Books I've Read: The Careful Undressing of Love

Magic realism is difficult to do well. And even when it is done well, I often struggle with it.  And while this book is as gorgeously written as all Corey Ann Haydu's stories, it didn't quite work for me. And I'm still struggling to figure out why I felt so unsatisfied.

The setting is Brooklyn in some slightly dystopian future that doesn't feel very dystopian or very far into the future.  A Bombing killed masses of people in Times Square seven years ago and the city has not forgotten, partially because no one ever stepped forward to take the blame, so there is constant fear another one will happen at any time.

The residents of Devonairre Street feel the after-effects of the Bombing in that several of the women lost husbands, their children fathers.  But even before that event, the women of Devonairre Street have been cursed.

Or at least, that's what the street's matriarch has them believe.  Angelika rules Devonairre Street with her superstitions and counter-curses.  Everyone loves her and follows her rules, even those who don't really believe.

But then a boyfriend dies, and suddenly the curse starts to feel more real.  Perhaps the girls of Devonairre Street really are cursed and any man they fall in love with will die.  Perhaps it's better not to get close to people.

I really wanted to love this book.  The cover is gorgeous and Cory Ann Haydu has long been a favorite author of mine.  But this didn't satisfy me.  The narrator, Lorna, wasn't that interesting as a character.  She vacillated between belief and non-belief, never really comitting to either.  She toyed with boys and with the street's traditions the same way, playing with them as long as she wanted then discarding them for something else.

And the ending really didn't do it for me.  I just didn't believe the characters would behave that way.  I wanted to know more about Angelika and her history, how she became the ruler of the street and why everyone on it followed her kooky rules.  I wanted to see what happened to people who moved away from the street, because inevitably, people move.

Maybe magic realism isn't my genre and I just didn't quite understand this book.  But I think I did.  And it just didn't fulfil the potential it has for greatness.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Everyone who really knows Brooklyn knows Devonairre Street girls are different. They’re the ones you shouldn’t fall in love with. The ones with the curse. The ones who can get you killed.

Lorna Ryder is a Devonairre Street girl, and for years, paying lip service to the curse has been the small price of living in a neighborhood full of memories of her father, one of the thousands killed five years earlier in the 2001 Times Square Bombing. Then her best friend’s boyfriend is killed, and suddenly a city paralyzed by dread of another terrorist attack is obsessed with Devonairre Street and the price of falling in love.

Set in an America where recent history has followed a different path.