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    This Side of Providence: A Novel
    Unavailable
    This Side of Providence: A Novel
    Unavailable
    This Side of Providence: A Novel
    Ebook485 pages8 hours

    This Side of Providence: A Novel

    By Rachel M. Harper

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A heartbreaking and hopeful portrait of a Puerto Rican family struggling in the states: “Not one line is wasted and every single word rings true” (Alice Walker).
     
    Arcelia Perez fled Puerto Rico to escape a failed marriage and a history of abuse, but instead of finding her piece of the American dream, she ends up on the wrong side of Providence, Rhode Island. With three young children, Arcelia follows a rocky path that ultimately leads to prison and an agonizing drug withdrawal. But her real challenge comes when she’s released. Now she must figure out how to stay clean and reunite the family that has unraveled in her absence.
     
    Through rotating narrators, we hear from the characters whose lives and futures are inextricably linked with Arcelia’s own uncertain fate: her charming, street-savvy son, Cristo, and brilliant daughter Luz; their idealistic teacher, Miss Valentiín, who battles her own demons; and the enigmatic Snowman, her landlord and confidante.
     
    This powerful story of hope and redemption reveals the un-acknowledged side of one of our oldest American cities, where even the bleakest of realities can’t destroy the bonds between parent and child. Rich in humanity, This Side of Providence is a novel of exceptional force and originality.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateMar 7, 2016
    ISBN9781938849770
    Unavailable
    This Side of Providence: A Novel
    Author

    Rachel M. Harper

    Rachel M. Harper, a graduate of Brown University, has been published in Chicago Review, African American Review, and the anthology Mending the World: Stories of Family by Contemporary Black Writers. She lives in California.

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    Reviews for This Side of Providence

    4.5/5

    10 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was a well-written book, with excellent narration, about a mother--Arcelia Perez--who flees a life of abuse in Puerto Rico to give her children a better life in Providence. Unfortunately, her haunting past leads her to a life of drugs, broken promises, and, eventually, prison. During her struggles with drug withdrawals, Arcelia tries to stay clean and to prove she's changed, in order to reunite with her young children who were left to fend for themselves.
    • 3/5
      I seemed to be different from the majority of readers in that I did not really enjoy this book. It was well written and I liked the way the readers' perspective kept changing, but the content was too intense for me. I think at another time and on another day, I might be more in the mood for a novel about drug abuse and prison but not at this time.
    • 4/5
      Rachel Harper wrote this story in such a tragic voice I had to remind myself it wasn't a memoir. Told from each characters perspective you feel the breakdown of one family as a new family arises. Very engaging novel.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers program. This is the story of Aracelia- mother of three and addict. This is not only her story but the story of her children and the non relatives that have come to care about them. After spending time in jail and trying to beat her addiction, Arcelia struggles to make her family whole again and stay clean. Told from many voices, this story is one that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned. It is one of those heart wrenching stories- one told with so much emotion that the reader is drawn in and feels like they are living the story themselves which is such a credit to Harper- to take a storyline that thankfully I don't have any experience with and make it so real and heartfelt.
    • 4/5
      Arcelia Perez flees Puerto Rico to escape an abusive husband. She takes her small daughter Luz, but leaves her son Cristo behind when she boards a plane to NYC. Somewhere along the way, she decides that taking drugs is the way to forget a painful and abusive past. Will she overcome her drug addiction or will it finally consumer her?Oh boy, did I have issues with this book. On one hand, it’s a beautifully written, heartfelt fictional account of a woman’s struggle with her inner demons and the casualties of her actions – her innocent children. On the other hand, I found it extremely difficult to feel the least bit sorry of Arcelia. At no time was I able to connect with her, although aside from the heroine addiction we surprisingly had quite a lot in common. I would have liked some more backstory, regarding how Arcelia went from a small town girl to a heroin addict. What made her turn to drugs once she was free of her abusive husband? I also took issue with the fact that she left Cristo behind in the first place. Why not take both children? Why are we supposed to feel sorry for her? (Or maybe we’re not, I’m not sure) Because she obviously can’t get past the child abuse she’s suffered at the hands of her neighbor and her own cousin so she turns to drugs? I get that heroin addiction is a sickness, but isn’t what she ended up doing to her own children considered abuse? Neglect is clearly child abuse. We’re supposed to believe she’d do anything for her children because she loves them so much, yet she continuously exhibits an “I’m damaged so I’m going to damage my children too” mentality. At one point, her on again, off again girlfriend Lucho tells Arcelia that she’s a “survivor”. In my opinion, she’s not a survivor, she’s a weak and selfish destroyer. In fact, I found all the females, except Luz, to be weak and pathetic. They all had some sort of addiction that they used to cover up something. Everyone of them. Javier bemoaned the fact that Arcelia “stole” his children, yet he’s the one who put Cristo on the plane to New York to be reunited with his mother. And in all the years since, Javier never once tries to find his children. Yet both parents profess their undying love for them. The children are the only ones capable of genuinely loving anyone. Despite all of this and although I didn’t like several of the characters – in fact, I really only liked the children’s characters – I still have to give this book four solid stars. I was hooked from the start, read late into the night and thought about the story long after I finished. Maybe it was the train wreck factor, maybe I was driven because I wanted to know what happens to those poor kids, but it definitely made me think and feel. The author has a compelling way of expressing the feelings of her characters, which certainly makes me want to read more from her.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written, sad, funny, moving - this books has it all. Told from the perspective of various characters in the story, this book does a wonderful job demonstrating that not everyone is all bad or all good and each person in the story is really just trying to do the best they can with what they have.
    • 5/5
      This novel is dark and saddening, but a true piece of the daily lives of many members of our society. Those members being drug addicts, junkies, drug dealers, single mothers, homeless children, people who want to help but don't know how, wives, husbands, and anyone trying to survive from day to day. Thus saying all types of characters in this book, I absolutely loved it. I guess I like to read heavy drama and this certainly filled the bill from start to finish. Each chapter is narrated by a different character, telling the story from their perspective. In a nutshell, and without giving away the ending, this is the story of a single heroin addicted mother struggling to take care of her three children while struggling to stay clean. She wants to keep her family together and though she is high most of the time and a poor mother, the children love her dearly and think about how she was prior to her addiction. When the mother is busted and ends up in prison, thank goodness for the characters that stepped up to give the children some semblance of a normal life. I thought that the ending would be predictable, but it caught me off guard. When all signs point to a tidy conclusion and things don't end up that way, well.....that's the kind of novels I enjoy the most. An outstanding portrait of a family that live outside the margins of what many Americans would consider a normal life and which most of us can't even imagine. An eye-opener!
    • 5/5
      I received this book as part of the Library Thing Early Reviewer's program. This was for sure one of the " I can't put it down" variety. Right off the bat I was hooked by the author's ability to make the characters feel so real.The story is written from the viewpoint of a number of different people....Arcelia the drug addicted mom, Cristo her 5th grade son and Luz one of her younger daughters, Snowman drug dealer/landlord, Teacher who was Cristo's 4th grade teacher, Lucho who was Arcelia's lesbian partner and friend.As Arcelia worked her way through a short prison stay, detox and recovery there were many twists and turns for all involved. I had to constantly remind myself that Cristo was so young since he ended up having to take the role of caretaker for his sisters as well as his mom.I was trying to explain to a friend, the uncanny way this author had of making the characters so real and multi-faceted. Just when I thought Snowman was a low down drug dealing jerk, he took Cristo under his wing, helped Arcelia out when she got out of prison. I saw real transformation in his character. WheTeacher is the sort of person we all want to be teaching and guiding our children. As she dealt with the ever changing circumstances involving Cristo and Luz, she was also coming to terms with her own addiction to food.All I can say about the ending is that I sort of saw it coming but kept hoping it wouldn't happen. There were many moments through out the book that made me gasp, that made me cheer, that made me cry.All in all a very impressive work and I look forward to more books by Rachel M. Harper.
    • 5/5
      I got this book in exchange for an honest review through the Library Thing program. It's been a long time since I cried reading a book -- and if I had let myself, I might have just sobbed. I had to take a few breaks also, the book is pretty desperate and dark. This is a story of Arcelia, a Puerto Rican immigrant who is a heroin addict and also the mom of three kids. The story is told in first person from the viewpoint of several different characters, which some people don't like, but I had no problem with. Perhaps part of what was so hard for me is that one of the main narrators is her 5th grade son, and I have a 5th grade son. I just can't imagine my sweet 5th grader having to live the life this poor boy lived. The book is realistic, even though you wish it wasn't. The progression and ending is what you can expect when you read or hear about a heroin addict.
    • 5/5
      What a fine book! I was impressed from the beginning. The characters are so well-developed in this excellent and unusual book, that they seem like persons you actually know. There's a lot of sorrow and hurt in the story but there is also so very much love. The way that (most of) the children in this book take on responsibility leaves the reader with hope for their futures. I enjoyed it all.
    • 5/5
      Providence, Rhode Island, an underclass community populated with the working poor, aid-dependent folks, drug dealers and addicts... Citizens get by on what they can and public aid pays the rest. Schools are underserved and parks are replaced by potholes filled with sand where children act out their stories amid traffic. This is the story of Arcelia Luna Perez and her struggle to ditch her drug habit and keep her children. Using a cast of rotating first person narrators, readers endure their struggle to stay connected to each other and their community.What is most outstanding is Harper’s ability to demonstrate the goodness inherent within the characters in spite of dangerous and illegal choices they struggle with throughout the story. Harper's novel is filled with drug abuse, dealers, theft, slum-lording, violence and abuse of public aid dollars. Providence dwellers have limited options and choosing toward social advancement is not widely abundant among them.  For example, Cristo, Arcelia’s 5th grade son, has to steal food in order for them to eat and he delivers mysterious, illegal packages to earn money toward future rent. Other characters designed with this dichotomy include, Snowman, an albino African American landlord and drug-lord middleman ensures the safety and welfare of Arcelia and Cristo during her last days of life. There are more characters, many more, who when duty calls respond responsibly to its cry and others who quickly turn the other cheek to crime. Ironically, constant disappointment undoes no one as characters continue on with their business of living.The narrative structure alternates from narrator to narrator demonstrating the many points of view on the family’s breakdown. At the onset of mid to end chapters are dreamlike flashbacks which piece together Arcelia’s tragic back story during which she fled from Puerto Rico and landed in Providence. Peppered throughout the novel too, are a series of letters some in English and one Spanish that offer readers insight to Arcelia's self-discovery and that of significant characters as well. On an unsuccessful note, and in light of how too many hard knocks in life cause us to age beyond our years, Harper may have given the character’s too much emotional insight, maturity, prevailing goodness. The wisdom of the younger characters seemed somewhat exaggerated and should've included the negative reactions to the stress of childhood poverty. “This Side of Providence” allows socially isolated readers to believe that good people can come from bad circumstances because they can and do.  The only way to find out is to cross the other side of the tracks and see. 
    • 5/5
      I would have liked to have a 6 star rating available....