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Brass
A fierce debut novel about mothers and daughters, haves and have-nots, and the stark realities behind the American Dream
A waitress at the Betsy Ross Diner, Elsie hopes her nickel-and-dime tips will add up to a new life. Then she meets Bashkim, who is at once both worldly and naïve, a married man who left Albania to chase his dreams—and wound up working as a line cook in Waterbury, Connecticut. Back when the brass mills were still open, this bustling factory town drew one wave of immigrants after another. Now it’s the place they can’t seem to leave. Elsie, herself the granddaughter of Lithuanian immigrants, falls in love quickly, but when she learns that she’s pregnant, Elsie can’t help wondering where Bashkim’s heart really lies, and what he’ll do about the wife he left behind.
Seventeen years later, headstrong and independent Luljeta receives a rejection letter from NYU and her first-ever suspension from school on the same day. Instead of striking out on her own in Manhattan, she’s stuck in Connecticut with her mother, Elsie—a fate she refuses to accept. Wondering if the key to her future is unlocking the secrets of the past, Lulu decides to find out what exactly her mother has been hiding about the father she never knew. As she soon discovers, the truth is closer than she ever imagined.
Told in equally gripping parallel narratives with biting wit and grace, Brass announces a fearless new voice with a timely, tender, and quintessentially American story.
A waitress at the Betsy Ross Diner, Elsie hopes her nickel-and-dime tips will add up to a new life. Then she meets Bashkim, who is at once both worldly and naïve, a married man who left Albania to chase his dreams—and wound up working as a line cook in Waterbury, Connecticut. Back when the brass mills were still open, this bustling factory town drew one wave of immigrants after another. Now it’s the place they can’t seem to leave. Elsie, herself the granddaughter of Lithuanian immigrants, falls in love quickly, but when she learns that she’s pregnant, Elsie can’t help wondering where Bashkim’s heart really lies, and what he’ll do about the wife he left behind.
Seventeen years later, headstrong and independent Luljeta receives a rejection letter from NYU and her first-ever suspension from school on the same day. Instead of striking out on her own in Manhattan, she’s stuck in Connecticut with her mother, Elsie—a fate she refuses to accept. Wondering if the key to her future is unlocking the secrets of the past, Lulu decides to find out what exactly her mother has been hiding about the father she never knew. As she soon discovers, the truth is closer than she ever imagined.
Told in equally gripping parallel narratives with biting wit and grace, Brass announces a fearless new voice with a timely, tender, and quintessentially American story.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 23, 2018
224 people are currently reading
5754 people want to read
About the author
Xhenet Aliu
6 books163 followersXhenet Aliu's most recent novel, Everybody Says It's Everything (Random House), will be published in March 2025. Her previous novel, Brass (Random House), was awarded the biennial Townsend Prize in 2020, the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year First Novel Prize, was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection, and was long-listed for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Book Prize. Numerous media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Simple, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, named Brass a 2018 best book of the year. Previously, her debut story collection, Domesticated Wild Things, and Other Stories won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction.
She teaches Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
She teaches Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 469 reviews
February 15, 2018
“It’s nobody’s fault, Luljeta. It’s not a fault. It’s just mistakes. Or, I don’t know, not mistakes, just decisions that led to other decisions, and on and on, and in the end the first decision seemed too far buried to get back to and change.”
Brass is a quiet family drama highly-praised by one of my favourite authors of quiet family dramas - Celeste Ng.
It seemed like an obvious choice for me, especially following the kind of books I've been enjoying in the past few years. I've been loving multi-generational family tales and the exploration of immigrant experiences, so this book about second and third generation Lithuanian and Albanian immigrants in America, that promises a particular focus on the relationships between mothers and daughters, should have been a new favourite.
And it was good. There was a lot of beautiful writing and quiet reflections on human nature. Though, overall, I kept hoping for something more. I wasn’t as engrossed in the tale of Elsie’s pregnancy and Luljeta’s search for her father as I felt I should have been. The needs, desires, and stakes all seemed too unimportant. Ng calls this novel "fierce", as her own contemporaries are, but I would disagree with that. Brass is a gentle breeze of a novel.
The story follows pregnant teenager Elsie during the nineties as she falls for the Albanian Bashkim, a man full of empty promises and sweet words: “I swear to Allah, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen”. Then we switch quickly to more recent times, following Elsie's daughter Luljeta as she questions who she is and begins to rediscover her father's family.
I would have liked to have seen more from the relationship between Elsie and Luljeta. I was drawn in by the promise of a look at the relationships between mothers and daughters, but I felt like Elsie's and Luljeta's stories were separate for most of the novel. Obviously Luljeta is absent for almost all of Elsie's chapters, but even when we switch to Luljeta's perspective, the focus instead seemed to be on her search for Bashkim and his family. Only at the very conclusion of her perspective does the story come back to the importance of a mother’s love.
Aliu clearly draws on her own experiences as a daughter of Lithuanian and Albanian immigrants, whilst also making this the "quintessentially American story" promised by the description. It is a story of dreams and desires, dead-end towns and all-night diners. Elsie becomes stuck, a single mother abandoned by Bashkim in small town Connecticut, and this instills both scorn and fear in Luljeta. Scorn for her mother's position and failures; fear that she is destined for the same.
Though not quite as effective as I'd hoped it would be, I'm definitely glad I discovered this author. I'll be on the lookout for Aliu's future books.
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December 4, 2017
This is a fantastic debut novel, captivating and well written, about mothers and daughters, broken by the abandonment of fathers , a husband , a lover, about secrets kept and seeking identity. There are other layers of the story - the search of an immigrant for a escape from communism to a better life, the struggle of women who are single parents and the things that life deals that get in the way.
There are two alternating narratives. Elsie, an eighteen year old girl in a dead end job at a diner in Waterbury, Connecticut, hoping to just get out of this place until she meets Bashkim , an immigrant from Albania, and everything changes. The second narrative brings the story into the future and is that of her 17 year old daughter Luljeta. The author has chosen an interesting way to tell Luljeta's part of the story by telling it in the second person , speaking about herself as some one other than herself. At first I thought that maybe it might drive me crazy, but on the contrary , it worked . It worked so well reflecting in an intimate almost self analytical way about her relationship with her mother, her plans for the future and her identity as she wonders who her father is and where he might be.
There is sadness amidst the dysfunction in these relationships but hopefulness in possibilities of forgiveness. I can't say that I loved all of these characters all of the time; they each have their flaws. I can say that I was drawn into their lives , cared about the outcome and rooted for them every step of the way.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House through NetGalley.
There are two alternating narratives. Elsie, an eighteen year old girl in a dead end job at a diner in Waterbury, Connecticut, hoping to just get out of this place until she meets Bashkim , an immigrant from Albania, and everything changes. The second narrative brings the story into the future and is that of her 17 year old daughter Luljeta. The author has chosen an interesting way to tell Luljeta's part of the story by telling it in the second person , speaking about herself as some one other than herself. At first I thought that maybe it might drive me crazy, but on the contrary , it worked . It worked so well reflecting in an intimate almost self analytical way about her relationship with her mother, her plans for the future and her identity as she wonders who her father is and where he might be.
There is sadness amidst the dysfunction in these relationships but hopefulness in possibilities of forgiveness. I can't say that I loved all of these characters all of the time; they each have their flaws. I can say that I was drawn into their lives , cared about the outcome and rooted for them every step of the way.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House through NetGalley.
February 7, 2018
I'm between 3.5 and 4, so I'll round up.
"...often the love your mother gives feels like it's being rejected by your body, as if you're the B-positive recipient of an A-negative blood donation."
The often-complicated relationship between mothers and daughters has been fodder for literature, movies, and music for many, many years. What is it about this type of relationship that can bring such fierce love, friendship, and loyalty, as well as resentment, anger, and frustration, often simultaneously?
Obviously, those questions are somewhat lost on me, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading about the dynamics of these relationships! Xhenet Aliu's first novel, Brass , examines the sometimes unfulfilling, tenuous bonds between a woman, her mother, and her daughter, and the result is moving and tremendously compelling.
Elsie is an unmotivated high school graduate unsure if she'll ever amount to anything much. Waitressing at the Betsy Ross Diner in her hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut, her mother is a frustrated alcoholic who has pretty much left Elsie and her younger sister to raise themselves, with occasional meddling. Constantly living hand-to-mouth, it's not hard to dream of something better, but she doesn't have many expectations in that regard.
When she meets Bashkim, a line cook who escaped the political unrest in his native Albania to work at his relatives' diner, she is drawn to his weary worldliness, and finds his anger, as well as his simultaneous bravado and despair, immensely magnetic. Her grandparents immigrated from Lithuania, so she thinks she understands Bashkim's situation and that of his coworkers. She knows he has a wife back in Albania, but she doesn't care, and it's not long before she has fallen in love with him.
"I didn't want to think about how it was unfair that some people had it so much worse when I'd already committed to fixating on people who had it so much better."
Elsie finds herself pregnant, and although Bashkim professes happiness for their situation, and promises to take care of her and the baby, she isn't completely sure that's what she wants. As he struggles with the troubles back home and what to do with his wife, Elsie realizes what she wants more than anything is a ticket out of Waterbury, away from the life she has had to date, and wonders whether Bashkim will be the one to help her achieve that.
Seventeen years later, Elsie's daughter Luljeta dreams of escaping her Connecticut hometown, just as her mother once did (although she doesn't know that). But when her plans to attend NYU don't materialize, she can't fathom the thought of spending her adult life with her mother, with not enough money or opportunities to enjoy life. For the first time, she starts to wonder what her mother has been hiding all these years where her father is concerned, and she's determined to uncover the truth.
When she finds out the truth is far from what she's been told through the years, she decides to find him, and see if perhaps that relationship might bring her more joy and promise than the one she has with Elsie. She doesn't know what to expect, and in fact, doesn't even know how to get there, but she knows she must do it on her own.
"She could have explained that he was a frightened man, and a frightened man, like a frightened dog, was a potentially dangerous thing. She could have said those things instead of repeating, if the topic ever came up, that your father was simply an asshole, the same term she applies to people who don't matter at all, like guys who cut her off in traffic and Bill O'Reilly. But if she lied about where he was, who's to say she wasn't lying about what he was? What if he wasn't just some asshole, and you weren't better off without him?"
Switching narration between Elsie and Luljeta, between past and present, Brass is a moving account of the sacrifices made for love and parenthood, and how often we ignore the signs that what we're running toward may be no more appealing than what we're running from. Instead of giving one side of the story, Aliu gives us both sides, which really deepens the poignancy of the narrative.
While at times the book moved a little slower than I would have liked, I thought Aliu was a terrific storyteller, and I was completely drawn into Elsie and Luljeta's stories. These are women accustomed to not having control of their lives, so there were many times when I wanted to shake them into action, into saying what needed to be said.
No one relationship is perfect, and it requires an equal amount of give and take to make it work. I'd imagine where mothers and daughters are concerned, finding that balance may be difficult for a while, if not forever. Brass is a fascinating look at two women whose lives need that balance, and who realize they need others to help them, too.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com, or check out my list of the best books I read in 2017 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2017.html.
"...often the love your mother gives feels like it's being rejected by your body, as if you're the B-positive recipient of an A-negative blood donation."
The often-complicated relationship between mothers and daughters has been fodder for literature, movies, and music for many, many years. What is it about this type of relationship that can bring such fierce love, friendship, and loyalty, as well as resentment, anger, and frustration, often simultaneously?
Obviously, those questions are somewhat lost on me, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading about the dynamics of these relationships! Xhenet Aliu's first novel, Brass , examines the sometimes unfulfilling, tenuous bonds between a woman, her mother, and her daughter, and the result is moving and tremendously compelling.
Elsie is an unmotivated high school graduate unsure if she'll ever amount to anything much. Waitressing at the Betsy Ross Diner in her hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut, her mother is a frustrated alcoholic who has pretty much left Elsie and her younger sister to raise themselves, with occasional meddling. Constantly living hand-to-mouth, it's not hard to dream of something better, but she doesn't have many expectations in that regard.
When she meets Bashkim, a line cook who escaped the political unrest in his native Albania to work at his relatives' diner, she is drawn to his weary worldliness, and finds his anger, as well as his simultaneous bravado and despair, immensely magnetic. Her grandparents immigrated from Lithuania, so she thinks she understands Bashkim's situation and that of his coworkers. She knows he has a wife back in Albania, but she doesn't care, and it's not long before she has fallen in love with him.
"I didn't want to think about how it was unfair that some people had it so much worse when I'd already committed to fixating on people who had it so much better."
Elsie finds herself pregnant, and although Bashkim professes happiness for their situation, and promises to take care of her and the baby, she isn't completely sure that's what she wants. As he struggles with the troubles back home and what to do with his wife, Elsie realizes what she wants more than anything is a ticket out of Waterbury, away from the life she has had to date, and wonders whether Bashkim will be the one to help her achieve that.
Seventeen years later, Elsie's daughter Luljeta dreams of escaping her Connecticut hometown, just as her mother once did (although she doesn't know that). But when her plans to attend NYU don't materialize, she can't fathom the thought of spending her adult life with her mother, with not enough money or opportunities to enjoy life. For the first time, she starts to wonder what her mother has been hiding all these years where her father is concerned, and she's determined to uncover the truth.
When she finds out the truth is far from what she's been told through the years, she decides to find him, and see if perhaps that relationship might bring her more joy and promise than the one she has with Elsie. She doesn't know what to expect, and in fact, doesn't even know how to get there, but she knows she must do it on her own.
"She could have explained that he was a frightened man, and a frightened man, like a frightened dog, was a potentially dangerous thing. She could have said those things instead of repeating, if the topic ever came up, that your father was simply an asshole, the same term she applies to people who don't matter at all, like guys who cut her off in traffic and Bill O'Reilly. But if she lied about where he was, who's to say she wasn't lying about what he was? What if he wasn't just some asshole, and you weren't better off without him?"
Switching narration between Elsie and Luljeta, between past and present, Brass is a moving account of the sacrifices made for love and parenthood, and how often we ignore the signs that what we're running toward may be no more appealing than what we're running from. Instead of giving one side of the story, Aliu gives us both sides, which really deepens the poignancy of the narrative.
While at times the book moved a little slower than I would have liked, I thought Aliu was a terrific storyteller, and I was completely drawn into Elsie and Luljeta's stories. These are women accustomed to not having control of their lives, so there were many times when I wanted to shake them into action, into saying what needed to be said.
No one relationship is perfect, and it requires an equal amount of give and take to make it work. I'd imagine where mothers and daughters are concerned, finding that balance may be difficult for a while, if not forever. Brass is a fascinating look at two women whose lives need that balance, and who realize they need others to help them, too.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com, or check out my list of the best books I read in 2017 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2017.html.
February 4, 2018
Made me grab my pogo stick!
Nodding my head yes yes yes! Super well written and insightful, this debut novel made me grab my old pogo stick and hop all over the place in glee. Whee! I even highlighted sentences from the Acknowledgments!
Oh, there are so many gem sentences, so many rockin’ rubies. They aren’t all glittery with flowery poetry, but they fed my head. Sometimes a writing style fits your psyche perfectly, and that’s what happened here. If the shoe fits, I’ll wear it and strut—because these sentences grabbed me.
I like this author’s mind—she’s imaginative, smart as a slap, and knows how to make me care about the characters. The metaphors are a-plenty but never belabored. I never knew where the story was going, and that was part of the fun--and I was always hoppy happy when I got there. The author picks up on the little things and lets us see them from a different angle. The sentences, the insights, they were all accessible. Accessibility is sometimes hard to achieve in literary fiction. The writer can be overly intellectual and make my head hurt—but here, no worries.
Okay. What’s this story about? We have two narrators, mother and daughter, alternating chapters, and the story is told from different time periods. Elsie is the mom and her story starts when she is in her late teens. Her daughter, Luljeti, tells her story when she’s in her teens too.
Elsie falls in love with an older, weird Albanian dude, Bashkim, with a strong heritage. He is chasing the American Dream, having left his tumultuous country. They both work in a diner. One of the first things he says to Elsie is this:
“I swear to Allah, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”
This is repeated several times in the chapter—it’s unclear whether Bashkim keeps repeating it or if Elsie keeps repeating it in her head. This simple proclamation pulled me right in. In one short sentence, I learned a whole lot about Bashkim. He’s perhaps religious, he’s from another culture, he thinks flattery will get you everywhere, he’s eyeballing the young stuff, he’s relentless in his pursuit. He’s instantly an intriguing sleazy character. Elsie, who is insecure and looking for meaning and escape from her boring life, falls for it. Their relationship is clunky from the beginning. Much unspoken drama happens and she has a baby, Luljeti.
Luljeti tells her story when she is an angsty teenager trying to find her way. She's weird and cool, confused and wander-y, curious and imaginative, and definitely flawed.
Both storytellers interested me equally, both had strong voices, both had good stories to tell. The author knows how to create unique characters that corral you into their worlds. Elsie’s story is told in first person, and Luljeti’s story is told in second person. I was a little skeptical of a story being told in second person—unclear of its purpose, actually—but it works.
If I had one complaint, it would be that the plot stalled a little in the middle. The stall made my engine idle a bit too, but I was so in love with the sentences and the thoughts, it was no biggie. Besides, there were a couple of dynamite chapters at the end—engines revved bigtime—which more than made up for the stall. One Elsie chapter in particular is a doozy, and it shows off the author’s ability to write a tremendous dramatic scene.
There are a zillion sentences that I loved. Here are a few:
“I picked up the phone, and right away I could hear every single one of the miles between us. Our voices were thin after traveling the long line of string beneath the ocean, and the constant echo and delay made it feel like we were having parallel conversations with ourselves instead of a single conversation with each other.”
“Suds dripped from her fingertips as if she bled cleanliness, and could just wash over us with it, but she held her arms close to her, cradling herself.”
“What a shitty, sad life moths led, I thought. They’d do anything to get at the warmth of the light, and as soon as they reached it they burned up and died.”
“It made me nervous, though, knowing all that fuel was inside just waiting for a spark.”
“The pregnancy test, in fact, was telling me to fuck off, one slim pink middle finger stuck straight up the center of that stick.”
“He was the person who taught me to drive a stick and give a proper hand job and make everything taste better with feta cheese.”
That last quote reminds me to tell you another great thing about this book: parts of it are damn funny. There’s a hilarious scene in a supermarket. Luljeti is carefully thinking about things to put into her cart, things she doesn’t need—like cat litter, even though she is only imagining having a cat. I guess you had to be there, but it had me laughing.
This book is character-driven, with huge psychological insights, delivered on a platter of sentences that are perfectly rendered. A writer who uses language that is sophisticated, witty, and accessible almost always gets an A+. Now I have to get my hands on her short story collection, Domesticated Wild Things and Other Stories. And meanwhile, I’m in line for her next book, I’ll tell you that. A big thank you to Esil for this great recommendation.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
Nodding my head yes yes yes! Super well written and insightful, this debut novel made me grab my old pogo stick and hop all over the place in glee. Whee! I even highlighted sentences from the Acknowledgments!
Oh, there are so many gem sentences, so many rockin’ rubies. They aren’t all glittery with flowery poetry, but they fed my head. Sometimes a writing style fits your psyche perfectly, and that’s what happened here. If the shoe fits, I’ll wear it and strut—because these sentences grabbed me.
I like this author’s mind—she’s imaginative, smart as a slap, and knows how to make me care about the characters. The metaphors are a-plenty but never belabored. I never knew where the story was going, and that was part of the fun--and I was always hoppy happy when I got there. The author picks up on the little things and lets us see them from a different angle. The sentences, the insights, they were all accessible. Accessibility is sometimes hard to achieve in literary fiction. The writer can be overly intellectual and make my head hurt—but here, no worries.
Okay. What’s this story about? We have two narrators, mother and daughter, alternating chapters, and the story is told from different time periods. Elsie is the mom and her story starts when she is in her late teens. Her daughter, Luljeti, tells her story when she’s in her teens too.
Elsie falls in love with an older, weird Albanian dude, Bashkim, with a strong heritage. He is chasing the American Dream, having left his tumultuous country. They both work in a diner. One of the first things he says to Elsie is this:
“I swear to Allah, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”
This is repeated several times in the chapter—it’s unclear whether Bashkim keeps repeating it or if Elsie keeps repeating it in her head. This simple proclamation pulled me right in. In one short sentence, I learned a whole lot about Bashkim. He’s perhaps religious, he’s from another culture, he thinks flattery will get you everywhere, he’s eyeballing the young stuff, he’s relentless in his pursuit. He’s instantly an intriguing sleazy character. Elsie, who is insecure and looking for meaning and escape from her boring life, falls for it. Their relationship is clunky from the beginning. Much unspoken drama happens and she has a baby, Luljeti.
Luljeti tells her story when she is an angsty teenager trying to find her way. She's weird and cool, confused and wander-y, curious and imaginative, and definitely flawed.
Both storytellers interested me equally, both had strong voices, both had good stories to tell. The author knows how to create unique characters that corral you into their worlds. Elsie’s story is told in first person, and Luljeti’s story is told in second person. I was a little skeptical of a story being told in second person—unclear of its purpose, actually—but it works.
If I had one complaint, it would be that the plot stalled a little in the middle. The stall made my engine idle a bit too, but I was so in love with the sentences and the thoughts, it was no biggie. Besides, there were a couple of dynamite chapters at the end—engines revved bigtime—which more than made up for the stall. One Elsie chapter in particular is a doozy, and it shows off the author’s ability to write a tremendous dramatic scene.
There are a zillion sentences that I loved. Here are a few:
“I picked up the phone, and right away I could hear every single one of the miles between us. Our voices were thin after traveling the long line of string beneath the ocean, and the constant echo and delay made it feel like we were having parallel conversations with ourselves instead of a single conversation with each other.”
“Suds dripped from her fingertips as if she bled cleanliness, and could just wash over us with it, but she held her arms close to her, cradling herself.”
“What a shitty, sad life moths led, I thought. They’d do anything to get at the warmth of the light, and as soon as they reached it they burned up and died.”
“It made me nervous, though, knowing all that fuel was inside just waiting for a spark.”
“The pregnancy test, in fact, was telling me to fuck off, one slim pink middle finger stuck straight up the center of that stick.”
“He was the person who taught me to drive a stick and give a proper hand job and make everything taste better with feta cheese.”
That last quote reminds me to tell you another great thing about this book: parts of it are damn funny. There’s a hilarious scene in a supermarket. Luljeti is carefully thinking about things to put into her cart, things she doesn’t need—like cat litter, even though she is only imagining having a cat. I guess you had to be there, but it had me laughing.
This book is character-driven, with huge psychological insights, delivered on a platter of sentences that are perfectly rendered. A writer who uses language that is sophisticated, witty, and accessible almost always gets an A+. Now I have to get my hands on her short story collection, Domesticated Wild Things and Other Stories. And meanwhile, I’m in line for her next book, I’ll tell you that. A big thank you to Esil for this great recommendation.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
March 2, 2018
Update: I’m back....as I said I would:
I had never read anything by Xhenet Aliu....( I’m not even clear on how to pronounce her name), but I’m now interested in reading her collection of short stories called,
“Domesticated Wild Things and other Stories”.
The more I read about Xhenet Aliu... the more I find myself interested. She certainly wrote from experience in “BRASS”. Xhenet is from Waterbury, Connecticut - born to an Albanian father and a Lithuanian mother. Her book, “Brass”...almost/somewhat sounds autobiographical. It’s a novel ...but there seems to be parallels with her own life
Such as....”parallels” between mother and daughter in “Brass”.
The parallel narratives between mother [Elsie], and her 17 year old daughter [Luljeta], are both fearless, with gritty energy. Xhenet’s writing is unrestrained, cutting & biting, sarcastic & sensitive, relentless & unwavering.
Both these women had similar struggles & similar life paths. I couldn’t help but wonder....”what is the approximate percentage of mothers & daughters life’s struggles, choices, and circumstances turning out to be ‘very’ similar?” I’m guessing it’s high.
Elsie, ( mom), works for hourly wages as a waitress at the Betsy Ross diner. With her blue collar job - she wishes to escape Waterbury. She has bigger dreams than the diner job.
Waterbury - by the mid 90’s, had a discouraging economy, with doomful prestige, respectability, and notoriety.
Elsie says:
“My mother had warned me when I took the job to watch out for the Albanians that worked at Ross, because she heard they treated their women like sacks and that their tempers ran hotter than the deep fryers in the kitchen”.
Well..... mother’s advice didn’t work too well. Albanian line cook, Bashkim told Elsie, ( who wears Buster Brown shoes....a woman after my own heart):
“I swear to Allah, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen”.
Bashkim repeated his LINE ( ha, line cook!...’wasn’t’ ALL he was), “you’re the most beautiful woman I ever seen”, so many times that Elsie just loved hearing it. Once he passed her one of his Marlboro cigarettes, electrical heat was running through Elsie’s body. She was soon pregnant with his child.
Luljeta is Elsie’s daughter. She’s 17 years old ... bright - did excellent in High School but is crushed when her dreams of attending NYU in the fall are broken when the college rejection letter arrives. She sets out to find discover the truth about her father, whom she was told very little about as she was growing up.
I loved this story....
.....For the way it was written and how I felt about the characters. Sad stories but gut-wrenching real. The setting- Waterbury- almost felt like a character too. I certainly felt empathy for the struggles of this place which I knew nothing about until this book.
.....My appreciation and understanding of how Waterbury declined from the 70’s the 90’s came from reading “Brass”. My entire ‘new awareness’ about the social class, immigration, and the history about the Albanian’s all coming over from Europe, all were new to me.
This is the type of book I quietly will re-think about. On walks - I can find myself drifting back into this story ....
Stellar writing!!!!
The bottom half was written yesterday:
I really enjoyed this book. I’d like write a more in-depth review when I have more time—with some sample excerpts of unique - creative and AWESOME writing-
- but I only have my iPhone with me driving around with with my husband. Busy schedule-
But... a few things:
I spent some extra time reading about Waterbury, Connecticut: “The Brass City”.
It’s where this story takes place.
I got interested in knowing more about the history - the Jewish Community- the decline of the economy in the 70’s & 80’s being ranked as having the worse quality of life in 1992..
and the worst place for business in the United States...
BUT...
In 2008... it was rated in the top 100 best places in America to raise a family.
So — I was finding the LOCATION of this story interesting and fitting with this novel.
This is a character driven novel. Page after page I was in ‘awe’ of the writing.
I really cared for BOTH the mother & daughter in this book ..
Very impressed with the author ...
I’ll be back to review more in a day or two.
I had never read anything by Xhenet Aliu....( I’m not even clear on how to pronounce her name), but I’m now interested in reading her collection of short stories called,
“Domesticated Wild Things and other Stories”.
The more I read about Xhenet Aliu... the more I find myself interested. She certainly wrote from experience in “BRASS”. Xhenet is from Waterbury, Connecticut - born to an Albanian father and a Lithuanian mother. Her book, “Brass”...almost/somewhat sounds autobiographical. It’s a novel ...but there seems to be parallels with her own life
Such as....”parallels” between mother and daughter in “Brass”.
The parallel narratives between mother [Elsie], and her 17 year old daughter [Luljeta], are both fearless, with gritty energy. Xhenet’s writing is unrestrained, cutting & biting, sarcastic & sensitive, relentless & unwavering.
Both these women had similar struggles & similar life paths. I couldn’t help but wonder....”what is the approximate percentage of mothers & daughters life’s struggles, choices, and circumstances turning out to be ‘very’ similar?” I’m guessing it’s high.
Elsie, ( mom), works for hourly wages as a waitress at the Betsy Ross diner. With her blue collar job - she wishes to escape Waterbury. She has bigger dreams than the diner job.
Waterbury - by the mid 90’s, had a discouraging economy, with doomful prestige, respectability, and notoriety.
Elsie says:
“My mother had warned me when I took the job to watch out for the Albanians that worked at Ross, because she heard they treated their women like sacks and that their tempers ran hotter than the deep fryers in the kitchen”.
Well..... mother’s advice didn’t work too well. Albanian line cook, Bashkim told Elsie, ( who wears Buster Brown shoes....a woman after my own heart):
“I swear to Allah, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen”.
Bashkim repeated his LINE ( ha, line cook!...’wasn’t’ ALL he was), “you’re the most beautiful woman I ever seen”, so many times that Elsie just loved hearing it. Once he passed her one of his Marlboro cigarettes, electrical heat was running through Elsie’s body. She was soon pregnant with his child.
Luljeta is Elsie’s daughter. She’s 17 years old ... bright - did excellent in High School but is crushed when her dreams of attending NYU in the fall are broken when the college rejection letter arrives. She sets out to find discover the truth about her father, whom she was told very little about as she was growing up.
I loved this story....
.....For the way it was written and how I felt about the characters. Sad stories but gut-wrenching real. The setting- Waterbury- almost felt like a character too. I certainly felt empathy for the struggles of this place which I knew nothing about until this book.
.....My appreciation and understanding of how Waterbury declined from the 70’s the 90’s came from reading “Brass”. My entire ‘new awareness’ about the social class, immigration, and the history about the Albanian’s all coming over from Europe, all were new to me.
This is the type of book I quietly will re-think about. On walks - I can find myself drifting back into this story ....
Stellar writing!!!!
The bottom half was written yesterday:
I really enjoyed this book. I’d like write a more in-depth review when I have more time—with some sample excerpts of unique - creative and AWESOME writing-
- but I only have my iPhone with me driving around with with my husband. Busy schedule-
But... a few things:
I spent some extra time reading about Waterbury, Connecticut: “The Brass City”.
It’s where this story takes place.
I got interested in knowing more about the history - the Jewish Community- the decline of the economy in the 70’s & 80’s being ranked as having the worse quality of life in 1992..
and the worst place for business in the United States...
BUT...
In 2008... it was rated in the top 100 best places in America to raise a family.
So — I was finding the LOCATION of this story interesting and fitting with this novel.
This is a character driven novel. Page after page I was in ‘awe’ of the writing.
I really cared for BOTH the mother & daughter in this book ..
Very impressed with the author ...
I’ll be back to review more in a day or two.
December 14, 2017
The brass mills in Waterbury, Connecticut have closed. Factories have been abandoned. In 1996, Elsie Kuzavinas is nineteen years old. She is a waitress at the Betsy Ross Diner. She wants to leave this depressed town once she graduates from high school and can buy a car. Elsie depends upon her mother Mamie, an assembly line worker, for transportation. Sometimes Mamie forgets to pick Elsie up from work. Enter Bashkim, an Albanian line cook at the diner. Bashkim frequently drives Elsie home. She enters a relationship with him despite knowing that he has a wife back home in Albania. He assures her that his wife, Agnes has refused to emigrate.
Elsie has hopes and dreams. She wants to flee from this one horse town. An unexpected pregnancy
quashes her ambitions. Boyfriend Bashkim was born in an Albanian labor camp for enemies of the state because his father did not report ownership of his cows to the government. Like many Albanians, Bashkim came to Waterbury under the false impression that there was work in brass foundries. The streets were not lined with gold! Should Elsie and Bashkim bring a child into the world? How can a child be fed and clothed?
Luljeta is now seventeen years old. She has been raised by single parent, Elsie. Lulu is determined to attend college in New York City. After a childhood on public assistance and seemingly never fitting in, she hopes to find her inner strength. A college rejection letter is more than she can handle. She feels emptiness, sorrow and rage. What's up with mother Elsie's behavior, still smothering Lulu and watching over her?
"Brass" by Xhenet Aliu explores the relationship between Elsie and Luljeta using alternating narratives. Reconciling her past will help Lulu embrace her future. Who was her father? What happened to him? How will the quest for this knowledge affect the mother-daughter bond?
Thank you Random House Publishing Group-Random House and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Brass".
Elsie has hopes and dreams. She wants to flee from this one horse town. An unexpected pregnancy
quashes her ambitions. Boyfriend Bashkim was born in an Albanian labor camp for enemies of the state because his father did not report ownership of his cows to the government. Like many Albanians, Bashkim came to Waterbury under the false impression that there was work in brass foundries. The streets were not lined with gold! Should Elsie and Bashkim bring a child into the world? How can a child be fed and clothed?
Luljeta is now seventeen years old. She has been raised by single parent, Elsie. Lulu is determined to attend college in New York City. After a childhood on public assistance and seemingly never fitting in, she hopes to find her inner strength. A college rejection letter is more than she can handle. She feels emptiness, sorrow and rage. What's up with mother Elsie's behavior, still smothering Lulu and watching over her?
"Brass" by Xhenet Aliu explores the relationship between Elsie and Luljeta using alternating narratives. Reconciling her past will help Lulu embrace her future. Who was her father? What happened to him? How will the quest for this knowledge affect the mother-daughter bond?
Thank you Random House Publishing Group-Random House and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Brass".
January 17, 2018
3.5 Waterbury, CN. once the home of large employing Brass Mills, but now they've closed, the only businesses left are service industries. Elsie at eighteen, wants only to escape this dead end town, but instead she falls for the Albanian cook at the restaurant where they both work. Eighteen years later she will still be in this town, now raising her own daughter, who is looking for her own answers.
The story alternates between the past, telling Elsies story, and the present which tells her daughters, Luljetas story. Mother and daughter relationships, so difficult at times, much love but also conflicts. Had to laugh when I read this, because my mom used to tell my younger sister this all the time,
"I hope someday you have a daughter just like you, and I probably rolled my eyes about it, that oldest of curses that, it turn out, is also the only one you need to be afraid of."
Like Elsie who didn't take her mom's advice, sure she knew better, Luljeta too wants to go her own way, find her own answers. a novel of self discovery, the effects of abandonment, and coming to an understanding about the past. A very interesting story that is well told, serving up a universal theme in a very different surrounding, concerning an ethnicity that isn't commonly written about. Once again, the best laid plans that so often go away, leaving those left to pick up the pieces.
ARC from Edelweiss.
The story alternates between the past, telling Elsies story, and the present which tells her daughters, Luljetas story. Mother and daughter relationships, so difficult at times, much love but also conflicts. Had to laugh when I read this, because my mom used to tell my younger sister this all the time,
"I hope someday you have a daughter just like you, and I probably rolled my eyes about it, that oldest of curses that, it turn out, is also the only one you need to be afraid of."
Like Elsie who didn't take her mom's advice, sure she knew better, Luljeta too wants to go her own way, find her own answers. a novel of self discovery, the effects of abandonment, and coming to an understanding about the past. A very interesting story that is well told, serving up a universal theme in a very different surrounding, concerning an ethnicity that isn't commonly written about. Once again, the best laid plans that so often go away, leaving those left to pick up the pieces.
ARC from Edelweiss.
December 9, 2017
It's hard to believe that Brass is a debut novel for Xhenet Aliu. It's a powerful story, and so well written. The story is told in two timelines from the alternating points of view of mother Ellie and daughter Luljeta. Ellie's part of the story takes place when she is in her late teens, meets Luljeta's father, and gets pregnant. Luljeta's story takes place 17 years later, as she is finishing high school and trying to figure out who she is and what to do next. They live in a small town, with little wealth, and with waves of Albanian immigrants. Luljeta's father is Albanian, and long gone by the time her part of the story takes place. Ellie's story focuses on what happened with Luljeta's father, while Luljeta's story focuses on trying to figure out her background and what happened to her father. The two timelines come together brilliantly and with heartbreak at the end. These characters are both tough, whip smart and deeply conflicted. Their love runs deep, but their relationship is fraught. Aliu's writing is unsentimental, but potent. I felt fully emotionally engaged with these characters. Highly recommend to anyone who likes strong writing and interesting characters. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
June 28, 2018
”I've lost the thread among the vines
And hung myself in storylines
That tell the tales I never would allow
God knows the name of every bird
That fills my mind like angry words
But you know all my secret heart avows
“We're taught to love the worst of us
And mercy more than life but trust me
Mercy's just a warning shot across the bow
I live for yours and you can't fail me now
I live for your mercy, you can't fail me now
No, you can't fail me now”
-- You Can’t Fail Me Now,Loudon Wainwright / Joe Henry Songwriters: Joseph Lee Henry / Loudon S. Iii Wainwright
”When the last of the brass mills locked up their doors and hauled ass out of town once and for all, it seemed all they left behind were blocks of abandoned factories that poked out from behind high stone gates like caskets floated to the surface after the Great Flood of ’55.”
Elsie, determined to haul her own ass out of Waterbury, Connecticut, once and for all, at the first opportunity, instead ends up with a job at the Betsy Ross Diner, ”slinging poutine fries and spanakopita to third-shifters headed to or coming back from their jobs as hospital guards, machinists, small-time drug dealers. And I got Bashkim, an Albanian line cook at a Greek diner named after an American patriot.”
Three weeks after she meets this Bashkim, but the first time he sees her, really notices her, he tells Elsie ”I swear to Allah, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”
That’s when she made the mistake of thinking that the message in his eyes was sincere, that his words spoke of a promise.
”Maybe everything he was talking about was just a hypnotist’s pocket watch swinging before my eyes, but even if there was a little piece of me that thought I should know better, there was no way I’d refuse the offer. An impossible dream was better than no dream at all.”
And so in time they would, in fact, be tied together forever, in a way, when their daughter, Luljeta is born.
Mothers and daughters make for such captivating stories, filled with drama, regrets, angst, and love. Like an ongoing argument between mother and daughter, you hear first from one, then from the other. A back and forth story from their points of view shared in alternating chapters.
The abandonment of husbands, fathers, stories of mothers who never speak of the missing fathers, mothers who share too much, who drink too much. Mothers who work too hard and come home too tired from jobs that pay too little and have so little of themselves left to give at the end of the day. And even though it’s done in an effort to protect their own daughters from ending up like they themselves have, their daughters bear the scars of their silence.
This is a beautifully written and impressive debut novel that deals with many themes, secrets, the truth behind the stories told, identity, love, anger, mothers and daughters, immigration, escaping the pain of one life for the grief of another, the struggles faced in a lifetime, the regrets, the wishes for some kind of reconciliation, forgiveness or recognition of the belief that each one is doing their best. Life just has a way of getting in the way of our dreams, and the stories we tell ourselves.
Many thanks to the Public Library system, and the many Librarians that manage, organize and keep it running, for the loan of this book!
And hung myself in storylines
That tell the tales I never would allow
God knows the name of every bird
That fills my mind like angry words
But you know all my secret heart avows
“We're taught to love the worst of us
And mercy more than life but trust me
Mercy's just a warning shot across the bow
I live for yours and you can't fail me now
I live for your mercy, you can't fail me now
No, you can't fail me now”
-- You Can’t Fail Me Now,Loudon Wainwright / Joe Henry Songwriters: Joseph Lee Henry / Loudon S. Iii Wainwright
”When the last of the brass mills locked up their doors and hauled ass out of town once and for all, it seemed all they left behind were blocks of abandoned factories that poked out from behind high stone gates like caskets floated to the surface after the Great Flood of ’55.”
Elsie, determined to haul her own ass out of Waterbury, Connecticut, once and for all, at the first opportunity, instead ends up with a job at the Betsy Ross Diner, ”slinging poutine fries and spanakopita to third-shifters headed to or coming back from their jobs as hospital guards, machinists, small-time drug dealers. And I got Bashkim, an Albanian line cook at a Greek diner named after an American patriot.”
Three weeks after she meets this Bashkim, but the first time he sees her, really notices her, he tells Elsie ”I swear to Allah, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”
That’s when she made the mistake of thinking that the message in his eyes was sincere, that his words spoke of a promise.
”Maybe everything he was talking about was just a hypnotist’s pocket watch swinging before my eyes, but even if there was a little piece of me that thought I should know better, there was no way I’d refuse the offer. An impossible dream was better than no dream at all.”
And so in time they would, in fact, be tied together forever, in a way, when their daughter, Luljeta is born.
Mothers and daughters make for such captivating stories, filled with drama, regrets, angst, and love. Like an ongoing argument between mother and daughter, you hear first from one, then from the other. A back and forth story from their points of view shared in alternating chapters.
The abandonment of husbands, fathers, stories of mothers who never speak of the missing fathers, mothers who share too much, who drink too much. Mothers who work too hard and come home too tired from jobs that pay too little and have so little of themselves left to give at the end of the day. And even though it’s done in an effort to protect their own daughters from ending up like they themselves have, their daughters bear the scars of their silence.
This is a beautifully written and impressive debut novel that deals with many themes, secrets, the truth behind the stories told, identity, love, anger, mothers and daughters, immigration, escaping the pain of one life for the grief of another, the struggles faced in a lifetime, the regrets, the wishes for some kind of reconciliation, forgiveness or recognition of the belief that each one is doing their best. Life just has a way of getting in the way of our dreams, and the stories we tell ourselves.
Many thanks to the Public Library system, and the many Librarians that manage, organize and keep it running, for the loan of this book!
December 31, 2017
I enjoyed this story of Elsie and Luljeta, a mother and daughter from Waterbury, Connecticut. Their story is told in alternating chapters, Elsie’s being when she was 17 and working in a diner where she falls in love with her coworker, an Albanian immigrant named Bakshim, and ends up pregnant. Luljeta’s story takes place when she is 17 yrs old and applying to college, and she wants to find out about her father, who we find out, had a wife in Albania at the time her mother got pregnant with her, and she has never met him.
This was a well written debut novel.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the advanced copy!
This was a well written debut novel.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the advanced copy!
November 10, 2018
Brass is a simple, yet very well executed novel, mostly focusing on the mother-daughter relationships, the American dream for Albanian immigrants and life in a small, dying small town in Connecticut.
The novel is told via alternate timelines and points of view, one for Luljeta, almost eighteen years old and the other one for her mother, Elsie, when she was the same age.
Genetic destiny has a way of showing up, so there's repeating patterns and mistakes. Derailing one's life is relatively easy when lacking material advantages and support networks.
For me, it was also interesting to read about the Albanian immigrants, especially since I'd never come across them in any books. Albania is one of those small, forgotten Eastern European countries that you never hear about and I say this as someone born in a similar country, but at least people know two, maybe three things about it, if they're over 40 and into world politics.
I was impressed with this novel, so I'll keep my eyes open for Aliu's next novel.
The novel is told via alternate timelines and points of view, one for Luljeta, almost eighteen years old and the other one for her mother, Elsie, when she was the same age.
Genetic destiny has a way of showing up, so there's repeating patterns and mistakes. Derailing one's life is relatively easy when lacking material advantages and support networks.
For me, it was also interesting to read about the Albanian immigrants, especially since I'd never come across them in any books. Albania is one of those small, forgotten Eastern European countries that you never hear about and I say this as someone born in a similar country, but at least people know two, maybe three things about it, if they're over 40 and into world politics.
I was impressed with this novel, so I'll keep my eyes open for Aliu's next novel.
January 1, 2019
I loved this book so much that I read all 290 pages in a single day. Granted, work was closed and I lost power due to Windmageddon, but still. This was a great read. More to come.
Read
November 21, 2017Elsie and Luljeta, the unforgettable mother and daughter at the center of BRASS, are as bright and tough as the metal itself, and Xhenet Aliu depicts their parallel journeys with equal parts grit and tenderness. A fierce, big-hearted, unflinching debut.
November 1, 2017
I received this via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. All my opinions are my own:).
----
Entered this giveaway on a whim:), was looking for a family saga type of story and this one sounded promising and a little different.
I found both timelines of the story equally compelling but was more captivated by Elsie's story than Luljeta most of the time. This doesn't flinch away from what everyone goes through and there were times I wanted to throw a certain character through a wall.
From the first time Bashkim talked about his wife (not spoiler, in book blurb) I knew it wasn't going to end well. There were times when I thought he did care about Elsie, but found it hard to believe he ever loved her (cynical part talking?, maybe).
I am not sure entirely what to say here. While I enjoyed the story and wanted to know how everything ended up, sometimes I had to make myself pick this one up. Not because I forcing myself to finish or anything. It just didn't have that hold on me, know what I mean?
*sighs and shrugs*
The writing is gorgeous and really sets the tone for the atmosphere and characters of the story. Everything feels real here and I give the author points for for all of that.
Would still recommend, a worthwhile read.
----
Entered this giveaway on a whim:), was looking for a family saga type of story and this one sounded promising and a little different.
I found both timelines of the story equally compelling but was more captivated by Elsie's story than Luljeta most of the time. This doesn't flinch away from what everyone goes through and there were times I wanted to throw a certain character through a wall.
From the first time Bashkim talked about his wife (not spoiler, in book blurb) I knew it wasn't going to end well. There were times when I thought he did care about Elsie, but found it hard to believe he ever loved her (cynical part talking?, maybe).
I am not sure entirely what to say here. While I enjoyed the story and wanted to know how everything ended up, sometimes I had to make myself pick this one up. Not because I forcing myself to finish or anything. It just didn't have that hold on me, know what I mean?
*sighs and shrugs*
The writing is gorgeous and really sets the tone for the atmosphere and characters of the story. Everything feels real here and I give the author points for for all of that.
Would still recommend, a worthwhile read.
January 25, 2018
19-year old Elsie, daughter of Lithuanian immigrants, has gotten involved with co-worker Albanian line cook Bashkim who calls her ‘dum dum’ yet gives hope to this naive girl for a future together. His insincere compliments, casual hook-ups in a parking lot and the fact that he’s already married do not bode well for this relationship. Nor does the fact that Elsie finds herself pregnant.
Elsie’s path forward as a pregnant single mother alternates with daughter Luljeta, whose story begins 17 years later. Luljeta is also introduced as a teen, a bright student with dreams to graduate college and escape her dead-end town. I liked the alternating multigenerational story from mother/daughter perspectives. This book was in my thoughts even when I was not reading it, the characters’ tribulations stirring my emotions. Their experiences and cultural/class challenges in a changing world gave me pause as they are relevant today.
Elsie’s path forward as a pregnant single mother alternates with daughter Luljeta, whose story begins 17 years later. Luljeta is also introduced as a teen, a bright student with dreams to graduate college and escape her dead-end town. I liked the alternating multigenerational story from mother/daughter perspectives. This book was in my thoughts even when I was not reading it, the characters’ tribulations stirring my emotions. Their experiences and cultural/class challenges in a changing world gave me pause as they are relevant today.
February 7, 2018
A touching story of the American working-class struggle and motherhood against the odds. Elsie’s language immediately gives us a taste of her sassy voice. A second-generation Lithuanian-American, she is desperate to leave town and escape her parents’ blue-collar example, but ends up working at the local Betsy Ross Diner instead. Here she falls for an Albanian line cook named Bashkim. Elsie’s narrative alternates with chapters narrated by her teenage daughter Lulu seventeen years later, in the second person. The novel is set up around two parallel journeys: Elsie’s towards motherhood, and Lulu’s towards the truth about her father. My only misgiving about the novel was the extended use of the second person; I have encountered it in individual short stories or book chapters before but have rarely seen it take such a significant role in the narration of an entire novel. I suspect some readers may find it off-putting.
See my full review at BookBrowse. (See also my article on Albanian Communism.)
See my full review at BookBrowse. (See also my article on Albanian Communism.)
February 5, 2018
...often the love your mother gives feels like it's being rejected by your body, as if you're the B-positive recipient of an A-negative blood donation.
Quite a good debut novel with an interesting, self-deprecating style. The frustrating dysfunctional nature of familial relationships (“what did I do wrong?”), the (realistic) dead-end socio-economic cycle so many are unable to break from, the deep dead pain of a parent who has wronged you - this was jarring, funny, bitter, emotional, wonderful.
Quite a good debut novel with an interesting, self-deprecating style. The frustrating dysfunctional nature of familial relationships (“what did I do wrong?”), the (realistic) dead-end socio-economic cycle so many are unable to break from, the deep dead pain of a parent who has wronged you - this was jarring, funny, bitter, emotional, wonderful.
August 20, 2017
I was in a mood for a literary novel and this certainly fit the bill. Strikingly good for a debut, if only all too bleak as the realities of the American dream often can be, this novel is essentially a mother daughter story, told in alternating perspectives from both at around the same age. The mother plotline is definitively more compelling and interesting, taking up the bulk of the book and rightly so. Drawing on autobiographical experiences in this case works really well for the author as she presents the small town USA life and an intercultural economically and otherwise challenged romance, something of a quintessential melting pot story, something like a Springsteen or Mellencamp song. It's utterly unflinchingly realistic and the sort of thing that will engage readers in direct proportion to how much they'll be able to relate to the story. The main characters are indeed tough as brass, which is pretty much the prerequisite amount of toughness it takes to survive this world or, at least, their world. Very well written somewhat depressing slice of life tale from a promising obviously talented author. Thanks Netgalley.
September 10, 2017
I chose this because of its location, since I lived near Waterbury CT for almost 20 years. Descriptions of the city, its inhabitants, its diverse population rang true. Even the architecture of its milltown history. However, the story did not hang fire for me. Two protagonists - mother and 17 year old daughter -- tell their stories in alternate chapters, but most of what provides interest is unfortunately revealed in cover notes. As the story fills out and the women advance, there is little originality or progress.
December 10, 2017
Waterbury, CT. A hard factory town with a high immigrant population; a small city like many others, to locals, there are two scenarios. Never escaping or for those lucky enough, to break free. This is a realistic coming-of-age, mulit-genterational tale between mother and daughter. Young Elsie works hard as a waitress at a local eatery. She soon finds herself pregnant by a married co-worker and with no promising future. Jump forward 17 years and Luljeta, Elsie's daughter is desperately trying to leave Waterbury and avoid the same trajectory as her mother. All seems bleak when she gets rejected from NYU. Lulu discovers that her only way of moving forward is to look to the past and to the father she never knew.
April 14, 2017
Elsie is a waitress at the Betsy Ross diner, living in a town that's dying after most of the brass mills have shut down. Add one Albanian line cook, fast-forward 17 years, and meet Luljeta, Elsie's daughter. In alternating chapters, and with prose that's the opposite of reserved, Aliu shares the story of a mother and daughter trying to escape their circumstances and find something better. It's a novel with a big personality and an even bigger heart. You will fall in love, and miss them deeply when it's over.
November 30, 2017
Told from two alternating points of view two decades apart this is the story of Elsie, the single mom who started out with high hopes and good intentions when she fell in love with a married man.
"It was 1996, the middle of March, a brutal part of the year when spring was supposed to hit but didn't, when I'd given up on ever being warm again."
Elsie's only daughter Luljeta both loves and hates her mother, never quite feeling like she fits in anywhere. She has been told very little about her father and now that she is growing from child to young woman decides to find out the truth for herself.
Part love story, part coming of age tale, part family drama but without being sappy this bittersweet novel touched my heart and hit my funny bone with sarcastic wit.
I received an advance copy for review.
"It was 1996, the middle of March, a brutal part of the year when spring was supposed to hit but didn't, when I'd given up on ever being warm again."
Elsie's only daughter Luljeta both loves and hates her mother, never quite feeling like she fits in anywhere. She has been told very little about her father and now that she is growing from child to young woman decides to find out the truth for herself.
Part love story, part coming of age tale, part family drama but without being sappy this bittersweet novel touched my heart and hit my funny bone with sarcastic wit.
I received an advance copy for review.
Read
February 14, 2018A damn great read about a mother and daughter, told 17 years apart. It's a character study, but the voices are powerful, the landscape stark, and it'll appeal to readers who loved LADY BIRD for the exploration of mother-daughter relationships.
October 7, 2023
This is a story of a mother and daughter, told in alternating perspectives when the two were about the same age. As the story opens, Elsie is an eighteen-year-old Armenian American working as a server at the Betsy Ross Diner in Waterbury, Connecticut. She dreams of getting away and forging a better life. Instead, she falls in love with Bashkim, whom she later finds out is married. She gets pregnant and gives birth to her daughter Luljeta (called Lulu). The second perspective is that of Lulu, when she is seventeen. Similar to her mother, she wants to get away, but has received a rejection letter from New York University and has failed to apply to other colleges. She decides to find out more about the father she has never known, which takes her on a journey.
This novel is well-written, and the author is very good at creating believable characters. It was all too easy to picture a young woman letting love blind her to what would have been a better course of action (e.g., not getting involved with a married man). I particularly enjoyed the manner in which the author brings in the history of what is going on in Armenia into small town America. Unfortunately, this story is marred by a rather unsatisfying ending. I liked it overall and would definitely read another of book by this author.
3.5
This novel is well-written, and the author is very good at creating believable characters. It was all too easy to picture a young woman letting love blind her to what would have been a better course of action (e.g., not getting involved with a married man). I particularly enjoyed the manner in which the author brings in the history of what is going on in Armenia into small town America. Unfortunately, this story is marred by a rather unsatisfying ending. I liked it overall and would definitely read another of book by this author.
3.5
May 29, 2018
If you take away one part of this review take away this: Brass was the type of book I forcefully made myself read slower, taking in every dialogue, inner and outer; I did not want it to come to an end. Brass is not a hold-onto-your-seat page-turner, but Xhenet Ailu truly made me care for the two protagonists' worlds.
The idea of naïvety is an important theme in this book; the way mothers can pass on ignorance through generations, even when they themselves learn better. Perhaps they think they are protecting their daughters, sheltering them from the world. Perhaps it just remains the comfortable way of parenting: it is what they know.
na·ive·té:
Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Other times, it leads to bad life decisions and learning things the hard way. Elsie and her daughter Luljeta are both teenagers in their respective and parallel chapters of the book. While Elsie is literally forced to confront her naïvety, Luljeta goes on a teenage rebellion in search of answers that she thinks will complete the story of her life. Aliu does a fantastic job with the alternating chapters; she is able to show the reader how Luljeta came to be and ultimately why she ends up with a hole in her heart.
What I liked most about this book, though, was the inner monologue of Elsie and Luljeta and the dialogue between all the characters in this book. It was just so fantastically real; amusing at times, thoughtful at others, and sometimes downright sad. Nonetheless, it was always realistic. The characters, in particular Elsie and her mom, were not highly educated, and I appreciated the fact they did not use vernacular that made them sound as if they just graduated from an MFA program.
The idea of naïvety is an important theme in this book; the way mothers can pass on ignorance through generations, even when they themselves learn better. Perhaps they think they are protecting their daughters, sheltering them from the world. Perhaps it just remains the comfortable way of parenting: it is what they know.
na·ive·té:
noun
lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment.
innocence or unsophistication.
Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Other times, it leads to bad life decisions and learning things the hard way. Elsie and her daughter Luljeta are both teenagers in their respective and parallel chapters of the book. While Elsie is literally forced to confront her naïvety, Luljeta goes on a teenage rebellion in search of answers that she thinks will complete the story of her life. Aliu does a fantastic job with the alternating chapters; she is able to show the reader how Luljeta came to be and ultimately why she ends up with a hole in her heart.
What I liked most about this book, though, was the inner monologue of Elsie and Luljeta and the dialogue between all the characters in this book. It was just so fantastically real; amusing at times, thoughtful at others, and sometimes downright sad. Nonetheless, it was always realistic. The characters, in particular Elsie and her mom, were not highly educated, and I appreciated the fact they did not use vernacular that made them sound as if they just graduated from an MFA program.
“She could have explained that he was a frightened man, and a frightened man, like a frightened dog was a potentially dangerous thing. She could have said any of those things instead of repeating, if the topic ever came up, that your father was simply an asshole, the same term she applies to people who don’t matter at all, like guys who cut her off in traffic and Bill O’Reilly.”
-Inner monologue of Luljeta
July 10, 2018
Waterbury, Connecticut was once a booming industrial town. Immigrants migrated to Waterbury to work in the brass factories. Now the factories have closed their doors, and the town is dying. For those stuck there, life is not easy. Elsie, a waitress at the local diner is saving her money for a chance at something better. But when she meets Bashkim, the line cook, she is drawn to his strong looks and worldly personality. Bashkim left a wife in Albania, coming to the USA seeking the American dream. But when Elsie finds herself pregnant, it changes both of their future plans.
Told in alternating chapters of Elsie and that of her daughter, Lulujeta. Lulujeta is herself on the cusp of adulthood, dreaming about a new beginning in NYC going to collegel and reinventing herself. Yet she is grappling with unresolved issues of her past and the current disappointments she is facing, uncertain of her place in what seems to be a hostile world.
Not just a story about a mother and a daughter, but also of prejudice, poverty and resilience.
3.5 stars.
Told in alternating chapters of Elsie and that of her daughter, Lulujeta. Lulujeta is herself on the cusp of adulthood, dreaming about a new beginning in NYC going to collegel and reinventing herself. Yet she is grappling with unresolved issues of her past and the current disappointments she is facing, uncertain of her place in what seems to be a hostile world.
Not just a story about a mother and a daughter, but also of prejudice, poverty and resilience.
3.5 stars.
July 9, 2018
In the decaying factory town of Waterbury, Connecticut, a young Lithuanian American girl gets a job as a waitress at the Betsy Ross diner. Her mother's an alcoholic, her younger sister has the brains and grades to get out of Waterbury, and Elsie's just hoping for a better life. Instead, she meets Bashkim, newly emigrated from Albania, where he left his wife behind in the hopes of a better life in the US.
A generation later, Elsie's daughter, Luljeta, also hopes for a better life somewhere else, but a rejection letter from the university she'd pinned her hopes on have her scrambling to find a reason to believe that she can make a better life for herself than the low income grind she has with her mother. Lulu goes in search of the father her mother won't talk about.
This may be a debut novel, but it's self-assured and well-written. Xhenet Aliu has managed something even seasoned authors struggle with; her two narrators sound different, but subtly so. She also writes with a dry humor and keen eye for detail. The characters inhabit a vivid, if run-down world and there's a lot of detail as to the cultural and social structures of the immigrant communities Lulu and Elsie live in, as well as the realities of always having to scramble to make the rent payment. I was impressed by this novel, loved that it shed light on people and places not usually given attention.
The addition of your mother's boyfriend, the postanarchist Professor Robbie, brings the total number of guests gathered for Christmas dinner to five, one more than the quartet of you, your mother, Mamie, and Greta, which had gathered for Thanksgiving and all other previous holidays you've sat through your entire life. Even with the addition of a Y chromosome, your Noel looks mostly like a nativity scene staged by a militant women's separatist group.
A generation later, Elsie's daughter, Luljeta, also hopes for a better life somewhere else, but a rejection letter from the university she'd pinned her hopes on have her scrambling to find a reason to believe that she can make a better life for herself than the low income grind she has with her mother. Lulu goes in search of the father her mother won't talk about.
This may be a debut novel, but it's self-assured and well-written. Xhenet Aliu has managed something even seasoned authors struggle with; her two narrators sound different, but subtly so. She also writes with a dry humor and keen eye for detail. The characters inhabit a vivid, if run-down world and there's a lot of detail as to the cultural and social structures of the immigrant communities Lulu and Elsie live in, as well as the realities of always having to scramble to make the rent payment. I was impressed by this novel, loved that it shed light on people and places not usually given attention.
The addition of your mother's boyfriend, the postanarchist Professor Robbie, brings the total number of guests gathered for Christmas dinner to five, one more than the quartet of you, your mother, Mamie, and Greta, which had gathered for Thanksgiving and all other previous holidays you've sat through your entire life. Even with the addition of a Y chromosome, your Noel looks mostly like a nativity scene staged by a militant women's separatist group.
June 15, 2018
3.5 stars.
I love a good mother-daughter story, especially one set in a downtrodden community, where the idea of what life should be and the reality of what life is don’t match. This author was unafraid to face and yell uncomfortable truths and I appreciate the rawness of emotions in her characters, no false beauty here.
But the storytelling lacks urgency for me. There is a ton of exposition and build-up, but the story’s climax felt more like a blip and subsequent dribble, rather than a peak. So maybe that’s life, but didn’t make for great reading.
I love a good mother-daughter story, especially one set in a downtrodden community, where the idea of what life should be and the reality of what life is don’t match. This author was unafraid to face and yell uncomfortable truths and I appreciate the rawness of emotions in her characters, no false beauty here.
But the storytelling lacks urgency for me. There is a ton of exposition and build-up, but the story’s climax felt more like a blip and subsequent dribble, rather than a peak. So maybe that’s life, but didn’t make for great reading.
August 22, 2017
Thank you Edelweiss for my review copy of this book. This book was amazing! This is the next must read for fans of The Nix.
Elsie dreams of nothing more than saving enough money from her job at the Betsy Ross Diner so she can get a car and get out of Waterbury, CT to start a new life. The brass mills have shut down and life in this town is nothing but a dead end.
Bashkim is a line cook at the Betsy Ross. He left a wife behind in Albania to make a better life in America. Chasing the American dream, anything is better than living in a country where you aren't even allowed to own your own cows because nothing belongs to the people. In a country where there is no dreams or freedom everything in America looks pretty good right now.
An unlikely pair Elise and Bashkim soon find themselves expecting a baby. Even though Bashkim claims he wants a life with Elise and the baby circumstances intervene and Elise becomes unsure of her or her daughters place in Bashkim's world. After a deciding event makes Elise strike out on her own to raise her daughter without Bashkim she spends the next 17 years raising her daughter Luljeta on her own.
Luljeta spends her life believing whatever her mother has told her about her father and does not seem overly affected by his absence in her life. Until one day Luljeta learns that her mother has been less than truthful in regards to her father and his family.
Told from alternating points of view this is an engaging story of a mother and daughter and each one's unique struggle to realize their dreams which are not as different as they may think.
Elsie dreams of nothing more than saving enough money from her job at the Betsy Ross Diner so she can get a car and get out of Waterbury, CT to start a new life. The brass mills have shut down and life in this town is nothing but a dead end.
Bashkim is a line cook at the Betsy Ross. He left a wife behind in Albania to make a better life in America. Chasing the American dream, anything is better than living in a country where you aren't even allowed to own your own cows because nothing belongs to the people. In a country where there is no dreams or freedom everything in America looks pretty good right now.
An unlikely pair Elise and Bashkim soon find themselves expecting a baby. Even though Bashkim claims he wants a life with Elise and the baby circumstances intervene and Elise becomes unsure of her or her daughters place in Bashkim's world. After a deciding event makes Elise strike out on her own to raise her daughter without Bashkim she spends the next 17 years raising her daughter Luljeta on her own.
Luljeta spends her life believing whatever her mother has told her about her father and does not seem overly affected by his absence in her life. Until one day Luljeta learns that her mother has been less than truthful in regards to her father and his family.
Told from alternating points of view this is an engaging story of a mother and daughter and each one's unique struggle to realize their dreams which are not as different as they may think.
April 22, 2018
A touching family drama told from two different perspectives: Mother and daughter. As the perspectives shift we're given the internal insight these two characters will never witness in the other. There's something very lonely in realizing such powerful parallels will never fully connect, though they live and breathe in the same rooms. As children it's easy to forget or ignore that our parents lead lives and made important and often impossible choices before we existed. Some things can never be fully understood, even as the connection strengthens.
I finished Brass with a feeling of relief for the characters, and of excitement. They felt so real, and I can't shake the sense that they're out there now.
I finished Brass with a feeling of relief for the characters, and of excitement. They felt so real, and I can't shake the sense that they're out there now.
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