Everything for Everyone

 

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi (2022) 256 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by Charli Burrow and Soneela Nankani. The authors have written this as if they are the oral history interviewers. This is speculative fiction about the near future, but it is in the style of nonfiction. It feels a bit dry, but very real. With the current developments of late-stage capitalism the future presented here is very probable. Many of the people interviewed about their part in the growth of communes in New York city are people of color or queer. We hear from many people who understand activism, abolition, collectivism, and mutual aid as tools to survive the collapse of the old systems. If you are interested in dystopian fiction that is closely tied to reality like Octavia Butler's Parable books or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, you'll probably enjoy this. It has a hopeful message.

Ana María and the Fox

 Ana María and the Fox by Liana De la Rosa, 341 pages.

Ana María Luna Valdés is the daughter of an important Mexican politician, and her father's strict control has made her terrified of being anything less than the perfect daughter. But when she and her sisters have to flee Mexico for London during the French occupation by Napoleon III, Ana María experiences a modicum of freedom for the first time, and finally gets to decide what she wants for herself. One of the things she wants for herself is Gideon Fox, a young abolitionist and member of the house of commons from humble beginnings. However, Ana María is still engaged to a man her father chose for her, and being associated would hurt both of them politically, so instead they have to dance around each other for months until circumstances force desperate measures.

This book was, unfortunately for me, not quite what I was expecting. I was expecting something that leaned more historical fiction, but this book felt much more Regency romance (despite technically being a Victorian setting). The first sentence of the blurb also reads "a marriage of convenience between a Mexican heiress and a shrewd London politician makes for a scandalous Victorian bargain," which while technically true is also very misleading. The "marriage of convenience" comes very near the end of the book when they are both fully aware they are in love, and is not in fact particularly scandalous. I personally found myself a little bored with this book, but the characters were solid, and I suspect people who are actually fans of the historical romance genre might really like it.

The Quality of Mercy / Barry Unsworth 319 p.

I finished this several weeks ago and am sorry that I've forgotten enough already that I won't do this excellent book justice. The story begins with Sullivan, an Irish fiddler just escaped from Newgate prison in 1767 and making his way north. Unsworth's prose is layered and full of detail but never ponderous: in a few pages we know, understand, and like Sullivan, learn where he's going and why, and have a feel for the period and its tensions between personal liberty and property rights. And he keeps the action moving forward too!

Sullivan had been imprisoned for the long-ago mutiny of a slave ship, whose captain ordered the live slaves jettisoned in order to collect insurance payments for lost property. The fiddler and his fellow sailors escape to Florida and establish a settlement, where they and their former slave cargo flourish for several years, only to eventually be found and brought to trial in London. The plot which follows includes coal miners, abolitionists, and the son of the ship's owner, now bent on revenge. Or, perhaps, a change of heart.

I have not yet read Sacred Hunger, to which this novel is a sequel, but I plan to. The fact that I already know the broad strokes of the plot hardly matters given the quality of Unsworth's writing.