Point Dume by Katie Arnoldi is about a California beach town where local surfers are resentful of the influx of rich wine growers with their wives and army of nannies. As well it is about the marijuana being grown in public lands by Mexican drug cartels.
There are 5 narrators in this novel. There is a Mexican farmer brought to California to manage a grow site on his own for the promise of a large payday to support his family that he now heads since the death of his father. A surfer who is also poacher from those same grow sites. There is a female surfer who resents the intrusion of the newcomers into the quiet town she grew up in, and their vineyards that are destroying the local land. There is a vineyard owner himself and his dissatisfied housewife.
The characters interact in ways that flow naturally, and they are all very interesting to follow. And the chapter names are quite clever as well. The description about the grow sites is particularly interesting, one doesn't necessarily think about the environmental damage that these growers cause, some use the worst types of pesticides and just kill every living creature that comes near since they all eat the plants. It is a work of fiction, but the author indicates in the acknowledgements that she spent time working on cleanup efforts, and has done a lot of research into how the sites operate.
Arnoldi took me along for a wonderful ride with this book, and although I wanted to finish the book to cross another off my list, I didn't want it to end. I have already requested another of her books at my library.
There are 5 narrators in this novel. There is a Mexican farmer brought to California to manage a grow site on his own for the promise of a large payday to support his family that he now heads since the death of his father. A surfer who is also poacher from those same grow sites. There is a female surfer who resents the intrusion of the newcomers into the quiet town she grew up in, and their vineyards that are destroying the local land. There is a vineyard owner himself and his dissatisfied housewife.
The characters interact in ways that flow naturally, and they are all very interesting to follow. And the chapter names are quite clever as well. The description about the grow sites is particularly interesting, one doesn't necessarily think about the environmental damage that these growers cause, some use the worst types of pesticides and just kill every living creature that comes near since they all eat the plants. It is a work of fiction, but the author indicates in the acknowledgements that she spent time working on cleanup efforts, and has done a lot of research into how the sites operate.
Arnoldi took me along for a wonderful ride with this book, and although I wanted to finish the book to cross another off my list, I didn't want it to end. I have already requested another of her books at my library.
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