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Las propiedades de la sed
Una épica historia de amor ambientada en California durante la segunda guerra mundial.
Rocky Rhodes lleva años protegiendo con uñas y dientes su rancho de California frente al Departamento de Aguas de Los Ángeles que está drenando sus acuíferos. Es en ese rancho del valle de Owens donde su mujer y él criaron a sus hijos gemelos, Sunny y Stryker, y donde Rocky ha llorado a su esposa desde su muerte. Cuando Estados Unidos entra en la segunda guerra mundial, el gobierno decide construir en el valle uno de los campos de internamiento en los que confinará a los más de cien mil ciudadanos de origen japonés que viven en los estados de la costa del Pacífico. El director del campo, un chico judío de Chicago, quedará fascinado por la familia Rhodes, especialmente por la joven Sunny.
Las propiedades de la sed es una inolvidable novela sobre uno de los episodios más oscuros del pasado estadounidense, pero también es una historia de amor: el de una familia por un paisaje amenazado y el de un hombre por una mujer asombrosa. Una historia universal e íntima, cuyos ecos resuenan especialmente hoy en día, sobre la celebración de los vínculos amorosos y familiares que sobreviven a pesar de las dificultades. Sin duda, una de las grandes novelas americanas de los últimos años. Una novela destinada a convertirse en un clásico
Rocky Rhodes lleva años protegiendo con uñas y dientes su rancho de California frente al Departamento de Aguas de Los Ángeles que está drenando sus acuíferos. Es en ese rancho del valle de Owens donde su mujer y él criaron a sus hijos gemelos, Sunny y Stryker, y donde Rocky ha llorado a su esposa desde su muerte. Cuando Estados Unidos entra en la segunda guerra mundial, el gobierno decide construir en el valle uno de los campos de internamiento en los que confinará a los más de cien mil ciudadanos de origen japonés que viven en los estados de la costa del Pacífico. El director del campo, un chico judío de Chicago, quedará fascinado por la familia Rhodes, especialmente por la joven Sunny.
Las propiedades de la sed es una inolvidable novela sobre uno de los episodios más oscuros del pasado estadounidense, pero también es una historia de amor: el de una familia por un paisaje amenazado y el de un hombre por una mujer asombrosa. Una historia universal e íntima, cuyos ecos resuenan especialmente hoy en día, sobre la celebración de los vínculos amorosos y familiares que sobreviven a pesar de las dificultades. Sin duda, una de las grandes novelas americanas de los últimos años. Una novela destinada a convertirse en un clásico
616 pages, Paperback
First published August 2, 2022
1349 people are currently reading
31352 people want to read
About the author
Marianne Wiggins
18 books290 followersMarianne Wiggins is the author of seven books of fiction including John Dollar and Evidence of Things Unseen. She has won an NEA grant, the Whiting Writers' Award, and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and she was a National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-finalist in fiction for Evidence of Things Unseen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 836 reviews
August 8, 2022
There are such fully drawn characters and an in depth depiction of the time and place and events and the convergence of these characters with the events and with each other in this novel. I’ve been trying to think of a word to aptly describe it that hasn’t already been said about it. Its been called a future classic, sprawling, epic, multi layered. It’s all of those things . Trite as it may sound, all I could think of is big. It’s a big story, a big beautiful story. The kind of story with characters that I wanted to know everything about, what made them tick, what happened in the past leading them to this present moment in wartime, what would happen to them moving forward.
This is a story of a family, of place, of California in the 1940’s, of war, the internment of Japanese Americans, of loss, grief, the comfort of food, about water and land, about the goodness of people and as you might expect with a big beautiful story, there is love. It’s such a good work of historical fiction, and I’m sure it must already have been called that by someone. This is an extraordinary novel. I’m sure someone must have said that, too, but it deserves repeating. It’s not an easy read. It’s complex in it’s detailed writing, in the depth of its characters, in their complicated relationships, and I was emotionally connected every step of the way. My first but not last book by Marianne Wiggins.
The day after I stared reading this book, the following article appeared in my email from Kirkus. A testament to the author for sure and her wonderful daughter, Lara Porzak who helped her mother who was recovering from a stroke finish this novel. She read and reread the novel to her mother to spark remembrance of her characters and their story, sifting through handwritten notes and talking to people who she might have discussed the book with. Amazing and moving. Porzak also relates the process in a note at the end.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-an...
I received a copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through Edelweiss.
This is a story of a family, of place, of California in the 1940’s, of war, the internment of Japanese Americans, of loss, grief, the comfort of food, about water and land, about the goodness of people and as you might expect with a big beautiful story, there is love. It’s such a good work of historical fiction, and I’m sure it must already have been called that by someone. This is an extraordinary novel. I’m sure someone must have said that, too, but it deserves repeating. It’s not an easy read. It’s complex in it’s detailed writing, in the depth of its characters, in their complicated relationships, and I was emotionally connected every step of the way. My first but not last book by Marianne Wiggins.
The day after I stared reading this book, the following article appeared in my email from Kirkus. A testament to the author for sure and her wonderful daughter, Lara Porzak who helped her mother who was recovering from a stroke finish this novel. She read and reread the novel to her mother to spark remembrance of her characters and their story, sifting through handwritten notes and talking to people who she might have discussed the book with. Amazing and moving. Porzak also relates the process in a note at the end.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-an...
I received a copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through Edelweiss.
February 2, 2023
5 ⛰️⛰️⛰️⛰️⛰️
Oh, the distinct, meaningful elements of words, like drugs coursing through this logophile’s veins.
At the completion of this epic story the title of Edna Ferber’s novel was in my head—So Big.
How to express how much I loved this—impossible.
I was a complete verbivore devouring her work—544 pages not enough, I was still thirsty.
“Stryker had made the mistake of believing that the point of fishing was to catch fish, when the whole idea was to catch time: time as water, time as light, time as a fluid substance, sluicing forward and back.”
I woke up this morning missing the time I would no longer be spending with these characters, pondering the point(s) of reading.
“He was never going to be Albert Einstein—who could?—but he was going to try to move toward joy commensurate to Einstein's joy, commensurate to waking up each morning saying thank you, thank you for this problem, this display, this universe, this role of the dice, this chance to be alive.”
So thankful for this book. The setting, the subject matter(s).
These words appear often:
“You can’t save what you don’t love”
and you can only know how much love went into its completion when you read daughter Lara Porzak’s Afterword.
I want more from Marianne Wiggins. One of the points of reading—to read more.
Oh, the distinct, meaningful elements of words, like drugs coursing through this logophile’s veins.
At the completion of this epic story the title of Edna Ferber’s novel was in my head—So Big.
How to express how much I loved this—impossible.
I was a complete verbivore devouring her work—544 pages not enough, I was still thirsty.
“Stryker had made the mistake of believing that the point of fishing was to catch fish, when the whole idea was to catch time: time as water, time as light, time as a fluid substance, sluicing forward and back.”
I woke up this morning missing the time I would no longer be spending with these characters, pondering the point(s) of reading.
“He was never going to be Albert Einstein—who could?—but he was going to try to move toward joy commensurate to Einstein's joy, commensurate to waking up each morning saying thank you, thank you for this problem, this display, this universe, this role of the dice, this chance to be alive.”
So thankful for this book. The setting, the subject matter(s).
These words appear often:
“You can’t save what you don’t love”
and you can only know how much love went into its completion when you read daughter Lara Porzak’s Afterword.
I want more from Marianne Wiggins. One of the points of reading—to read more.
June 23, 2022
This is the saga of the Rhodes family: historical in scope, multi-layered in narrative, and with characters that are richly drawn. Water rights, Japanese internment camps, love, loss, food, and music provide the skeleton of this exquisite and graceful novel. Another must-read.
July 30, 2022
I was immediately interested in this book when I read the description concerning water rights and the protection of beloved California ranchland (as I sit smack-dab in the Arizona desert and parts of our state face water restrictions that seem, also, to cater to “the many vs. the few.” i.e., Ranchers/farmers in our county are being restricted while large cities in other counties have zero restrictions).
“You can’t save what you don’t love” was a theme presented throughout this novel – a sentiment I’ve voiced many times regarding humans’ detachment from nature. In this novel, it becomes an expertly woven theme – related to land and relationships and humanity.
Naturally, water images abound, and each section is presented with the various properties of thirst, eleven in all, including, among them, memory, desire, truth, reinvention, evaporation (brilliant)! Some of the liquidy imagery:
…Here he could hear the water, he could see the water, the shadow of the water: ice on the mountains vapor in the clouds….
He had loved the land and had watched it parch and buckle, water trapped and stolen by … he didn’t even like to think the name. Los Angeles.
I could relate to Rocky and his absolute adoration for the ruggedness of the area (and would hope to see Pierce Brosnan cast as him!). This novel tackles tough and tender issues simultaneously: love and loss, the corruption of large municipal entities, and the horrific reality of Japanese-American internment camps in America. It address moral consciousness and humanity, and pits it against greed and selfishness.
The writing is dense and complex and uses a lot of unconventional grammatical and punctuation techniques, which may turn some readers off (lots of dashes and parentheses, stream of consciousness). And while I wholly enjoyed this story, I noted a kind of unevenness throughout that I couldn’t quite put my finger on – very lengthy soliloquies that needed paring down (for my tastes) and often-excessive descriptions that got in the way of the story (usually something I don’t mind).
When I read the Afterword, I gained some clarity regarding my reaction. That said, the Afterword also erased any potential quibbles I might have had.
Many thanks to the publisher, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
“You can’t save what you don’t love” was a theme presented throughout this novel – a sentiment I’ve voiced many times regarding humans’ detachment from nature. In this novel, it becomes an expertly woven theme – related to land and relationships and humanity.
Naturally, water images abound, and each section is presented with the various properties of thirst, eleven in all, including, among them, memory, desire, truth, reinvention, evaporation (brilliant)! Some of the liquidy imagery:
…Here he could hear the water, he could see the water, the shadow of the water: ice on the mountains vapor in the clouds….
He had loved the land and had watched it parch and buckle, water trapped and stolen by … he didn’t even like to think the name. Los Angeles.
I could relate to Rocky and his absolute adoration for the ruggedness of the area (and would hope to see Pierce Brosnan cast as him!). This novel tackles tough and tender issues simultaneously: love and loss, the corruption of large municipal entities, and the horrific reality of Japanese-American internment camps in America. It address moral consciousness and humanity, and pits it against greed and selfishness.
The writing is dense and complex and uses a lot of unconventional grammatical and punctuation techniques, which may turn some readers off (lots of dashes and parentheses, stream of consciousness). And while I wholly enjoyed this story, I noted a kind of unevenness throughout that I couldn’t quite put my finger on – very lengthy soliloquies that needed paring down (for my tastes) and often-excessive descriptions that got in the way of the story (usually something I don’t mind).
When I read the Afterword, I gained some clarity regarding my reaction. That said, the Afterword also erased any potential quibbles I might have had.
Many thanks to the publisher, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
May 13, 2024
No puedes salvar lo que no amas.
¿Pero qué es el amor?
Diariamente disponemos de un sinfín de comodidades y privilegios que pasan desapercibidos y damos por sentados. Estamos acostumbrados a pulsar un interruptor y que se haga la luz. A que con un aparato que cabe en un bolsillo podamos estar conectados instantáneamente con personas que están al otro lado del mundo. A comprar cualquier cosa que necesites desde el sofá de tu casa. Estamos acostumbrados y damos por sentado que siempre que abramos el grifo fluirá por arte de magia el elemento más esencial de nuestra vida: el agua.
¿Pero que pasa cuando se altera esta realidad en la que nos hemos acostumbrado a vivir? ¿Qué pasa cuando, por ejemplo, una guerra a miles de kilómetros te arrebata tu pasado, tu presente y tu futuro? ¿Qué pasa cuando de repente, al querer dar un simple paseo te tropiezas con un muro de hormigón y alambre de espino solo porque tus abuelos hablaban otra lengua? ¿Qué pasa cuando la persona con la que has construido una vida, un hogar, un futuro… al día siguiente de repente no está? ¿Dónde se guardan todas las palabras que no se han dicho, los recuerdos que no hemos podido salvar, todas las cosas que quedaron pendientes…? Demasiadas preguntas para tan pocas respuestas.
Aun así te voy a hacer alguna pegunta más: ¿Cuál es tu personaje favorito de Shakespeare? ¿En la luna hay un hombre o un conejo? ¿Cuál dirías que es el alimento perfecto? ¿Cuál es la receta para escribir la novela perfecta? ¿Dónde empieza una historia?... Solo es curiosidad.
Las propiedades de la sed es una novela redonda, y entiende que digo redonda porque abarca todo lo que una novela puede y debe abarcar, como el círculo de la vida. Ambientada en California con la resonancia del ataque a Pearl Harbor como punto de partida, esta novela nos habla de la guerra, de la supervivencia, de la soledad, de la pérdida, del desamparo, de la resiliencia, de la injusticia, de los giros imprevistos del destino, del crecimiento personal, de la amistad, de los lazos familiares, de la memoria, de todo aquello que nos hace vivir, de lo esencial, del amor… El amor a tus raíces, a tu familia, a tu pueblo, a tu tierra, a ese hombre, a esa mujer... Ese sentimiento que nos hace ser quienes somos, que se adhiere a nuestra piel como el polvo del desierto y que forma parte de nosotros como el agua de la que estamos hechos. Como el aire que respiramos.
Te advierto una cosa. También estás ante una novela devastadora. Te arrollará. Te arrastrará como una riada. Entrará dentro de ti y pasará a formar parte de ese 70% de agua del que estás hecho. La historia siempre te encuentra y de esta no vas a poder escapar.
Y se quedará siempre contigo. Una parte de ti siempre se quedará en Las Tres Sillas. Lee este libro y después nos cuentas. Y lo celebras con nosotros porque hoy tenemos mucho que celebrar. Para empezar, tenemos que celebrar que este libro se ha cruzado en nuestras vidas, que cada barco siempre encuentra su puerto soleado, que la guerra termina, pero el amor no... y también que esta noche volvemos a cenar en el Lou's y ¡eso sí que es una suerte!
Entonces, ¿Qué es el amor? Todas las estrellas que iluminan tu noche. Aquello que no puedes expresar, solo puedes sentir. La necesidad de hacer que todo aquello que te importe sea eterno.
No puedes salvar lo que no amas. Y probablemente a veces tampoco está en tu mano salvar lo que amas, pero este libro… este libro va a ser eterno.
https://www.lalibreriaambulante.es/es...
¿Pero qué es el amor?
Diariamente disponemos de un sinfín de comodidades y privilegios que pasan desapercibidos y damos por sentados. Estamos acostumbrados a pulsar un interruptor y que se haga la luz. A que con un aparato que cabe en un bolsillo podamos estar conectados instantáneamente con personas que están al otro lado del mundo. A comprar cualquier cosa que necesites desde el sofá de tu casa. Estamos acostumbrados y damos por sentado que siempre que abramos el grifo fluirá por arte de magia el elemento más esencial de nuestra vida: el agua.
¿Pero que pasa cuando se altera esta realidad en la que nos hemos acostumbrado a vivir? ¿Qué pasa cuando, por ejemplo, una guerra a miles de kilómetros te arrebata tu pasado, tu presente y tu futuro? ¿Qué pasa cuando de repente, al querer dar un simple paseo te tropiezas con un muro de hormigón y alambre de espino solo porque tus abuelos hablaban otra lengua? ¿Qué pasa cuando la persona con la que has construido una vida, un hogar, un futuro… al día siguiente de repente no está? ¿Dónde se guardan todas las palabras que no se han dicho, los recuerdos que no hemos podido salvar, todas las cosas que quedaron pendientes…? Demasiadas preguntas para tan pocas respuestas.
Aun así te voy a hacer alguna pegunta más: ¿Cuál es tu personaje favorito de Shakespeare? ¿En la luna hay un hombre o un conejo? ¿Cuál dirías que es el alimento perfecto? ¿Cuál es la receta para escribir la novela perfecta? ¿Dónde empieza una historia?... Solo es curiosidad.
Las propiedades de la sed es una novela redonda, y entiende que digo redonda porque abarca todo lo que una novela puede y debe abarcar, como el círculo de la vida. Ambientada en California con la resonancia del ataque a Pearl Harbor como punto de partida, esta novela nos habla de la guerra, de la supervivencia, de la soledad, de la pérdida, del desamparo, de la resiliencia, de la injusticia, de los giros imprevistos del destino, del crecimiento personal, de la amistad, de los lazos familiares, de la memoria, de todo aquello que nos hace vivir, de lo esencial, del amor… El amor a tus raíces, a tu familia, a tu pueblo, a tu tierra, a ese hombre, a esa mujer... Ese sentimiento que nos hace ser quienes somos, que se adhiere a nuestra piel como el polvo del desierto y que forma parte de nosotros como el agua de la que estamos hechos. Como el aire que respiramos.
Te advierto una cosa. También estás ante una novela devastadora. Te arrollará. Te arrastrará como una riada. Entrará dentro de ti y pasará a formar parte de ese 70% de agua del que estás hecho. La historia siempre te encuentra y de esta no vas a poder escapar.
Y se quedará siempre contigo. Una parte de ti siempre se quedará en Las Tres Sillas. Lee este libro y después nos cuentas. Y lo celebras con nosotros porque hoy tenemos mucho que celebrar. Para empezar, tenemos que celebrar que este libro se ha cruzado en nuestras vidas, que cada barco siempre encuentra su puerto soleado, que la guerra termina, pero el amor no... y también que esta noche volvemos a cenar en el Lou's y ¡eso sí que es una suerte!
Entonces, ¿Qué es el amor? Todas las estrellas que iluminan tu noche. Aquello que no puedes expresar, solo puedes sentir. La necesidad de hacer que todo aquello que te importe sea eterno.
No puedes salvar lo que no amas. Y probablemente a veces tampoco está en tu mano salvar lo que amas, pero este libro… este libro va a ser eterno.
https://www.lalibreriaambulante.es/es...
August 22, 2022
I tried, I really did. I got to page 249 and just had to give up. I was still waiting for something (anything!) to happen but all I got to read about was food, food and yet again, food. I'm sure all that had some deeper meaning, but too deep for me apparently. Got to be one of the most boring books I've ever tried to read. I give up.
September 3, 2024
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Maravillosa.
La belleza de la prosa es agua que fluye, lectura totalmente inmersiva, magistralmente ambientada y con personajes inolvidables.
Rocky...Tops, Cas, Schiff, Sunny...os volveré a leer
Maravillosa.
La belleza de la prosa es agua que fluye, lectura totalmente inmersiva, magistralmente ambientada y con personajes inolvidables.
Rocky...Tops, Cas, Schiff, Sunny...os volveré a leer
July 16, 2024
Hallelujah-finally finished! This may be one of the harder books to review.
For me, one of the most important elements of a book is the writing. Even the writing is tough for me to rate for Properties of Thirst, however. On one hand, there were so many page-stopping, gorgeous passages that were like poetry. It would stop me in my tracks and I would have to go back and re-read them, in awe of the prose. When I look back on 2022, (more than 3/4 s of the way through currently), and I think about some of the most beautiful writing I read, I am betting this book may make it to the top or near top of the list. For that element, I would rate it 5 stars and I think Wiggins is one of the most talented writers without a doubt.
Yet at the same time, one of the biggest complaints I have about this book is also about – although it pains me to say it – the writing. At times I found myself lost in a page, not sure what I just read and again also having to go back and re-read a page to understand the meaning. Not only that, but very often when I would go to return to the book after a night, I found myself not understanding what had just happened in the book or who the page was even centered around. I would again have to go further back to find my footing for where I was. It started to feel like a chore, and that's never how I want to feel about reading. So in a way, at times it was a slog of a read for me. I felt the (literal) heaviness of this book every time I went to pick it up, and halfway through I wasn’t eager to open it back up. I was emotionally connected at the beginning, lost it somewhere along the middle and regained it a little towards the end.
I felt as though there were either a few too many main characters (Schiff) and even minor characters or there were much too much unnecessary details, which bogged it down and took away from the beautiful writing. I am a lover of character-driven novels and Wiggins made a heck of an effort to pack in descriptions of characters. But I found it to be too much, particularly too much back story. Halfway through I felt the back story was pulling me backwards, not propelling me forward.
In hindsight, why was so much detail given to minor characters such as Schiff’s friend, Jay Sveno or Jimmy Ideda? These characters distracted me from the story. That’s another thing, sometimes Wiggins would refer to some of these characters by their first or last names. I began feeling confused over who was who, if there was an additional character I was missing!
One of the biggest gripes I have with the book was that the whole story seemed to be building towards the construction and running of a Japanese-American internment camp but in the grand scheme, it seemed to have no major role in the story. I felt like Wiggins took a hard turn in a different direction and never closed the loop on it. And what’s more important is that I wanted to get a better understanding of the plight of the Japanese Americans who were stuck there. I felt like it was treated like a minor subplot, hastily discarded on the side. I felt like that would have been the more important story, less important than the rich Rhodes family and Schiff who is tasked with running it. I feel if I was a Japanese-American, I would be hugely disappointed as this was a big miss and not treated with enough respect frankly.
What it all comes down to, in my humble opinion, is I think the book needed a massive editing that would have let the soul of the book shine through better. After reading the Afterword and subsequent news articles on Wiggins’ stroke before the book was completed, it made complete sense to me why. I think if Wiggins could have gone back and tightened up the book and given it a writer’s edit, the book would have probably shaped up differently. I couldn’t have more respect, admiration, and good wishes for Wiggins in her health. And her daughter deserves massive appreciation for all of her efforts in both caring for her mother and for this novel and bringing it to fruition. I am glad I read it. Some of the characters like Sunny will stay with me a long while. As much as I loved some of the writing, there was a lot of drawbacks that took away from that beautiful writing which brought my rating down to lower than I would have liked, fizzling out to 3 stars overall.
For me, one of the most important elements of a book is the writing. Even the writing is tough for me to rate for Properties of Thirst, however. On one hand, there were so many page-stopping, gorgeous passages that were like poetry. It would stop me in my tracks and I would have to go back and re-read them, in awe of the prose. When I look back on 2022, (more than 3/4 s of the way through currently), and I think about some of the most beautiful writing I read, I am betting this book may make it to the top or near top of the list. For that element, I would rate it 5 stars and I think Wiggins is one of the most talented writers without a doubt.
Yet at the same time, one of the biggest complaints I have about this book is also about – although it pains me to say it – the writing. At times I found myself lost in a page, not sure what I just read and again also having to go back and re-read a page to understand the meaning. Not only that, but very often when I would go to return to the book after a night, I found myself not understanding what had just happened in the book or who the page was even centered around. I would again have to go further back to find my footing for where I was. It started to feel like a chore, and that's never how I want to feel about reading. So in a way, at times it was a slog of a read for me. I felt the (literal) heaviness of this book every time I went to pick it up, and halfway through I wasn’t eager to open it back up. I was emotionally connected at the beginning, lost it somewhere along the middle and regained it a little towards the end.
I felt as though there were either a few too many main characters (Schiff) and even minor characters or there were much too much unnecessary details, which bogged it down and took away from the beautiful writing. I am a lover of character-driven novels and Wiggins made a heck of an effort to pack in descriptions of characters. But I found it to be too much, particularly too much back story. Halfway through I felt the back story was pulling me backwards, not propelling me forward.
In hindsight, why was so much detail given to minor characters such as Schiff’s friend, Jay Sveno or Jimmy Ideda? These characters distracted me from the story. That’s another thing, sometimes Wiggins would refer to some of these characters by their first or last names. I began feeling confused over who was who, if there was an additional character I was missing!
One of the biggest gripes I have with the book was that the whole story seemed to be building towards the construction and running of a Japanese-American internment camp but in the grand scheme, it seemed to have no major role in the story. I felt like Wiggins took a hard turn in a different direction and never closed the loop on it. And what’s more important is that I wanted to get a better understanding of the plight of the Japanese Americans who were stuck there. I felt like it was treated like a minor subplot, hastily discarded on the side. I felt like that would have been the more important story, less important than the rich Rhodes family and Schiff who is tasked with running it. I feel if I was a Japanese-American, I would be hugely disappointed as this was a big miss and not treated with enough respect frankly.
What it all comes down to, in my humble opinion, is I think the book needed a massive editing that would have let the soul of the book shine through better. After reading the Afterword and subsequent news articles on Wiggins’ stroke before the book was completed, it made complete sense to me why. I think if Wiggins could have gone back and tightened up the book and given it a writer’s edit, the book would have probably shaped up differently. I couldn’t have more respect, admiration, and good wishes for Wiggins in her health. And her daughter deserves massive appreciation for all of her efforts in both caring for her mother and for this novel and bringing it to fruition. I am glad I read it. Some of the characters like Sunny will stay with me a long while. As much as I loved some of the writing, there was a lot of drawbacks that took away from that beautiful writing which brought my rating down to lower than I would have liked, fizzling out to 3 stars overall.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2025
5/10
No tengo claro si es bueno o malo este libro, lo cierto es que no he conectado de inicio y no le he dado demasiadas oportunidades. Abandono a las 60 páginas, me exigía una concentración que en este momento no le puedo prestar. Estoy casi seguro de que la puntuación que doy es injusta, ya que el estilo parece novedoso, pero no sé… me da la impresión que la autora hace sobreactuar un poco a los personajes, a esas tres generaciones seguidas de gemelos, por momentos me resultaba poco creíble, y ahí es ya cuando suelo desconectar y ya soy incapaz de sacrificarme a leer más, da igual que me queden 50 páginas o 500.
Ni mucho menos digo que esta novela sea mala, sólo que no parece para mí. Me cae demasiado lejana esta California que describe Wiggins, por más jerga española y dejes mexicanos que se usen.
No tengo claro si es bueno o malo este libro, lo cierto es que no he conectado de inicio y no le he dado demasiadas oportunidades. Abandono a las 60 páginas, me exigía una concentración que en este momento no le puedo prestar. Estoy casi seguro de que la puntuación que doy es injusta, ya que el estilo parece novedoso, pero no sé… me da la impresión que la autora hace sobreactuar un poco a los personajes, a esas tres generaciones seguidas de gemelos, por momentos me resultaba poco creíble, y ahí es ya cuando suelo desconectar y ya soy incapaz de sacrificarme a leer más, da igual que me queden 50 páginas o 500.
Ni mucho menos digo que esta novela sea mala, sólo que no parece para mí. Me cae demasiado lejana esta California que describe Wiggins, por más jerga española y dejes mexicanos que se usen.
December 29, 2022
This highly acclaimed novel sets out to narrate the events of World War II and Japanese internment in the lives of the wealthy Rhodes family who occupy a ranch in the Owens Valley of California. Waging a futile war against the Los Angeles Water Authority that has diverted the valley's rivers and aquifers, Rocky Rhodes, his twin sister Cas, and his daughter Sunny struggle to retain their ranch as its lifeblood is drained. Soon after Sunny's twin, Stryker, is lost at Pearl Harbor, the US government constructs the Manazar "relocation" camp across the road to house some 10,000 Japanese-American internees. A complicated romance develops between Sunny and Schiff, the camp administrator who initiates the project with New Deal optimism but quickly becomes disillusioned with the moral choices forced upon him. There are the makings of a great American novel here.
Given its outstanding reviews, I had high expectations for Properties of Thirst. These were mostly not realized. There are indeed many moments of incandescent and even inspired writing, although they are inexplicably broken by extended stream of consciousness passages punctuated by digressions within parentheses. The narrative style is not difficult to follow as much as it is distracting and affected. More problematic is the narrative itself. Many strands of this complex story are introduced but never resolved or developed. Manazar and its internees loom large in the beginning, but never become more than a backdrop to the family saga; indeed, other than introducing Schiff to the Rhodes family, the camp plays almost no part in the their lives. Then there are the characters themselves, who in some trivial respects are rendered in intricate detail while more central questions of character and motivation are left unanswered. We learn too much (in some 30 or so pages on cooking technique!) about Sunny's penchant for French cuisine, but not why her deep antipathy for Schiff (also not convincingly explained) suddenly blossoms into love. Other strands of the story that loom large in the family's concerns, such as the fate of Stryker's wife and children, are simply dropped along the way.
The novel is lengthy, at 517 pages. In reading it I anticipated that there would be some development of the promises revealed at the outset. Instead, it reads like the first draft of a manuscript, one that could have attained greatness had some judicious editing and development been applied. I realize, given the stellar reviews that this book has received, that these are very much minority opinions. I also have some reservations in offering them, especially given the circumstances in which it was completed. But they are worth mentioning here.
We learn from an Afterword by Lara Porzak, Marianne Wiggins' daughter, that the author suffered a massive stroke before the novel was completed. Doctors predicted that even if she survived, she would never read or regain the use of language again. In the months that followed, Wiggins fought tenaciously to make a partial recovery. Porzak doesn't reveal how much of the manuscript was completed by the author after this tragedy, but she does indicate that from Wiggins' handwritten draft she and her husband "made a lengthy patchwork document...to stitch together." Perhaps out of deference to her mother, she retained some extended tangential passages that Wiggins, upon further reflection, might have developed differently or removed entirely. Clearly, for Porzak to bring this promising if unrealized work to press was an act of love.
Given its outstanding reviews, I had high expectations for Properties of Thirst. These were mostly not realized. There are indeed many moments of incandescent and even inspired writing, although they are inexplicably broken by extended stream of consciousness passages punctuated by digressions within parentheses. The narrative style is not difficult to follow as much as it is distracting and affected. More problematic is the narrative itself. Many strands of this complex story are introduced but never resolved or developed. Manazar and its internees loom large in the beginning, but never become more than a backdrop to the family saga; indeed, other than introducing Schiff to the Rhodes family, the camp plays almost no part in the their lives. Then there are the characters themselves, who in some trivial respects are rendered in intricate detail while more central questions of character and motivation are left unanswered. We learn too much (in some 30 or so pages on cooking technique!) about Sunny's penchant for French cuisine, but not why her deep antipathy for Schiff (also not convincingly explained) suddenly blossoms into love. Other strands of the story that loom large in the family's concerns, such as the fate of Stryker's wife and children, are simply dropped along the way.
The novel is lengthy, at 517 pages. In reading it I anticipated that there would be some development of the promises revealed at the outset. Instead, it reads like the first draft of a manuscript, one that could have attained greatness had some judicious editing and development been applied. I realize, given the stellar reviews that this book has received, that these are very much minority opinions. I also have some reservations in offering them, especially given the circumstances in which it was completed. But they are worth mentioning here.
We learn from an Afterword by Lara Porzak, Marianne Wiggins' daughter, that the author suffered a massive stroke before the novel was completed. Doctors predicted that even if she survived, she would never read or regain the use of language again. In the months that followed, Wiggins fought tenaciously to make a partial recovery. Porzak doesn't reveal how much of the manuscript was completed by the author after this tragedy, but she does indicate that from Wiggins' handwritten draft she and her husband "made a lengthy patchwork document...to stitch together." Perhaps out of deference to her mother, she retained some extended tangential passages that Wiggins, upon further reflection, might have developed differently or removed entirely. Clearly, for Porzak to bring this promising if unrealized work to press was an act of love.
August 27, 2022
What a wonderfully crafted novel that will remain with me for a very long time. There are two story lines, both taking place north of Los Angeles during the early 1940's, as WWII was beginning for the United States. One story line follows a ranching family, the patriarch of which (Rocky) is in a long term fight with the City of Los Angeles over water (which has been diverted from the rancher's valley to the city). Rocky's wife died when his twin children (boy (Stryker) and girl (Sunny)) were three years old. Many aspects of the novel deal with how the children, particularly Sunny, try to overcome the loss of their mother. The other major story line follows Schiff, a Jewish lawyer from Chicago, who is sent to California by his employer (the US government) to be the government's administrator of Manzanar, which was one of the 10 Japanese internment camps created by the US government after Pearl Harbor. Of course, the two story lines intersect in many wonderful ways.
This is not a light novel. We see so many aspects of Manzanar - from its construction to the daily life of its enforced Japanese inhabitants - - and our hearts are broken by the cruelty, racism and ignorance that sent them there and kept them there. The characters of some of the interned Japanese are drawn fairly fully so that we know them and feel for them as they try to get through each day of what they thought was only a temporary situation.
The other theme is how Sunny tries to "find" the spirit of the mother she lost as a three year old. She partly does this by exploring her mother's rather incomplete/convoluted/unclear recipes - - which clearly had more meaning as her mother wrote them than just the order of the ingredients. At some points I thought that the focus on the food theme (Sunny becomes a very accomplished chef) was overdone - but since I have finished the book, I think that was all part of building the theme of trying to "find" the mother Sunny never knew.
The ranching descriptions and descriptions of that area of California are amazing - you can feel the earth, sky and (lack of) water. You can feel the wind and dust that constantly plagued those interned at Manzanar.
The characters are truly and vividly drawn. We watch as Schiff comes to understand what is really happening at Manzanar, as Rocky can't let go of his anger at the City of Los Angeles, as Sunny tries to make a life, as Stryker pushes all the limits, and as Cas (Rocky's sister) tries to save them all.
The writing itself is beautiful and artistic. In some places the author uses a slightly different writing style (leaving out some punctuation), which makes it a little harder to follow. I think that is why I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars (but maybe I should rethink that decision!!)
This is a wonderful novel about WWII in the US - including some things that never get really discussed or acknowledged - a need to be remembered always.
This is not a light novel. We see so many aspects of Manzanar - from its construction to the daily life of its enforced Japanese inhabitants - - and our hearts are broken by the cruelty, racism and ignorance that sent them there and kept them there. The characters of some of the interned Japanese are drawn fairly fully so that we know them and feel for them as they try to get through each day of what they thought was only a temporary situation.
The other theme is how Sunny tries to "find" the spirit of the mother she lost as a three year old. She partly does this by exploring her mother's rather incomplete/convoluted/unclear recipes - - which clearly had more meaning as her mother wrote them than just the order of the ingredients. At some points I thought that the focus on the food theme (Sunny becomes a very accomplished chef) was overdone - but since I have finished the book, I think that was all part of building the theme of trying to "find" the mother Sunny never knew.
The ranching descriptions and descriptions of that area of California are amazing - you can feel the earth, sky and (lack of) water. You can feel the wind and dust that constantly plagued those interned at Manzanar.
The characters are truly and vividly drawn. We watch as Schiff comes to understand what is really happening at Manzanar, as Rocky can't let go of his anger at the City of Los Angeles, as Sunny tries to make a life, as Stryker pushes all the limits, and as Cas (Rocky's sister) tries to save them all.
The writing itself is beautiful and artistic. In some places the author uses a slightly different writing style (leaving out some punctuation), which makes it a little harder to follow. I think that is why I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars (but maybe I should rethink that decision!!)
This is a wonderful novel about WWII in the US - including some things that never get really discussed or acknowledged - a need to be remembered always.
April 21, 2022
As in previous works, Wiggins explores historical events in the context of deeply imagined characters, in part bespeaking that the circumstances of our times can make—or break— who we are, what we become. Set in the Owens Valley of California as the United States enters WWII, the plot is centered around the “redistribution” of water resources from this rural community (the few) to Los Angeles (the many) and the creation of an internment camp for Japanese Americans. The story of the latter is told from the perspective of the Department of the Interior employee sent to set up the camp rather than that of the internees.
It is the story of the characters that absorbs us. With an irony not lost on him, Rocky, whose inherited wealth is derived from the extraction of natural resources, is battling the behemoth Los Angeles, which has “stolen” his water via its aqueduct. Having rejected his father’s pursuit of wealth, he headed west, where he built a home for his beloved, now deceased. Living with him is his sister Cas, who as a manly sized, intelligent, and independent woman has had a lifetime coping with issues of conventional femininity. Cas arrived to help care for her twin niece and nephew upon the death of their mother. Sunny, now a young woman, has grown up trying to fill the void that should have been her relationship with her mother. To that end, in part, she is focused on all things food. Her brother, Stryker, is known through the other characters and is portrayed as fearless—as well as somewhat reckless. Into the lives of this somewhat unconventional and eccentric family arrives Schiff, a first-generation, urban, Jewish American lawyer sent from the Department of the Interior to set up the internment camp—an irony not lost on him. Although a minor theme, the contrast of class here echoes the contrast of citizenship based on ethnicity.
Yet, in outlining the plot and main characters of Properties of Water, the most important element of the novel is not addressed, and that is the intelligence and depth with which Marianne Wiggins brings her story to us. Her insight, her skill in creating a seamless world, her ability to bring us to the cusp of stream of consciousness without getting lost in it, characterizes her work. And, as with any good book, we feel the loss of the characters and hope for their (fictional) future.
Simon and Schuster provided me an ARC of this novel.
It is the story of the characters that absorbs us. With an irony not lost on him, Rocky, whose inherited wealth is derived from the extraction of natural resources, is battling the behemoth Los Angeles, which has “stolen” his water via its aqueduct. Having rejected his father’s pursuit of wealth, he headed west, where he built a home for his beloved, now deceased. Living with him is his sister Cas, who as a manly sized, intelligent, and independent woman has had a lifetime coping with issues of conventional femininity. Cas arrived to help care for her twin niece and nephew upon the death of their mother. Sunny, now a young woman, has grown up trying to fill the void that should have been her relationship with her mother. To that end, in part, she is focused on all things food. Her brother, Stryker, is known through the other characters and is portrayed as fearless—as well as somewhat reckless. Into the lives of this somewhat unconventional and eccentric family arrives Schiff, a first-generation, urban, Jewish American lawyer sent from the Department of the Interior to set up the internment camp—an irony not lost on him. Although a minor theme, the contrast of class here echoes the contrast of citizenship based on ethnicity.
Yet, in outlining the plot and main characters of Properties of Water, the most important element of the novel is not addressed, and that is the intelligence and depth with which Marianne Wiggins brings her story to us. Her insight, her skill in creating a seamless world, her ability to bring us to the cusp of stream of consciousness without getting lost in it, characterizes her work. And, as with any good book, we feel the loss of the characters and hope for their (fictional) future.
Simon and Schuster provided me an ARC of this novel.
July 15, 2023
This may be the best book I will read in 2023. In 2008, I read her earlier novel The Shadow Catcher. The first sentence of my review of that one: This is one of the best books I have read this year." Apparently if I am ever in a reading slump I need to read Marianne Wiggins.
Properties of Thirst is a family saga set in the 20th century. It has larger-than-life characters. Rocky Rhodes, fiercely protecting his California ranch from the LA Water Corporation, is the kingpin. But all the remaining main characters are a close second.
It has Pearl Harbor and Manzanar, it has French cooking adapted to local foods. It has soaring love affairs, terrible losses, even a Jewish passover dinner. And lacing through all these tales like a shot of Calvados, runs a sly sense of humor that had me laughing out loud.
I had no idea what this novel was going to be except that a reading group friend told me it was great. What could the properties of thirst be? Well, Marianne Wiggins delineates eleven of them and they are the chapter headings as well as a meditation on life, love and water.
Lucky for us this reading group chose the book for our June read. We had one of our best discussions ever.
Properties of Thirst is a family saga set in the 20th century. It has larger-than-life characters. Rocky Rhodes, fiercely protecting his California ranch from the LA Water Corporation, is the kingpin. But all the remaining main characters are a close second.
It has Pearl Harbor and Manzanar, it has French cooking adapted to local foods. It has soaring love affairs, terrible losses, even a Jewish passover dinner. And lacing through all these tales like a shot of Calvados, runs a sly sense of humor that had me laughing out loud.
I had no idea what this novel was going to be except that a reading group friend told me it was great. What could the properties of thirst be? Well, Marianne Wiggins delineates eleven of them and they are the chapter headings as well as a meditation on life, love and water.
Lucky for us this reading group chose the book for our June read. We had one of our best discussions ever.
June 18, 2023
I might have enjoyed this more in print, rather than the audio I chose. I might have enjoyed it more at a different time. As it was, I found myself not engaging with the characters or plot as much as I'd hoped, given all those stars from others.
A large cast of characters, toggling back and forth in time and place, and way too much talk of food left me a bit adrift in the cohesion of the story. (Per the food: my mouth enjoys a good treat like most of us, but cooking is a necessary evil most of the time, so I just couldn't "relish" all those passages and focuses on food).
There were characters I enjoyed and some segments I found interesting, but somehow I just didn't gleefully connect with this one.
Best to check out the reviews from those who loved it, for they are very informative as to why.
A large cast of characters, toggling back and forth in time and place, and way too much talk of food left me a bit adrift in the cohesion of the story. (Per the food: my mouth enjoys a good treat like most of us, but cooking is a necessary evil most of the time, so I just couldn't "relish" all those passages and focuses on food).
There were characters I enjoyed and some segments I found interesting, but somehow I just didn't gleefully connect with this one.
Best to check out the reviews from those who loved it, for they are very informative as to why.
August 2, 2022
"Properties of Thirst" is sprawling, rich, deep, passionate, beautiful, and as big as one of its chief protagonists, the 6-foot-plus California rancher Rocky Rhodes, and the vast mountain ranges he loves. It is definitely worth reading. Yet, even at 544 pages, this novel is too meager for all the themes and subplots that it tries to tackle.
A bit of backstory: Rocky and his twin sister, Cas, grow up in New York City in the late nineteenth century as the heirs to a mining-and-railroad fortune. Rejecting that heritage, Rocky heads out to the isolated Owens Valley desert of California, where he and his wife, Lou, build an idiosyncratic ranch. When Lou dies of polio, Cas moves into the ranch to help raise the couple’s three-year-old son and daughter, Stryker and Sunny, who are another set of twins.
The ranch and valley rely for their survival on what had been a seemingly endless, free flow of snowmelt water from the mountains. But as the Los Angeles Department of Water begins buying up the water rights and draining the large local lake to feed the growing Southern California city’s gargantuan thirst, Rocky becomes obsessed with fighting what he calls the Water boys – via dynamite as well as lawsuits.
`
The main narrative opens with the attack on Pearl Harbor, where Stryker – who had run away to join the Navy -- is stationed. Then the U.S. government decides to set up one of its infamous Japanese internment camps right in Rocky’s backyard, at a former apple orchard called Manzanar. Schiff, a young Jewish lawyer from the Interior Department, is sent to oversee the project. He soon finds himself drawn to Sunny, Rocky, and Cas, though they’re not especially welcoming.
The book is divided into 11 sections, each purporting to be about a different property of thirst (invented by Wiggins), such as recognition, memory, the thwarting of desire, reinvention, and evaporation.
The important thirst isn’t for water, however. It’s for connection. Schiff, Sunny, Cas, and Rocky too often fumble their connections with each other or with different characters, while longing for connection with those they miss, like Stryker, Lou, and the flourishing valley that Rocky first arrived in.
The point of view varies mainly among Rocky, Cas, Sunny, Schiff, and Schiff’s Army aide, Jay Svevo, interspersed with others, sometimes back and forth on same page. The voices are almost uniformly Dostoevskian in their run-on intensity, though they can have their quirks. With so many pivotal characters, it’s no wonder the book can’t follow every plot or theme to its fullest.
Note: In 2016, when she was nearly finished with the book, the multiple-prize-winning author, Marianne Wiggins, suffered a massive stroke. Gradually, Wiggins’s daughter nursed her back to writing health, reading the manuscript aloud to her more than two dozen times. It’s impossible not to wonder how that near-death experience may have altered Wiggins’s concept of the novel.
(Adapted from my review in the “New York Journal of Books,”
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book... )
A bit of backstory: Rocky and his twin sister, Cas, grow up in New York City in the late nineteenth century as the heirs to a mining-and-railroad fortune. Rejecting that heritage, Rocky heads out to the isolated Owens Valley desert of California, where he and his wife, Lou, build an idiosyncratic ranch. When Lou dies of polio, Cas moves into the ranch to help raise the couple’s three-year-old son and daughter, Stryker and Sunny, who are another set of twins.
The ranch and valley rely for their survival on what had been a seemingly endless, free flow of snowmelt water from the mountains. But as the Los Angeles Department of Water begins buying up the water rights and draining the large local lake to feed the growing Southern California city’s gargantuan thirst, Rocky becomes obsessed with fighting what he calls the Water boys – via dynamite as well as lawsuits.
`
The main narrative opens with the attack on Pearl Harbor, where Stryker – who had run away to join the Navy -- is stationed. Then the U.S. government decides to set up one of its infamous Japanese internment camps right in Rocky’s backyard, at a former apple orchard called Manzanar. Schiff, a young Jewish lawyer from the Interior Department, is sent to oversee the project. He soon finds himself drawn to Sunny, Rocky, and Cas, though they’re not especially welcoming.
The book is divided into 11 sections, each purporting to be about a different property of thirst (invented by Wiggins), such as recognition, memory, the thwarting of desire, reinvention, and evaporation.
The important thirst isn’t for water, however. It’s for connection. Schiff, Sunny, Cas, and Rocky too often fumble their connections with each other or with different characters, while longing for connection with those they miss, like Stryker, Lou, and the flourishing valley that Rocky first arrived in.
The point of view varies mainly among Rocky, Cas, Sunny, Schiff, and Schiff’s Army aide, Jay Svevo, interspersed with others, sometimes back and forth on same page. The voices are almost uniformly Dostoevskian in their run-on intensity, though they can have their quirks. With so many pivotal characters, it’s no wonder the book can’t follow every plot or theme to its fullest.
Note: In 2016, when she was nearly finished with the book, the multiple-prize-winning author, Marianne Wiggins, suffered a massive stroke. Gradually, Wiggins’s daughter nursed her back to writing health, reading the manuscript aloud to her more than two dozen times. It’s impossible not to wonder how that near-death experience may have altered Wiggins’s concept of the novel.
(Adapted from my review in the “New York Journal of Books,”
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book... )
April 18, 2022
I received a copy of this book to review from Net Galley. I was excited to start it because I'd read another novel by this author - Evidence of Things Unseen - that I liked it very much. I was surprised to find this book a bit uneven, with abrupt transitions within and between chapters, and too long overall,
although there were characters and elements of the book I liked quite a lot. At the conclusion of the novel there was a section written by the author's daughter, explaining that her mother had a severe stroke while she was writing the novel and was able to complete it only after a lengthy recovery. That may explain the book's lack of flow, or perhaps that was just my perception of it. In any case, I do recommend the title as the good outweighs the bad.
although there were characters and elements of the book I liked quite a lot. At the conclusion of the novel there was a section written by the author's daughter, explaining that her mother had a severe stroke while she was writing the novel and was able to complete it only after a lengthy recovery. That may explain the book's lack of flow, or perhaps that was just my perception of it. In any case, I do recommend the title as the good outweighs the bad.
December 6, 2024
De tant en tant et trobes amb llibres dels que penses: quina capacitat tan gran ha de tenir una autora o autor per arribar a una novel·la de tal calibre! Amb uns personatges de gran creació, tot i que potser el més important és la Vall d’Owens a Califòrnia durant la 2a Guerra Mundial. Pearl Harbour, els camps de presoners d’americans d’origen japonès, la corrupció en l’obtenció de l’aigua per part de la ciutat de Los Ángeles en detriment de la gent de la vall o inclosa la gastronomia lliguen als personatges en una història rodona i completa amb bons girs i bons flash-backs.
June 30, 2024
Lo mejor que he leído hace tiempo. Me encantó la forma de narrar, el ritmo y la poesía del texto, que se hace corto a pesar de las 600 páginas. A la vez novela histórica sobre los campos de reclusión de ciudadanos americanos de origen japonés tras Pearl Harbour, novela de paisaje y militancia medioambiental sobre el expolio del agua en un valle Inter de California para abastecer a LA, saga familiar que conecta con la costa este de EEUU y con Francia, novela de amor con varias historias Preciosas. Un diamante que brilla en todas sus caras.
January 19, 2023
I’ve never struggled so much through a book I actually liked. I nearly gave up on it many times but the storyline would help me get reengaged. My overall criticism is that too many parts for me were boring and tedious and while the writing was good, at times it took to long to make the point. I know I’m an outlier and maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood.
October 26, 2024
I love this big, beautifully written and brilliantly structured novel of family, land, loss and so much more in World War II-era California. It was blurbed by Colum McCann and Ruth Ozeki, was a New Yorker pick for the best book of 2022, and was called a “masterpiece for the ages” by Publisher’s Weekly, yet it seems not to have found the readership it deserves. If you value crystal clear prose, exceptional storytelling, and unforgettable characters, you’ll want to check this one out.
March 19, 2025
Para mí el libro del año. Qué barbaridad. No voy a hacer un resumen de que va, solo voy a decirte, que te lo leas. Hazlo. Ya me lo agradecerás.
August 20, 2024
No hay nada más bonito que el orgullo de una hija hacia su madre, esa admiración que no decae a pesar de los abatares de la vida.
Leer las propiedades de la sed ha sido volver a inmiscuirme en las letras de una gran escritora con un gran bagaje cultural y litetario. Impresionante como juega con el lenguaje, con su estructura entre la que aparecen velados homenajes a autores y peliculas. Una novela que no es lineal, saltos temporales van enriqueciendo aún más si cabe la historia. Un escenario que ya es un personaje en sí mismo, años cuarenta, siglo XX, EEUU. Imagina… unos personajes inmersos en el desierto californiano. si los miramos atraves de un caleidoscopio vemos una mezcla arrolladora de historias en el que se mezclan, pérdidas , búsquedas, injusticias inflamadas de profundos sentimientos, Palabras sobre palabras que nos hacen ver como están codificado sus personajes diluyendo la línea entre lo que era realidad y lo que era ficción. La cocina se convierte en otro espacio que nos conecta. Es uno de los hilo conductores de esta magnífica historia. No voy a decir nada de la trama. Léelo.
A mi estos libros me hacen reflexionar mucho.
Escribimos para averiguar no lo que queremos decir sino lo que necesitamos decir. Una novela que va más allá de una frase marcada a fuego
“No puedes salvar lo que no amas” porque cuando amas no hay muro que contenga tu decisión. Hay silencios que atronan, silencios plomizos que retumban cualquier conciencia humana, silencios que hablan de quien oculta sus palabras.
Un lenguaje pulido que solo muesta la primera capa que
va resquebrajándose dejando al descubierto
la realidad de una histora oscura e injusta.
Per los fantasmas tienen presencia en cualquier historia,no en vano son
la sombra de aquellos que allí sufrieron.
Sed de amor, sed de aprender, sed de descubrir, sed de justicia
sed de ser quien estas destinado a ser. Esta obra es un homenaje a aquellos que saciaron su sed, que a pesar de las dificultades sobrevivieron.
9 propiedades de la sed se enraízan en las 9 vidas que tiene una novela que como el agua, fluyen, se pegan a tu piel, se filtran en tus grietas y así entran en tu ser. Haciendo de las marcas del agua, tu ser, tu historia. Ya lo decia Shakespesre “todo esta escrito en el agua”. La historia de Marian higgins es un testimonio de su perseverancia reflejada en sus personajes. Esta es también su historia .
Leer las propiedades de la sed ha sido volver a inmiscuirme en las letras de una gran escritora con un gran bagaje cultural y litetario. Impresionante como juega con el lenguaje, con su estructura entre la que aparecen velados homenajes a autores y peliculas. Una novela que no es lineal, saltos temporales van enriqueciendo aún más si cabe la historia. Un escenario que ya es un personaje en sí mismo, años cuarenta, siglo XX, EEUU. Imagina… unos personajes inmersos en el desierto californiano. si los miramos atraves de un caleidoscopio vemos una mezcla arrolladora de historias en el que se mezclan, pérdidas , búsquedas, injusticias inflamadas de profundos sentimientos, Palabras sobre palabras que nos hacen ver como están codificado sus personajes diluyendo la línea entre lo que era realidad y lo que era ficción. La cocina se convierte en otro espacio que nos conecta. Es uno de los hilo conductores de esta magnífica historia. No voy a decir nada de la trama. Léelo.
A mi estos libros me hacen reflexionar mucho.
Escribimos para averiguar no lo que queremos decir sino lo que necesitamos decir. Una novela que va más allá de una frase marcada a fuego
“No puedes salvar lo que no amas” porque cuando amas no hay muro que contenga tu decisión. Hay silencios que atronan, silencios plomizos que retumban cualquier conciencia humana, silencios que hablan de quien oculta sus palabras.
Un lenguaje pulido que solo muesta la primera capa que
va resquebrajándose dejando al descubierto
la realidad de una histora oscura e injusta.
Per los fantasmas tienen presencia en cualquier historia,no en vano son
la sombra de aquellos que allí sufrieron.
Sed de amor, sed de aprender, sed de descubrir, sed de justicia
sed de ser quien estas destinado a ser. Esta obra es un homenaje a aquellos que saciaron su sed, que a pesar de las dificultades sobrevivieron.
9 propiedades de la sed se enraízan en las 9 vidas que tiene una novela que como el agua, fluyen, se pegan a tu piel, se filtran en tus grietas y así entran en tu ser. Haciendo de las marcas del agua, tu ser, tu historia. Ya lo decia Shakespesre “todo esta escrito en el agua”. La historia de Marian higgins es un testimonio de su perseverancia reflejada en sus personajes. Esta es también su historia .
November 23, 2024
Libro difícil de calificar.
Pluma libre que a veces desconcierta, narrativa rápida, muy rápida, esencialista y anti descriptiva. Gran conocimiento humano de los personajes. La lírica es muy buena aunque desarmante. Libro muy sensorial y rápido. Resuelve todas las situaciones con extremada rapidez.
Si conectas con el libro te encantará (a mi me ha costado entrar unas 100 páginas).
La crítica dice que es una de las grandes novelas y algunos afirman que será un clásico americano con el tiempo.
Por lo que digo al principio a mucha gente no le ha gustado.
A ver si tienes suerte y conectas.
Pluma libre que a veces desconcierta, narrativa rápida, muy rápida, esencialista y anti descriptiva. Gran conocimiento humano de los personajes. La lírica es muy buena aunque desarmante. Libro muy sensorial y rápido. Resuelve todas las situaciones con extremada rapidez.
Si conectas con el libro te encantará (a mi me ha costado entrar unas 100 páginas).
La crítica dice que es una de las grandes novelas y algunos afirman que será un clásico americano con el tiempo.
Por lo que digo al principio a mucha gente no le ha gustado.
A ver si tienes suerte y conectas.
August 7, 2022
I believe I've just read my favorite book of the year. A multi-generational family saga unfolding on the west coast during WWII. Topics include Japanese internment camps, water rights, food, and love. The writing is graceful and beautiful with the most memorable characters I will be thinking of for a long time to come.
Don't get on the waiting list at the library for this one. Go pick up a copy at your favorite local bookstore. You will read it more than once!
Don't get on the waiting list at the library for this one. Go pick up a copy at your favorite local bookstore. You will read it more than once!
September 15, 2025
Creo que es de los libros más densos y complicados que he leído nunca. No exagero: es extremadamente denso y difícil de leer.
La premisa es muy atractiva: esa especie de campos de concentración que creó EEUU para japo-americanos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial (una historia que yo al menos no conocía) y la relación con el paisaje y la naturaleza, en este caso a través del agua. Y, en el fondo, creo que es una buena novela, pero que se queda como enterrada en una especie de ejercicio de virtuosismo. Supedita el fondo a la forma, cuando para mí debería ser siempre al revés, y al final, no puedes simplemente sentarte a leer y disfrutar, porque tienes que estar constantemente descifrando el relato.
Y luego hay muchas cosas que me han tirado para atrás y muchos contrastes que no han hecho más que despistarme. Empezando por el hecho de que tan pronto tiene un lenguaje súper poético que ni Góngora como que es híper concreta y resuelve enseguida los conflictos. Tan pronto se enreda en descripciones y diálogos interminables como que omite información importante. Además, todo lo que puede hacer para sacarte de la lectura, lo mete. Incisos, referencias a estrellas de Hollywood de la época, Shakespeare, Thoreau, el recetario completo.... En definitiva, el estilo es "más es más" hasta las últimas consecuencias.
Sí que es verdad que puede ser bastante revelador en cuanto a la historia de los primeros colonos de Estados Unidos, pero buf, a qué precio....
7 de septiembre de 2025
La premisa es muy atractiva: esa especie de campos de concentración que creó EEUU para japo-americanos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial (una historia que yo al menos no conocía) y la relación con el paisaje y la naturaleza, en este caso a través del agua. Y, en el fondo, creo que es una buena novela, pero que se queda como enterrada en una especie de ejercicio de virtuosismo. Supedita el fondo a la forma, cuando para mí debería ser siempre al revés, y al final, no puedes simplemente sentarte a leer y disfrutar, porque tienes que estar constantemente descifrando el relato.
Y luego hay muchas cosas que me han tirado para atrás y muchos contrastes que no han hecho más que despistarme. Empezando por el hecho de que tan pronto tiene un lenguaje súper poético que ni Góngora como que es híper concreta y resuelve enseguida los conflictos. Tan pronto se enreda en descripciones y diálogos interminables como que omite información importante. Además, todo lo que puede hacer para sacarte de la lectura, lo mete. Incisos, referencias a estrellas de Hollywood de la época, Shakespeare, Thoreau, el recetario completo.... En definitiva, el estilo es "más es más" hasta las últimas consecuencias.
Sí que es verdad que puede ser bastante revelador en cuanto a la historia de los primeros colonos de Estados Unidos, pero buf, a qué precio....
7 de septiembre de 2025
September 1, 2025
De lo mejor que he leído este año 🤩
October 3, 2025
Me gustó y me gustó hasta que me cansó
July 31, 2022
Wow. Just.. wow. I have so much to say about this book and I don’t even know where to begin.
This book reads like a poem. A fluid, constant stream of consciousness in the third person shifting from POV to POV. You get to intimately know each character from inside their own mind and how they view and love the others in the story.
It tells the story of the Rhodes family, a long line of twins with a significant inheritance from their father and a mission to find their own way in the world, outside of their father’s shadow.
Rockwell Rhodes (Rocky) the Patriarch of the family, drops out of Harvard and moves to the High Sierras in the early 1900’s to be as far away from his father and his money as he can to live off the land and be a real cowboy. He falls in love with a French doctor (Louisiana “Lou”) and they make a life and medical practice living off the land in the high, snow capped mountains of the Sierras and Mount Whitney. A simple life with Mexican and Native American laborers living on their ranch together as family and friends, they seem to have the life they’ve always dreamed of. They have two beautiful twins (Sunny and Stryker) and life is good. When the children are three, Lou succumbs to Polio and Rocky is left to parent the children alone in the isolated high desert. His twin sister, Caswell (Cas) immediately abandons her life and dreams as a professional touring harpist in Scandinavia and turns her ball gowns in for galoshes and crewneck sweaters to raise the children alongside her brother and best friend.
Stryker is the younger twin, bold and brazen, flirtatious and devious. He never seems to forgive his father for his mother’s death, and his relationship with his father has always been strained and tense. Sunny is the practical, pensive, motherly twin.. always keeping things in order and often sacrificing her comfort and experiences in life to protect her twin brother. When Stryker decides to leave the family and join the Navy, he only tells his sister, Sunny. On December 7, 1941, the Naval Base Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii is bombed by the Japanese, and Sunny confesses to her family that that is where Stryker had been stationed with his new Japanese wife Suzy and their two twin boys, Ralph and Waldo Rhodes. They are informed that Stryker was aboard the Arizona and has perished in the attack, and the whereabouts of his new wife and children are unknown.
While the family is searching for answers, and the United States is bloodthirsty with a violent and racist rage against anyone of Japanese decent, a young Jewish lawyer from Chicago named Schiff comes to town with an unusual job for the Department of the Interior. While eating dinner at the best place in town, Lou’s, he meets Sunny and is immediately taken with her. When he finds out that she is the lead chef and is living her dream of creating savory, meaningful dishes from all over the world in her own restaurant, he admits to her that he is in charge of opening and operating one of the largest Japanese internment camps on the border of her family land.
This story has so many layers of life, love, loss, grace, grudges, and hope… all with water at the center. You get to know each character so intimately that their development though the pages is both satisfying and sad, as their death and loss become yours. The love and selflessness of the Rhodes family is a thing of beauty and the love and devotion of Schiff to Sunny and Rocky to Lou sets the bar so high, like only a novel can. The story was so rich with French, Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew/Yiddish and Native American phrases, slang and shorthand that I felt immersed in so many cultures the entire time. The details of each and every food made my mouth water, and I felt like I could smell and taste the things Sunny described. The ending was so devastatingly beautiful and fitting that I can’t even be upset.
This book was phenomenal, exquisite, I couldn’t put it down. I can’t recommend it enough.
This book reads like a poem. A fluid, constant stream of consciousness in the third person shifting from POV to POV. You get to intimately know each character from inside their own mind and how they view and love the others in the story.
It tells the story of the Rhodes family, a long line of twins with a significant inheritance from their father and a mission to find their own way in the world, outside of their father’s shadow.
Rockwell Rhodes (Rocky) the Patriarch of the family, drops out of Harvard and moves to the High Sierras in the early 1900’s to be as far away from his father and his money as he can to live off the land and be a real cowboy. He falls in love with a French doctor (Louisiana “Lou”) and they make a life and medical practice living off the land in the high, snow capped mountains of the Sierras and Mount Whitney. A simple life with Mexican and Native American laborers living on their ranch together as family and friends, they seem to have the life they’ve always dreamed of. They have two beautiful twins (Sunny and Stryker) and life is good. When the children are three, Lou succumbs to Polio and Rocky is left to parent the children alone in the isolated high desert. His twin sister, Caswell (Cas) immediately abandons her life and dreams as a professional touring harpist in Scandinavia and turns her ball gowns in for galoshes and crewneck sweaters to raise the children alongside her brother and best friend.
Stryker is the younger twin, bold and brazen, flirtatious and devious. He never seems to forgive his father for his mother’s death, and his relationship with his father has always been strained and tense. Sunny is the practical, pensive, motherly twin.. always keeping things in order and often sacrificing her comfort and experiences in life to protect her twin brother. When Stryker decides to leave the family and join the Navy, he only tells his sister, Sunny. On December 7, 1941, the Naval Base Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii is bombed by the Japanese, and Sunny confesses to her family that that is where Stryker had been stationed with his new Japanese wife Suzy and their two twin boys, Ralph and Waldo Rhodes. They are informed that Stryker was aboard the Arizona and has perished in the attack, and the whereabouts of his new wife and children are unknown.
While the family is searching for answers, and the United States is bloodthirsty with a violent and racist rage against anyone of Japanese decent, a young Jewish lawyer from Chicago named Schiff comes to town with an unusual job for the Department of the Interior. While eating dinner at the best place in town, Lou’s, he meets Sunny and is immediately taken with her. When he finds out that she is the lead chef and is living her dream of creating savory, meaningful dishes from all over the world in her own restaurant, he admits to her that he is in charge of opening and operating one of the largest Japanese internment camps on the border of her family land.
This story has so many layers of life, love, loss, grace, grudges, and hope… all with water at the center. You get to know each character so intimately that their development though the pages is both satisfying and sad, as their death and loss become yours. The love and selflessness of the Rhodes family is a thing of beauty and the love and devotion of Schiff to Sunny and Rocky to Lou sets the bar so high, like only a novel can. The story was so rich with French, Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew/Yiddish and Native American phrases, slang and shorthand that I felt immersed in so many cultures the entire time. The details of each and every food made my mouth water, and I felt like I could smell and taste the things Sunny described. The ending was so devastatingly beautiful and fitting that I can’t even be upset.
This book was phenomenal, exquisite, I couldn’t put it down. I can’t recommend it enough.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2022
Simply a masterpiece! An American classic! When I started the book, I questioned if I should continue. Wiggins wrote in a style that I was not used to. It was full of stream of consciousness, different grammatical and punctuation styles that breach the rules.. Do not let that turn you off. As I persisted it all made perfect sense and I was completely lost into this hefty,expansive, cinematic, and multi-layered book. This is truly one of the greats that should not be missed.
It feels almost too difficult for me to describe this book without writing pages as there are so many major and minor themes and subplots. This tapestry is part of what makes this book so rich, so detailed and lush that you literally feel the wind, the land, the mountains and ache for the characters.
Set during WWII, Rocky Rhodes and his twin sister Cas grew up in the east, heirs to a mining and railroad fortune that Rocky rejected. He moved out West as a young man to a desert area in California and builds The Three Chairs ranch. (There is a story behind that too!) He and his French wife Lou who was not only a chef but a doctor who incorporates tribal medicine into her practice lived there until she succumbed to polio. When she dies, Cas comes to live with them to take care of Rocky's 3 year old twins, Stryker and Sunny. We learn about their youth, their idiosyncrasies and become involved in Rocky's LONG fight with the Los Angeles Water board who wants to own the water rights to divert water into Los Angeles. Another whole theme is the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor (where Stryker may have perished)and the internment camps that are being set up next to Rocky's property in a former apple orchard. A young Jewish man is sent there from the Interior Dept to develop this project (the irony blatant) and becomes involved with the Rhodes family, eventually becomes disillusioned with the project and develops an increasing attraction to the grown up independent Sunny. Each chapter is labeled as a different property of thirst, an element of surprise, submission, recognition, memory etc..but in many ways this book is about the thirst for closeness and kinship. This dense book is not necessarily an easy read. I had to move slowly but this was because I wanted to simultaneously savor and devour every luxurious word. The characters were complex, fully alive and vividly conveyed while the writing made you feel you had the pulse of the country. This is a love story-to our American West and to the score that repeats itself throughout the book."You can't save what you don't love."
When you get to the end of the book, you find that this Pulitzer Prize finalist author had a massive stroke before the completion of this novel. Her daughter nursed her back to health and helped her complete this masterpiece. Another love story....
Trust yourself..Get this book and persist because it will haunt you for a long time.
It feels almost too difficult for me to describe this book without writing pages as there are so many major and minor themes and subplots. This tapestry is part of what makes this book so rich, so detailed and lush that you literally feel the wind, the land, the mountains and ache for the characters.
Set during WWII, Rocky Rhodes and his twin sister Cas grew up in the east, heirs to a mining and railroad fortune that Rocky rejected. He moved out West as a young man to a desert area in California and builds The Three Chairs ranch. (There is a story behind that too!) He and his French wife Lou who was not only a chef but a doctor who incorporates tribal medicine into her practice lived there until she succumbed to polio. When she dies, Cas comes to live with them to take care of Rocky's 3 year old twins, Stryker and Sunny. We learn about their youth, their idiosyncrasies and become involved in Rocky's LONG fight with the Los Angeles Water board who wants to own the water rights to divert water into Los Angeles. Another whole theme is the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor (where Stryker may have perished)and the internment camps that are being set up next to Rocky's property in a former apple orchard. A young Jewish man is sent there from the Interior Dept to develop this project (the irony blatant) and becomes involved with the Rhodes family, eventually becomes disillusioned with the project and develops an increasing attraction to the grown up independent Sunny. Each chapter is labeled as a different property of thirst, an element of surprise, submission, recognition, memory etc..but in many ways this book is about the thirst for closeness and kinship. This dense book is not necessarily an easy read. I had to move slowly but this was because I wanted to simultaneously savor and devour every luxurious word. The characters were complex, fully alive and vividly conveyed while the writing made you feel you had the pulse of the country. This is a love story-to our American West and to the score that repeats itself throughout the book."You can't save what you don't love."
When you get to the end of the book, you find that this Pulitzer Prize finalist author had a massive stroke before the completion of this novel. Her daughter nursed her back to health and helped her complete this masterpiece. Another love story....
Trust yourself..Get this book and persist because it will haunt you for a long time.
March 24, 2025
Está novela me pareció muy buena por varios motivos.El que hablé de los campos de internamiento para los japoneses y sus descendientes después del ataque a Pearl Harbour en 1942 es muy interesante pues poco se sabe de ello. También el tema del agua que se ocupó para la ciudad de Los Angeles, quitando la misma a muchos pueblos alrededor es otro hecho muy interesante. Los personajes son únicos, tanto los principales como los secundarios. Está llena de sub tramas que están muy bien escritas. Al final viene una sinopsis sobre la escritora que recomiendo mucho leer . 5/5.
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