional turmoil at an early age, that it might be almost impossible to put your life on track to begin with. "She reminded him of a deer who knew you weren't out to shoot it. Like she'd let you get just so close, and then bolt to the edge of the clearing; the forest nearly impenetrable behind her where she knew you couldn't easily follow. pg 40, ebook. But, I just couldn't get over the fact that she didn't use her intimate knowledge of pain to help other people.
Riley's mother was a hot mess too, but she managed to raise two children fairly successfully. I was surprised that Riley didn't use her as a role model, even for a moment. In this passage, Riley's mother writes her a letter, trying to connect with her wayward child: "And lost as you already are these days, or as I think you must be, you still probably understand, maybe better than most, that kids don't necessarily hold you steady. Even if they do, somehow, hold you in place." pg 97, ebook.
Rather than continue on in this vein, I will end this review with acknowledging that The Given World was not for me. But, if you enjoy reading coming of age stories with multiple flawed characters and plenty of bad decisions, you may want to pick this one up. Some trigger warnings for sensitive readers: domestic abuse, racially motivated violence, and drug use.
Riley is a young girl in Montana who worships her brother. He's drafted and shipped off to war in Vietnam. It breaks her heart and she systematically begin to ruin her life, because she can't get past it. She eventually leaves home, gets lost in worlds of drugs, domestic violence, and alcoholics on the California coast. Everyone she meets is as dysfunctional as she is or on their way to dysfunction. Personal opinion here: if society was only composed of people like that, it would have fallen apart a long time ago.
Riley is a character that I tried to like but just couldn't. She always made the worst decisions and if there was a way to improve her situation, she didn't choose it. It was like she had blinders on to the possible goodness in life and jumped enthusiastically into the darkness. She turns her back on her family, blames everyone else in life for her problems, and consistently isolates herself from anyone who could possibly lend comfort or stability. In this passage, she's talking about her father: "The way they smoke, so casually oblivious, reminds me of my father- on the porch, maybe, or out in the yard at night, looking up at the sky, for weather, but it's not as if he could miss the stars. I hear my name in his voice: "Riley..." Never loud or angry, just gentle reminders: try to grow up with some degree of intentionality and grace; try to believe the world is more benevolent than not. I wonder if he knows I did hear him." pg 10, ebook. Riley, I don't think you did.
I did grow to feel sorry for Riley. She didn't ask for her family to be ripped apart by war. I guess, after experiencing that sort of emotional turmoil at an early age, that it might be almost impossible to put your life on track to begin with. "She reminded him of a deer who knew you weren't out to shoot it. Like she'd let you get just so close, and then bolt to the edge of the clearing; the forest nearly impenetrable behind her where she knew you couldn't easily follow. pg 40, ebook. But, I just couldn't get over the fact that she didn't use her intimate knowledge of pain to help other people.
Riley's mother was a hot mess too, but she managed to raise two children fairly successfully. I was surprised that Riley didn't use her as a role model, even for a moment. In this passage, Riley's mother writes her a letter, trying to connect with her wayward child: "And lost as you already are these days, or as I think you must be, you still probably understand, maybe better than most, that kids don't necessarily hold you steady. Even if they do, somehow, hold you in place." pg 97, ebook.
Rather than continue on in this vein, I will end this review with acknowledging that The Given World was not for me. But, if you enjoy reading coming of age stories with multiple flawed characters and plenty of bad decisions, you may want to pick this one up. Some trigger warnings for sensitive readers: domestic abuse, racially motivated violence, and drug use.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 21, 2014
Much has been written about the Viet Nam era. I lived through the era myself during my teens and early twenties.
This is not an anti-war movement story,
Or about the killings of the young,
Or Kent State University....
It 'is' an intimate story about one girls coming of age when her older brother is MIA, and the choices she makes from grief, suffering, loss, and love. The storytelling is page-turning engrossing ---(especially her friendships in San Francisco).
Marian Palaia captures the spirit of the Viet Nam era through Riley, her family, love, sex, drugs, travel, jobs, friendships, and other 'challenging situations & choices'. All the characters are intriguing ---but its 'Riley' herself who is a 'CHARACTER-to-REMEMBER'.
At times Riley reminded me of Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo". Riley is not with piercings and tattoos, but she is tough, ruthless, strong & vulnerable. I found myself 'rooting' for Riley --much as I did 'Lisbeth'.
"The Given World" is an exceptional novel (first novel to boot). This story will bring back memories for some readers. We get a clear experience that people 'left behind' are trapped by war, their fears, and love.
This is not an anti-war movement story,
Or about the killings of the young,
Or Kent State University....
It 'is' an intimate story about one girls coming of age when her older brother is MIA, and the choices she makes from grief, suffering, loss, and love. The storytelling is page-turning engrossing ---(especially her friendships in San Francisco).
Marian Palaia captures the spirit of the Viet Nam era through Riley, her family, love, sex, drugs, travel, jobs, friendships, and other 'challenging situations & choices'. All the characters are intriguing ---but its 'Riley' herself who is a 'CHARACTER-to-REMEMBER'.
At times Riley reminded me of Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo". Riley is not with piercings and tattoos, but she is tough, ruthless, strong & vulnerable. I found myself 'rooting' for Riley --much as I did 'Lisbeth'.
"The Given World" is an exceptional novel (first novel to boot). This story will bring back memories for some readers. We get a clear experience that people 'left behind' are trapped by war, their fears, and love.
March 11, 2015
I've read a lot of Stephen King, just finished a couple recently. Here's what reading a Stephen King book is like for me - I walk up to the book's door and knock. The door opens and a hand reaches out, grabs me by the scruff of the neck and pulls me into his world, drags me through, almost against my will sometimes, until, finally, the story is over and I get booted out the door, back into my own life, thinking "Wow! That was intense!".
"The Given World" is more like this - I knock on the door and it opens. No hand reaches out. I look inside and what I see is so intriguing, I have to walk in, wander around, pick things up and look at them. And each thing begins to talk to me, telling me it's story. And each thing, after telling it's part of the story says, "Oh - if I were you I'd pick that thing over there up next." And, bit by bit, the story unfolds, and slowly pulls me in, until I'm in "The Given World", no longer in mine.
It's weird - I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one. It's more like people taking to me than reading a book. I like it. Good writing always impresses me, great writing just feels like someone you know and love telling you a story. Just like "The Given World".
"The Given World" is more like this - I knock on the door and it opens. No hand reaches out. I look inside and what I see is so intriguing, I have to walk in, wander around, pick things up and look at them. And each thing begins to talk to me, telling me it's story. And each thing, after telling it's part of the story says, "Oh - if I were you I'd pick that thing over there up next." And, bit by bit, the story unfolds, and slowly pulls me in, until I'm in "The Given World", no longer in mine.
It's weird - I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one. It's more like people taking to me than reading a book. I like it. Good writing always impresses me, great writing just feels like someone you know and love telling you a story. Just like "The Given World".
December 28, 2014
Sometimes a 4-star rating is what it is, a pretty good book. And sometimes it's a bit of math -- a quasar pulsing somewhere between Star 3 and Star 5. Meaning: I could easily give this 5-stars if I rated it on voice and writing alone. Marian Palaia's novel brings a young, Vietnam-era girl to life with beautiful language and a memorable personality, following young Riley from days on a Montana farm worshiping her older brother, Mick, to the distant worlds of San Francisco and Vietnam itself, where she goes in search of her missing brother. So there's that. If you're a reader who likes writer's writers, who likes to hit the brakes, pull into reverse, and reread a few wish-I-wrote-that sentences now and then, The Given World is one you want to live in.
But let's get back to the math. I could also give this book 3-stars if I were to fault it for being a one-trick pony. Yeah, the language and voice are mesmerizing, but is that all there is? The short answer is yes. I could ramble on about attempts at a plot and wishes for a surprise ending (unusual for me, because I loathe surprise endings in most cases), but it wouldn't cover the fact that this is basically a series of connected vignettes wherein Riley, a broken person who is secretly mourning an unofficially dead brother, meets up and lives with other broken persons -- one after the other. And if there's one thing worse than living with broken people who rely on drugs and booze, among other "cures," it's reading about them for vast stretches of narrative writing. After a while, you feel like you need air. And you grow frustrated with a protagonist you love but who is acting a bit too much like the mess-ups she hangs with.
The equation tilts more toward the 5, though. Despite a bit of a sag in the middle, the book perks up a bit when Riley lands in Vietnam. The scenes there are too short, but helpful. At least they're getting to the heart of the matter -- or what would have been the matter, were there a plot and any real scenes where Mick is the actual object of her search. Instead, the search seems to be internal. This perpetual kid, through jobs as a bartender and an early-morning paper deliverer, is mostly looking for herself, 60s-style. She's trying to grow up, move on already, stop using Mick as an excuse to commit living suicide.
If you're like me, you'll empathize just enough to tag along. Between Riley's character and Palaia's words, it's worth the ride. If you're like me and a few other eternally-tolerant parents, you'll even forgive the lack of any semblance of a plot.
But let's get back to the math. I could also give this book 3-stars if I were to fault it for being a one-trick pony. Yeah, the language and voice are mesmerizing, but is that all there is? The short answer is yes. I could ramble on about attempts at a plot and wishes for a surprise ending (unusual for me, because I loathe surprise endings in most cases), but it wouldn't cover the fact that this is basically a series of connected vignettes wherein Riley, a broken person who is secretly mourning an unofficially dead brother, meets up and lives with other broken persons -- one after the other. And if there's one thing worse than living with broken people who rely on drugs and booze, among other "cures," it's reading about them for vast stretches of narrative writing. After a while, you feel like you need air. And you grow frustrated with a protagonist you love but who is acting a bit too much like the mess-ups she hangs with.
The equation tilts more toward the 5, though. Despite a bit of a sag in the middle, the book perks up a bit when Riley lands in Vietnam. The scenes there are too short, but helpful. At least they're getting to the heart of the matter -- or what would have been the matter, were there a plot and any real scenes where Mick is the actual object of her search. Instead, the search seems to be internal. This perpetual kid, through jobs as a bartender and an early-morning paper deliverer, is mostly looking for herself, 60s-style. She's trying to grow up, move on already, stop using Mick as an excuse to commit living suicide.
If you're like me, you'll empathize just enough to tag along. Between Riley's character and Palaia's words, it's worth the ride. If you're like me and a few other eternally-tolerant parents, you'll even forgive the lack of any semblance of a plot.
November 17, 2014
3.5 *’s.
This is about the war in Vietnam but we aren't there for the war only the aftermath and its effect on a family left behind. There is such a feeling sadness and loss in this book as Riley 's brother Mick goes missing in Vietnam and Denell the father of her baby leaves for the army before he knows she's
pregnant . Rose , her mother can hardly hold herself together but yet Riley leaves the baby with her , while she tries to find her way . But Rose , too is lost .
Riley roams from Montana to San Francisco rife with drugs and a lot of mixed up people . I loved Primo the endearing vet who tries to help Riley when he finds her living in her car but the truth of the matter is that he is in need of help himself . Riley - works, does drugs and drinks and for the most part just exists among some other broken people she meets along the way. At one point she is with a group of vets living in cardboard boxes . I think that the author has clearly depicted the time and place . She even goes to Vietnam in search of her brother perhaps but also in search of herself.
The most poignant and revealing part of the book for me was the multi-page letter that Riley's mother , Rose writes . It's sad in so many ways as she has been unable to cope for a long time and especially since , Mick has been missing . Early on it's evident that Riley and Mick have a special bond and in this letter lets us know so much more about Riley's early life .
There were so many times when I was just so mad at Riley that she was in this hole of grief and drugs that kept her for so many years away from her family and especially her son , but yet a part of me felt her grief and fear and just like some of the people she connects with along the way , I wanted the best for her.
It was very hard for me to find anything uplifting in this heartbreaking story ,but there is a small bit of hope at the end that Riley will be able to save herself .
Thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley
November 8, 2014
I'd rate this 4.5 stars.
Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
Growing up in rural Montana, Riley worshiped her older brother, Mick. Part guardian angel, part partner-in-crime, Mick taught her about the world around her. But when Mick goes missing in action in Vietnam, the loss is more than Riley or her parents can take, and she spends the next few years in a haze of wild behavior and drugs. She meets and falls in love with Darrell, a boy from the nearby reservation, and then she finds out that she is pregnant shortly after Darrell tells her that he, too, is headed to Vietnam.
Feeling she has no choice, Riley, too, decides to leave Montana, heading for San Francisco, where she hopes the pull of the ocean may right her once and for all. But her journey is one continually punctuated by those who come into her life and those who leave, sometimes tragically, and on many occasions, Riley turns to drugs and alcohol to fill the empty spaces in her life.
"The years since I'd left Montana had fallen well short of a pure, unadulterated, youthful-type trajectory, and my soul was every iota as snakebit as some of the worst ones. Climbing out of the ditch was a hit-or-miss proposition, and even though I was working on it, down was still a hell of a lot easier way to go than up."
Eventually, Riley makes her way to Vietnam, first to Saigon and then to Cu Chi, where Mick went missing, in the hopes she might find some sign, some clue as to what happened to him all of those years ago. But at the same time, she's also looking for a way to move on with her own life, to be able to finally reconcile all of the people who left her, as well as her own leaving.
Marian Palaia's The Given World is a lyrical, poignant book about those who leave and those who are left behind. It's about trying to find the courage to trust again when all around you people break their promises and abuse your faith. It's also about finally letting the world in instead of letting it pass you by.
Palaia's prose is beautiful, almost poetic at times. She populates this book with so many fascinating characters, none more so than the complex, flawed Riley. I found myself so drawn into her story that I hoped the book would take a turn that would otherwise be unrealistic. There are so many characters, and some chapters are told from others' perspectives, so at times the plot is difficult to follow, but Riley's story just takes hold of you and makes you want to race through it.
This book was an unexpected surprise for me, and I can't wait to watch Palaia's career continue.
Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
Growing up in rural Montana, Riley worshiped her older brother, Mick. Part guardian angel, part partner-in-crime, Mick taught her about the world around her. But when Mick goes missing in action in Vietnam, the loss is more than Riley or her parents can take, and she spends the next few years in a haze of wild behavior and drugs. She meets and falls in love with Darrell, a boy from the nearby reservation, and then she finds out that she is pregnant shortly after Darrell tells her that he, too, is headed to Vietnam.
Feeling she has no choice, Riley, too, decides to leave Montana, heading for San Francisco, where she hopes the pull of the ocean may right her once and for all. But her journey is one continually punctuated by those who come into her life and those who leave, sometimes tragically, and on many occasions, Riley turns to drugs and alcohol to fill the empty spaces in her life.
"The years since I'd left Montana had fallen well short of a pure, unadulterated, youthful-type trajectory, and my soul was every iota as snakebit as some of the worst ones. Climbing out of the ditch was a hit-or-miss proposition, and even though I was working on it, down was still a hell of a lot easier way to go than up."
Eventually, Riley makes her way to Vietnam, first to Saigon and then to Cu Chi, where Mick went missing, in the hopes she might find some sign, some clue as to what happened to him all of those years ago. But at the same time, she's also looking for a way to move on with her own life, to be able to finally reconcile all of the people who left her, as well as her own leaving.
Marian Palaia's The Given World is a lyrical, poignant book about those who leave and those who are left behind. It's about trying to find the courage to trust again when all around you people break their promises and abuse your faith. It's also about finally letting the world in instead of letting it pass you by.
Palaia's prose is beautiful, almost poetic at times. She populates this book with so many fascinating characters, none more so than the complex, flawed Riley. I found myself so drawn into her story that I hoped the book would take a turn that would otherwise be unrealistic. There are so many characters, and some chapters are told from others' perspectives, so at times the plot is difficult to follow, but Riley's story just takes hold of you and makes you want to race through it.
This book was an unexpected surprise for me, and I can't wait to watch Palaia's career continue.
June 19, 2015
Probably 3.5 but some plot developments at the end really bothered me. So much to like in this story of lost souls. I especially loved the broken, and broken-hearted, Riley. Hope to post more thought when I'm not on mobile.
October 27, 2015
This was so repetitive and depressing... Minor / episodic characters pass in and out of the narrative seemingly for no reason and it's hard to keep track of them or get invested in them when you know they will vanish by the beginning of the next chapter. Really interesting characters like Darrell are written out of the main plotline. Nothing really happens? The main character is pretty stereotypical and bland, she is a self-described "broken" woman so of course that means she actively & deliberately chooses to date abusive men. Kinda a waste of time.
September 14, 2019
Almost 4 star, almost. I adored the first part of the book where Riley lives in Montana, idolizes her big brother, and eventually meets a kindred spirit with whom she forms a relationship. Most little sisters will relate to Palaia’s balanced presentation of the importance you attach and love you feel for your big brother(s). And, then he goes off to war. The gaping hole left behind can’t be filled. There’s not enough sex, drugs and rock n roll in the whole wide world. After Riley heads west the story becomes too repetitive for me. Yet there was some gorgeous writing throughout to express the joys as well as the pain Riley experiences. As a debut novel this was well thought out and fresh in it’s ultimate optimism.
January 1, 2015
Three and a half stars, rounded up. Thank you thrice to Net Galley, Edelweiss Books, and Simon and Schuster for the ARC. This novel, which has generated a fair amount of buzz, comes out in spring of 2015.
The story takes place about fifty years ago in the western USA. Riley’s brother has been sent to fight in Vietnam, and Riley has gone to pieces without him. She takes every drug known to humanity, or nearly so, including alcohol, and in liberal doses, too. When her lover goes to Vietnam too, she dumps the baby on her parents in Montana and takes off in her car. She has always wanted to see the ocean. And see it she does; all that water, all those bridges. Many times she considers jumping, and the only thing that tells us she won’t is that the story is told in the first person. Her self-destructive impulses are in high gear, though; she doesn’t jump, but she dares fate to take her out in about every other imaginable way.
In a narrative that is strangely disjointed—possibly deliberately so on the author’s part, given all those drugs—she travels to Vietnam, where her brother has been listed as Missing In Action. Though most of those whose remains go unreturned are, according to the Pentagon, people who died over water, she is obsessed with the notion of him burrowing into a tunnel somewhere and just not coming back out. She goes there to see if she can ferret out his remains.
Here, I confess that a half star fell off my rating by the stereotype she assigned the people of Vietnam. The war came, and all they probably wanted to do was go back to farming their rice paddies, she says. And I find myself wondering why so many people who are not Vietnamese have such a rough time envisioning the Vietnamese, or at least a portion of them, as intelligent, political thinkers. After all, they gave just about everything they had, right down to their children and their jungles, in order to repel the invaders who came to tell them what kind of government they ought to have. They farmed out of the fucking CRATERS. Go ahead and tell me that all that was in their heads was rice. I dare you.
Ahem. Moving on.
Inevitably, Riley returns, and though I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story, she encounters more loss. Rivers of loss; oceans of loss; entire mountain ranges of loss. This is a really sad story, and if you are in need of a good hearty cry, this book just might do it for you. Think of San Francisco in the 1980’s. It was a rough time; lots of us lost people then.
At times I had difficulty figuring out the character’s motivation. Is she just so deep into her grief that she can’t come up with a plan? Has she been overtaken by some mental illness? Is she alcoholic? Or is she passively trying to avoid the pain? I suspect it’s the latter, but I am never quite sure. Maybe the ambiguity was intentional.
Time shifts, and Riley has reason to return to Montana. Will she stay once she is home, or will she return to San Francisco? One thing is certain; she won’t get on an airplane. Instead, she takes the Coast Starlight train northeast, across the California line into Oregon.
This is one of those little quirks that is bound to come up once a novel hits a certain number of readers. I too have taken the Coast Starlight, and I have also sent many loved ones on it. The Coast Starlight is a train that goes through from San Francisco (and maybe further south for all I know), to Portland, Oregon (my hometown), to Seattle. And it’s a lesson to writers everywhere: if you are going to describe an actual place, be sure you know what you are talking about.
Riley’s narrative explains that when she got off the train in Portland in that big old station (so far so good; it’s huge and historical, a glorious place), she wants to walk around the neighborhood, but unfortunately, the station is surrounded on all sides by freeways.
Whoopsie! The station is located in Chinatown. It is chock full of tourists at all but the grimmest time of year, and Portlanders take a great deal of pride in its rich heritage. Like San Francisco, Portland attracted large Chinese immigrant populations during the boom period of railroad building. It’s true that there are freeways on two sides of it; one of them parallels the river. But that train station is a long way from being some island in the middle of a bunch of concrete and girders. Not so much.
For those of you focused solely on the story line and character development, I think this will be about a three or four star read, depending upon how stringent your own personal rating guidelines are. I am glad I had the chance to read it; I just wish I understood where it was going and what the writer intended.
The story takes place about fifty years ago in the western USA. Riley’s brother has been sent to fight in Vietnam, and Riley has gone to pieces without him. She takes every drug known to humanity, or nearly so, including alcohol, and in liberal doses, too. When her lover goes to Vietnam too, she dumps the baby on her parents in Montana and takes off in her car. She has always wanted to see the ocean. And see it she does; all that water, all those bridges. Many times she considers jumping, and the only thing that tells us she won’t is that the story is told in the first person. Her self-destructive impulses are in high gear, though; she doesn’t jump, but she dares fate to take her out in about every other imaginable way.
In a narrative that is strangely disjointed—possibly deliberately so on the author’s part, given all those drugs—she travels to Vietnam, where her brother has been listed as Missing In Action. Though most of those whose remains go unreturned are, according to the Pentagon, people who died over water, she is obsessed with the notion of him burrowing into a tunnel somewhere and just not coming back out. She goes there to see if she can ferret out his remains.
Here, I confess that a half star fell off my rating by the stereotype she assigned the people of Vietnam. The war came, and all they probably wanted to do was go back to farming their rice paddies, she says. And I find myself wondering why so many people who are not Vietnamese have such a rough time envisioning the Vietnamese, or at least a portion of them, as intelligent, political thinkers. After all, they gave just about everything they had, right down to their children and their jungles, in order to repel the invaders who came to tell them what kind of government they ought to have. They farmed out of the fucking CRATERS. Go ahead and tell me that all that was in their heads was rice. I dare you.
Ahem. Moving on.
Inevitably, Riley returns, and though I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story, she encounters more loss. Rivers of loss; oceans of loss; entire mountain ranges of loss. This is a really sad story, and if you are in need of a good hearty cry, this book just might do it for you. Think of San Francisco in the 1980’s. It was a rough time; lots of us lost people then.
At times I had difficulty figuring out the character’s motivation. Is she just so deep into her grief that she can’t come up with a plan? Has she been overtaken by some mental illness? Is she alcoholic? Or is she passively trying to avoid the pain? I suspect it’s the latter, but I am never quite sure. Maybe the ambiguity was intentional.
Time shifts, and Riley has reason to return to Montana. Will she stay once she is home, or will she return to San Francisco? One thing is certain; she won’t get on an airplane. Instead, she takes the Coast Starlight train northeast, across the California line into Oregon.
This is one of those little quirks that is bound to come up once a novel hits a certain number of readers. I too have taken the Coast Starlight, and I have also sent many loved ones on it. The Coast Starlight is a train that goes through from San Francisco (and maybe further south for all I know), to Portland, Oregon (my hometown), to Seattle. And it’s a lesson to writers everywhere: if you are going to describe an actual place, be sure you know what you are talking about.
Riley’s narrative explains that when she got off the train in Portland in that big old station (so far so good; it’s huge and historical, a glorious place), she wants to walk around the neighborhood, but unfortunately, the station is surrounded on all sides by freeways.
Whoopsie! The station is located in Chinatown. It is chock full of tourists at all but the grimmest time of year, and Portlanders take a great deal of pride in its rich heritage. Like San Francisco, Portland attracted large Chinese immigrant populations during the boom period of railroad building. It’s true that there are freeways on two sides of it; one of them parallels the river. But that train station is a long way from being some island in the middle of a bunch of concrete and girders. Not so much.
For those of you focused solely on the story line and character development, I think this will be about a three or four star read, depending upon how stringent your own personal rating guidelines are. I am glad I had the chance to read it; I just wish I understood where it was going and what the writer intended.
March 9, 2015
This book stunned me. I rarely read fiction, and when I do, I want it to be good. This was good, and much much more. It felt like a gift written by a person rooted in the American West with a careful eye and a loving heart in spite of hundreds of splinters, breaks, wounds, and scars. Marian Palaia is a gifted writer and this is a story worth reading. The novel's main character, Riley, is a wounded human being whom I loved very much, and the several characters she orbits and collides with are each memorable and human in their own ways.
The novel is hard, and there is a great deal of pain and human suffering in it, but it is absolutely worth reading.
In lieu of an actual review, some touchstones which still haunt my mind:
The definition of blue from the book's opening chapters.
'Regular animals,' she said.
My peripheral vision was not what it could have been.
They take their boots off to feel, with their feet, the earth come back to life.
I like the idea of an animal, of getting to know something gradually, little by little, with no obligation to converse.
I feel like I am in the world, and not just trying to bring it into focus from another galaxy.
Evidence of calamity is all around, if you know what to look for.
Gone so gone
We need our ghosts, we are made of our ghosts.
I would read any future book by Marian Palaia.
The novel is hard, and there is a great deal of pain and human suffering in it, but it is absolutely worth reading.
In lieu of an actual review, some touchstones which still haunt my mind:
The definition of blue from the book's opening chapters.
'Regular animals,' she said.
My peripheral vision was not what it could have been.
They take their boots off to feel, with their feet, the earth come back to life.
I like the idea of an animal, of getting to know something gradually, little by little, with no obligation to converse.
I feel like I am in the world, and not just trying to bring it into focus from another galaxy.
Evidence of calamity is all around, if you know what to look for.
Gone so gone
We need our ghosts, we are made of our ghosts.
I would read any future book by Marian Palaia.
August 11, 2015
This should be the sort of book I love...but I didn't. I didn't even like it.
I think mostly I was bored. I didn't like the characters very much, didn't care for the writing, got tired of the lost, wandering girl story line, nothing ever happened..which normally I might be ok with if the writing was compelling enough.
Just wasn't for me, I guess.
I think mostly I was bored. I didn't like the characters very much, didn't care for the writing, got tired of the lost, wandering girl story line, nothing ever happened..which normally I might be ok with if the writing was compelling enough.
Just wasn't for me, I guess.
March 28, 2024
So much potential for a better story. I felt like I didn't get to know the characters and therefore I didn't have it in me to root for them. Too bad.
April 17, 2015
This book is powerful. The quality of the writing blew me away. The story slowly evolves. It seeps into you.
It opens in Vietnam with the protagonist, Riley, searching for her brother, Mick, or for his remains from the war. The book then unfolds in Montana, Mick is a talented artist and naturalist and Riley is a little tomboy in awe of her older brother. Mick goes to Vietnam in the 25th Infantry as a tunnel guy and doesn't return. Riley grows up, falls in love with a Native American, Darrell, who also enlists in the military and leaves. Riley is pregnant, emotionally lost, lonely, and confused. She leaves her new baby, Slim, with her parents, Rose and Henry, and takes off for the Pacific Ocean which she has always wanted to see. Rose is grief stricken over Mick, her lost dreams of going to college when she became pregnant with Mick, and she hands baby Slim off to Darrell's Uncle to raise him on the reservation.
Riley buries her pain by living a very destructive life for many years in San Francisco. Palaia accurately takes the reader through the Mission, Castro, Tenderloin, Golden Gate Park, Potrero Hills. Riley engages in physical abuse with drugs, alcohol and abusive men. She seems to attach herself to people who lose themselves. Primo dies from an overdose. Lu is a pool shark and abuses drugs. Frank loves her but Riley doesn't know how to function in normal relationship. Max gets AIDS.
Coming back from Vietnam after eighteen months, Riley has some resolve over Mick's disappearance. She returns to Montana as her father is dying. She realizes her journey and lessons learned in life have been earned through many hardships and near self-destruction. Riley returns to the reservation and finds Slim, a young man, reminding her of Darrell and Henry. She can't bring herself to tell him she is his mother. The last chapter (SPOILER), Riley is reunited with Darrell who went AWOL and lived in Alberta on a reservation and did some time in Leavenworth. Slim wants to go to college. Darrell encourages Riley to stick around awhile in Montana because the ocean isn't going anywhere.
Marian Palaia, you are an amazing writer. This is your first novel! Whatever has taken you so long, perhaps you too were on a journey like Riley because to craft the power of this book, you either saw of experienced life firsthand. I hope you give us another gift of literature in the future.
It opens in Vietnam with the protagonist, Riley, searching for her brother, Mick, or for his remains from the war. The book then unfolds in Montana, Mick is a talented artist and naturalist and Riley is a little tomboy in awe of her older brother. Mick goes to Vietnam in the 25th Infantry as a tunnel guy and doesn't return. Riley grows up, falls in love with a Native American, Darrell, who also enlists in the military and leaves. Riley is pregnant, emotionally lost, lonely, and confused. She leaves her new baby, Slim, with her parents, Rose and Henry, and takes off for the Pacific Ocean which she has always wanted to see. Rose is grief stricken over Mick, her lost dreams of going to college when she became pregnant with Mick, and she hands baby Slim off to Darrell's Uncle to raise him on the reservation.
Riley buries her pain by living a very destructive life for many years in San Francisco. Palaia accurately takes the reader through the Mission, Castro, Tenderloin, Golden Gate Park, Potrero Hills. Riley engages in physical abuse with drugs, alcohol and abusive men. She seems to attach herself to people who lose themselves. Primo dies from an overdose. Lu is a pool shark and abuses drugs. Frank loves her but Riley doesn't know how to function in normal relationship. Max gets AIDS.
Coming back from Vietnam after eighteen months, Riley has some resolve over Mick's disappearance. She returns to Montana as her father is dying. She realizes her journey and lessons learned in life have been earned through many hardships and near self-destruction. Riley returns to the reservation and finds Slim, a young man, reminding her of Darrell and Henry. She can't bring herself to tell him she is his mother. The last chapter (SPOILER), Riley is reunited with Darrell who went AWOL and lived in Alberta on a reservation and did some time in Leavenworth. Slim wants to go to college. Darrell encourages Riley to stick around awhile in Montana because the ocean isn't going anywhere.
Marian Palaia, you are an amazing writer. This is your first novel! Whatever has taken you so long, perhaps you too were on a journey like Riley because to craft the power of this book, you either saw of experienced life firsthand. I hope you give us another gift of literature in the future.
November 25, 2015
I've never read a novel built on the civilian cost of the Vietnam War. I haven't read much about the Vietnam War. And Marian Palaia's THE GIVEN WORLD isn't about the Vietnam War so much as it is about how a war that seems so focused in a single corner of the world can have a ripple effect on the wider world that never really stops.
THE GIVEN WORLD centers on Riley. Riley is in her most formative, not quite an adult and no longer a child, years when her brother Mick goes missing in the tunnels of Vietnam. Eight years older, Mick was adored by his kid sister and he loved her back enough to leave everything he owned to her by way of writing her name on the boxes. Barely old enough to understand the concept of war, Mick's disappearance sets Riley on a jagged trajectory that she only just manages to survive.
Palaia's story is about so much more than just Riley, though. Riley is the center of it and she is the reader's eyes. The story she tells is heartbreaking. She lives in San Francisco and sees the end of the hippie years there, the men who protested the war and the ones who came home barely alive. She sees them struggle to survive as they live beneath bridges and live waking nightmares. She sees San Francisco in the '80s as the next generation is brought to its knees by the AIDS epidemic. She befriends the people who can't find their place in the world; drug addicts, alcoholics, gay men, because she can only find her place in the world with them.
Riley spends decades stumbling through a haze of grief, misunderstanding of herself, and fear of going home because home is where the grief and misunderstanding begin. She drinks and she gets high, she sleeps with men who hurt her because she wants to be loved, she moves to Vietnam to "find" her brother, and she hides from her family because she doesn't know what to make of herself.
THE GIVEN WORLD is a focused look at a wider story. It is heartbreaking and it is impossible to stop reading, even in its most uncomfortable moments. Because life is uncomfortable... it is the given world.
(I received a copy of THE GIVEN WORLD through NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. Review cross-posted at Goodreads, NetGalley, and on my blog.)
THE GIVEN WORLD centers on Riley. Riley is in her most formative, not quite an adult and no longer a child, years when her brother Mick goes missing in the tunnels of Vietnam. Eight years older, Mick was adored by his kid sister and he loved her back enough to leave everything he owned to her by way of writing her name on the boxes. Barely old enough to understand the concept of war, Mick's disappearance sets Riley on a jagged trajectory that she only just manages to survive.
Palaia's story is about so much more than just Riley, though. Riley is the center of it and she is the reader's eyes. The story she tells is heartbreaking. She lives in San Francisco and sees the end of the hippie years there, the men who protested the war and the ones who came home barely alive. She sees them struggle to survive as they live beneath bridges and live waking nightmares. She sees San Francisco in the '80s as the next generation is brought to its knees by the AIDS epidemic. She befriends the people who can't find their place in the world; drug addicts, alcoholics, gay men, because she can only find her place in the world with them.
Riley spends decades stumbling through a haze of grief, misunderstanding of herself, and fear of going home because home is where the grief and misunderstanding begin. She drinks and she gets high, she sleeps with men who hurt her because she wants to be loved, she moves to Vietnam to "find" her brother, and she hides from her family because she doesn't know what to make of herself.
THE GIVEN WORLD is a focused look at a wider story. It is heartbreaking and it is impossible to stop reading, even in its most uncomfortable moments. Because life is uncomfortable... it is the given world.
(I received a copy of THE GIVEN WORLD through NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. Review cross-posted at Goodreads, NetGalley, and on my blog.)
January 5, 2015
This novel's protagonist, Riley, is a broken woman whose brother Mick is MIA in Vietnam. A tunnel diver, his remains or any knowledge of his whereabouts are unknown. This story is interspersed with chapters that show how Riley tries to deal with Mick's loss after leaving her home in Montana - her travels to San Francisco and Vietnam most specifically.
Riley has a penchant for broken people like herself. The more broken they are, the more she appears to be attracted to them. When she first gets to San Francisco she is living in her car. She meets Primo who gets her a job with the Teamsters delivering papers. One night while she is staying in his apartment she finds out his secret.
She has friends but intimacy is not her thing. She tries to keep her distance from others and does not do love well. When there is the possibility of a loving relationship, she runs.
Riley is searching for a way to live without her brother, but she is also searching for a way to live without feeling anything. Her drinking and drugging become extreme and she barely manages to function throughout much of this book.
Marian Palaia covers the problems associated with the Vietnam era very well but I found the book disjointed and the chapters didn't flow well into one another. I wish I could have liked it more.
Riley has a penchant for broken people like herself. The more broken they are, the more she appears to be attracted to them. When she first gets to San Francisco she is living in her car. She meets Primo who gets her a job with the Teamsters delivering papers. One night while she is staying in his apartment she finds out his secret.
She has friends but intimacy is not her thing. She tries to keep her distance from others and does not do love well. When there is the possibility of a loving relationship, she runs.
Riley is searching for a way to live without her brother, but she is also searching for a way to live without feeling anything. Her drinking and drugging become extreme and she barely manages to function throughout much of this book.
Marian Palaia covers the problems associated with the Vietnam era very well but I found the book disjointed and the chapters didn't flow well into one another. I wish I could have liked it more.
August 21, 2015
The Given World is a beautiful book. From the first page, I was wholly engaged, and I couldn't put it down--which is somewhat odd considering how sullen it is. There is SO much sorrow here. Page after page of it. Some of that sadness is self-imposed by the characters, and some of it is just the stuff life is made of.
The main character, Riley, is very loveable--also lost and melancholy and deeply sad--but, yes, so earnest and endearing. She cares very genuinely, so even when she messes up and makes decisions that are, hm, less than stellar, I still had no problem forgiving her everything. I so wanted her to make better, healthier choices for herself, but I was willing to support her regardless.
For me, this book flew by. And when I finished it, I had that very satisfying feeling of having actually read Something Significant. The Given World is poetic and powerful. Definitely worth a read.
The main character, Riley, is very loveable--also lost and melancholy and deeply sad--but, yes, so earnest and endearing. She cares very genuinely, so even when she messes up and makes decisions that are, hm, less than stellar, I still had no problem forgiving her everything. I so wanted her to make better, healthier choices for herself, but I was willing to support her regardless.
For me, this book flew by. And when I finished it, I had that very satisfying feeling of having actually read Something Significant. The Given World is poetic and powerful. Definitely worth a read.
December 20, 2018
The beauty of loneliness given words.
The heartbreak that comes from losing someone who felt so necessary to one's life.
The long search for one's own heart. For real human feeling.
It's all here in Marian Palaia's stunning debut novel. Taking place in the sad years before, during and after the Vietnam War, and traversing the terrains of Montana and California's coast and San Francisco and even Ho Chi Minh City, the story follows Riley as she launches herself into the long hunt for her brother who disappeared in the tunnels of war halfway around the world. But it's the people, the lost gallant losers of "the given world" of San Francisco that help her come to terms with the unspoken grief she's held onto for most of her life. It's a poem of a book, and the final passage at the end is a miracle of possibility and redemption. Beautiful.
The heartbreak that comes from losing someone who felt so necessary to one's life.
The long search for one's own heart. For real human feeling.
It's all here in Marian Palaia's stunning debut novel. Taking place in the sad years before, during and after the Vietnam War, and traversing the terrains of Montana and California's coast and San Francisco and even Ho Chi Minh City, the story follows Riley as she launches herself into the long hunt for her brother who disappeared in the tunnels of war halfway around the world. But it's the people, the lost gallant losers of "the given world" of San Francisco that help her come to terms with the unspoken grief she's held onto for most of her life. It's a poem of a book, and the final passage at the end is a miracle of possibility and redemption. Beautiful.
January 28, 2015
Alas, this was not the book for me. If you think you would enjoy the literary love child of Rachel Kushner and Lena Dunham, it just might be the book for you.
There were moments when I was caught up in the magic, but they were early on. I rather felt about most of this book the way I did about most of the Las Vegas sections of The Goldfinch, but this book lacked Donna Tartt's superb craft of writing to make me care.
Want another opinion? Read the excellently written and very positive review from my Goodreads friend, Newengland.
There were moments when I was caught up in the magic, but they were early on. I rather felt about most of this book the way I did about most of the Las Vegas sections of The Goldfinch, but this book lacked Donna Tartt's superb craft of writing to make me care.
Want another opinion? Read the excellently written and very positive review from my Goodreads friend, Newengland.
April 14, 2015
This book really did not grab me. The main character is a hot mess. Although she is interesting and complex, she's lost and not really able to tell her own story. This is balanced out a little bit by some alternating chapters that are told from the perspective of other characters who are trying to explain how they see the protagonist, but the author gives up using this narrative method about half way through. The subject was interesting but it didn't feel like it really went anywhere.
This honest review is in exchange for a free e-galley from Netgalley.com.
This honest review is in exchange for a free e-galley from Netgalley.com.
March 9, 2015
This is a beautiful book about the last 1/4 of the 20th century. You can tell Ms. Palaia has a great mind, and her voice projects the reality of the events, the times and the changes that occurred. A great read!
Read
April 17, 2018For this reading cycle I read The Given World, a psychological fiction by Marian Palaia. When we love and care for people so much it pains us when they leave or sudden changes occur around us.
Riley is a young girl at the start of the book growing up during the Vietnam War. She is already at a disadvantage because of the kind of lifestyle that she grew up in. Drugs had their first beginnings and she later fell into that trap. Her older brother Mick is just about to get discharged when suddenly he disappeared out of nowhere and was considered MIA, “missing in action”. Riley soon sets off for San Francisco and then to Vietnam to search for her missing brother. The book takes a few turns however when it flips between her own words and the words around Riley. It also goes from her childhood to her all grown up and moving away from Montana. She just wants to find what happened to her brother Mick and just be confined by the sense if he is dead or not. To her, the worst thing possible is not knowing and the closure is not there. Riley soon after meets a boy and becomes very close to him. So close that they end up having a child together. He then leaves to go to Vietnam also. It is a very sad time in Riley’s life as she loses another close boy in her life to the war.
This book had its ups and downs and sometimes was really confusing with the way it went from 1st to 3rd person. I would rate this book a 3 because it does have qualities that a good book should have, like the emotional part. The fact that it pulls on the heartstrings makes it even better.
Riley is a young girl at the start of the book growing up during the Vietnam War. She is already at a disadvantage because of the kind of lifestyle that she grew up in. Drugs had their first beginnings and she later fell into that trap. Her older brother Mick is just about to get discharged when suddenly he disappeared out of nowhere and was considered MIA, “missing in action”. Riley soon sets off for San Francisco and then to Vietnam to search for her missing brother. The book takes a few turns however when it flips between her own words and the words around Riley. It also goes from her childhood to her all grown up and moving away from Montana. She just wants to find what happened to her brother Mick and just be confined by the sense if he is dead or not. To her, the worst thing possible is not knowing and the closure is not there. Riley soon after meets a boy and becomes very close to him. So close that they end up having a child together. He then leaves to go to Vietnam also. It is a very sad time in Riley’s life as she loses another close boy in her life to the war.
This book had its ups and downs and sometimes was really confusing with the way it went from 1st to 3rd person. I would rate this book a 3 because it does have qualities that a good book should have, like the emotional part. The fact that it pulls on the heartstrings makes it even better.
March 22, 2020
I didn't think I was going to like this book. I'm not one for historical fiction, but I found it saved in my to-read list and decided to take a chance. What drew me in was how human the book was. Palaia's writing captured the essence of the main character, Riley, beautifully and authentically in a way that bypassed the mind - I felt myself understanding Riley, even if I couldn't name what it is I understood. It was these moments of deep knowing that engaged me most and made me glad I took a chance on this book.
December 26, 2017
A meandering but engaging story about a woman whose grief from losing her brother to Viet Nam (among other things) affects her life profoundly. I struggled a little to understand how she could be so messed up for so long, but the satisfying ending redeemed the story for me. Vivid descriptions of place, especially Montana and San Francisco.
September 29, 2023
Struggled to get into this one so did not finish.
July 30, 2015
On WKAR’s Current State, I reviewed The Given World, a debut work of literary fiction by Marian Palaia.
You can listen to my new review here: http://wkar.org/post/book-review-mari...
If you would rather read my review, you can do so below.
–
Book Review: The Given World by Marian Palaia
Reading a novel about loss and grief is never easy. Typically, we like to read stories with heroes, hope, and happy endings. But in the real world, and in the book The Given World by Marian Palaia, that is not always how things turn out. It takes some artistic flair to convey such heavy topics while moving the plot forward and keeping the reader engaged. Palaia takes on this challenge, creating a unique work with some powerful moments and a lot of heart.
There are three main characters haunting the pages of The Given World. The first one is Riley. When we meet her, she is nine-years old. She is energetic and adventurous, and she spends her days roaming the fields of her family farm in Montana. She is obsessed with her older brother, Mick. Riley is always underfoot, watching him fix his bike and peppering him with questions. That is, until another character enters the story.
That character is Vietnam.
In 1968, Mick goes missing in Vietnam, changing Riley’s life forever. The loss is too much for Riley to handle, since Mick was everything to her. Soon Riley leaves her farm family and begins traveling the country. She takes occasional odd jobs—as a newspaper deliverer, a factory worker and a bartender, but she is always wondering what happened to her brother. At one point, she actually travels to Vietnam, looking for him.
Riley is not a character that’s easy to understand, since she shares little with the people she meets on her adventures. Those characters recognize her fragility and many make an effort to save her from herself. That is not to say, readers will like the character of Riley. She abandons everyone in time–family, friends, and even a baby. When things get hard, she leaves. She dives into drugs and drinking, anything she can find to dull her pain. Yet, like other characters in the novel, a part of you will want to help her, seeing the lost potential hiding under her grief.
The Given World is a book about war, but not in the way you might think. It doesn’t focus on battles or wartime casualties, but on the scars of the other survivors, those left behind after the battles and the losses. You see those scars in Riley, but also the people that she meets in Vietnam. The pain of losing a loved one is universal. Everyone in the novel seems to be dealing with loss and struggling to understand why it happened. In the end, the characters don’t find all the answers they are looking for, but they do learn how to live with their questions.
The Given World by Marian Palaia is not the kind of book you will want to read on the beach or bring along for long flights or car rides. This is a book for quiet moments of contemplation. The messy uncertainty of the characters’ lives might not be what you’re expecting out of a typical novel, but somehow that messiness still feels familiar. I can’t guarantee that there is a happy ending waiting for every character in The Given World, but that is a lot like life in our given world too, isn’t it?
You can listen to my new review here: http://wkar.org/post/book-review-mari...
If you would rather read my review, you can do so below.
–
Book Review: The Given World by Marian Palaia
Reading a novel about loss and grief is never easy. Typically, we like to read stories with heroes, hope, and happy endings. But in the real world, and in the book The Given World by Marian Palaia, that is not always how things turn out. It takes some artistic flair to convey such heavy topics while moving the plot forward and keeping the reader engaged. Palaia takes on this challenge, creating a unique work with some powerful moments and a lot of heart.
There are three main characters haunting the pages of The Given World. The first one is Riley. When we meet her, she is nine-years old. She is energetic and adventurous, and she spends her days roaming the fields of her family farm in Montana. She is obsessed with her older brother, Mick. Riley is always underfoot, watching him fix his bike and peppering him with questions. That is, until another character enters the story.
That character is Vietnam.
In 1968, Mick goes missing in Vietnam, changing Riley’s life forever. The loss is too much for Riley to handle, since Mick was everything to her. Soon Riley leaves her farm family and begins traveling the country. She takes occasional odd jobs—as a newspaper deliverer, a factory worker and a bartender, but she is always wondering what happened to her brother. At one point, she actually travels to Vietnam, looking for him.
Riley is not a character that’s easy to understand, since she shares little with the people she meets on her adventures. Those characters recognize her fragility and many make an effort to save her from herself. That is not to say, readers will like the character of Riley. She abandons everyone in time–family, friends, and even a baby. When things get hard, she leaves. She dives into drugs and drinking, anything she can find to dull her pain. Yet, like other characters in the novel, a part of you will want to help her, seeing the lost potential hiding under her grief.
The Given World is a book about war, but not in the way you might think. It doesn’t focus on battles or wartime casualties, but on the scars of the other survivors, those left behind after the battles and the losses. You see those scars in Riley, but also the people that she meets in Vietnam. The pain of losing a loved one is universal. Everyone in the novel seems to be dealing with loss and struggling to understand why it happened. In the end, the characters don’t find all the answers they are looking for, but they do learn how to live with their questions.
The Given World by Marian Palaia is not the kind of book you will want to read on the beach or bring along for long flights or car rides. This is a book for quiet moments of contemplation. The messy uncertainty of the characters’ lives might not be what you’re expecting out of a typical novel, but somehow that messiness still feels familiar. I can’t guarantee that there is a happy ending waiting for every character in The Given World, but that is a lot like life in our given world too, isn’t it?
November 20, 2014
I can see this as a movie, I know- reader's hate that but we are really given a deeper look into a period of time in American history that touched so many. The moment Riley's brother is missing in Vietnam, her world crumbles and as she is searching for him, she is losing herself. The siblings meant the world to each other, her brother having guided her through her life which we see from the beginning. I don't want to give away everything that happens, this is a novel rich in characters and every one of them are ripped at the seams. It's hard to see Riley losing herself in drugs and leaving behind a child, because there is self-indulgence there, so much of the time you want to shake her awake and tell her 'gather yourself'! But that is the point, how losing her brother causes her to turn into herself and implode. What does a person do when the gravity of their world just vanishes? This story is full of heartache and pain, and the reader is frustrated but can't help but ache alongside Riley.
There are strong characters, everyone seems to want to help in some way, but can the blind lead the blind? This novel is full of grief stricken characters, the hardships keep coming at Riley, even her own boyfriend leaves for Vietnam before he knows they will be having a baby together. Riley is meandering, lost and abandoned but she will journey to find herself. This story travels through the years, to places and through people, and so much of it is heavy on the heart but necessary to give the reader a true look into what happened to those left behind after so much loss and destruction. There are stories for every character, which gives this novel strength and heart.
Beautifully sad but there is hope.
There are strong characters, everyone seems to want to help in some way, but can the blind lead the blind? This novel is full of grief stricken characters, the hardships keep coming at Riley, even her own boyfriend leaves for Vietnam before he knows they will be having a baby together. Riley is meandering, lost and abandoned but she will journey to find herself. This story travels through the years, to places and through people, and so much of it is heavy on the heart but necessary to give the reader a true look into what happened to those left behind after so much loss and destruction. There are stories for every character, which gives this novel strength and heart.
Beautifully sad but there is hope.
March 21, 2015
The Given World follows Riley starting when she is thirteen, through twenty five years of struggling to figure out how to live and to feel and to be present, and it is written so remarkably that I want to quote her daily. Pay attention not only to the story, which is beautiful and hard and gritty and real, but to how intelligently Marian Palaia is able to put life into words. It's about human beings, who are wounded and flawed. It is about how simply surviving life is hard, but there is still beauty in it. This book is different than what I typically read, and I am so glad I went outside of my comfort zone to do so. I would definitely recommend this book.
February 17, 2015
I liked the unpredictability of this book: the plotting, the language, the way life doesn't hew to a narrative arc—at least not until it's got some ballast, and the way it takes some of us more time to acquire that than others. The writing was lovely throughout, and while at some point the book felt more like linked short vignettes than a novel, it held together admirably. A good ride, and a good read.
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