Oh, how I love a mother-daughter story. The Caregiver is set in beautiful Rio de Janeiro in 1980s. Ana is everything to her daughter, Mara. She lives paycheck to paycheck as a voice-over actress, and is assertive, resilient, and reckless all at the same time. Ana has a fierce love for her daughter, but her limitations hold her back from being a traditional mom. As a result, Mara ends up mothering Ana and growing up earlier than her time.

Things begin to fall apart when Ana becomes involved in a hostile group trying to rid the city of its despicably brutal police chief. Her actions abruptly change their lives and not for the better. Mara has no choice but to flee Brazil for safety, and she emigrates to the United States. There she becomes the sole caregiver for a woman, Kathryn, diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.

Through her service towards Kathryn, Mara learns about herself and addresses her incongruous and unusual relationship with her mother.

The mother-daughter push and pull relationship can be dramatic at times, but Park does not depict Ana and Maura in a grandiose way. There is an underlying emotional tone and poignance just beneath the surface that made my throat catch at times. Subtle but masterful.

I would offer The Caregiver is not just a story unique to mothers and daughters, but it is also about humans looking for love and connection as a way of obtaining a steadfast anchor. Related to that, it’s also about belonging and how that can in turn anchor, especially as it pertains to the immigrant experience.

The Caregiver is the first novel I have read by Samuel Park, and it turns out this book was published posthumously after he passed away from stomach cancer. Mr. Park had Mara care for someone dying of the same cancer he had. I have to wonder what it was like for him to write about that with it so close to home. What a gift is this author’s work.

Thank you to Simon Schuster for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I thought this was a really beautiful, well-written story about Mara, an undocumented Brazilian immigrant who spends her days taking care of a wealthy cancer patient while struggling to come to terms with the dark secrets Ana (her fiercely protective single mother) kept from her as a child. I expected the story to be more about the relationship between Mara and her patient, but clearly the title refers to Ana, who was willing to do whatever it took to protect and care for her daughter at a time of great upheaval and violence in Brazil. I thought the relationship between mother and daughter was incredibly well-written and while I had an idea where the story was heading, it only made it that much more heartbreaking when the truth was finally revealed. Definitely not something I would normally read and I’m not sure how long this book will stick with me, but I’m glad i took the time to read it.

Written while suffering from stomach cancer, The Caregiver explores what it means to suffer from a diagnosed illness and to suffer from one's past. Neither has a known cure. Mara, the caregiver, wrestles with her past as a young girl during Brazil's tumultuous years as a military regime and the role her mother played as radical parties tried to put the country to rights while the general populace struggled to survive.

The Caregiver was a surprise. I anticipated more storyline around Mara Alencar and Kathryn Weathery, diagnosed with life-threatening cancer, than about Mara and her own mother, Ana Alencar who had died while in heart surgery years before in Rio. In some ways it was about both, with Mara misunderstanding the connections that she's had with the two women in her life.
Her father sent away by her mother for reasons unknown, Mara's life growing up in Brazil is one of poverty and and her mother's hard-scrabble life, doing Portuguese voice-over's for movies while dreaming of being a movie star. She was Mara's whole world, and Mara hers. But they were starving. And Ana took an offer from local revolutionaries to lure local Police Chief Luna away from the station so that they could free their comrades, being brutally tortured. But that is not what transpires. The Police Chief does leave.....with Ana.....and the revolutionaries storm the building......only to find that they had walked into an ambush. Little Mara is witness to the deaths of those people and realizes that her mother had to have had a part in it. Their relationship is forever changed. Mara believes Ana to be a traitor and the the Police Chief to be the man who tortured her to do it.
Years after their move to Rio, Ana begins getting anonymous calls.....someone who never speaks. Ana is certain that it is the Police Chief and it turns out that she is right. Mara, furious, decides to confront him and goes to his estate. There she meets Lazarus, his son.....a light-hearted, kind, fun-loving teen. It's through his invitation to a party that she finally get to the Police Chief, now retired. But the story he tells her is not the one she has been told by her mother all of these years. Ana helped him because she was trying to protect Mara and she asked for money as well. He's kept up with Ana all of these years, feeling sorry for the choices he made and sorry that Ana has had to live with her own burden all of these years. And he gives Mara the money that Ana never excepted in the aftermath of the shootout. The money allows them to get her mother surgery that she needs to have any potential to survive, but she dies in the operating room.
Alone now, Mara makes her way to the United States and finds work as a caregiver to a wealthy aristocrat and they become close. Close enough that Kathryn says frequently that she is going to leave her home to her in her will. Kathryn's had no children, she and her husband are divorced, though they are friendly, and Mara is her only source of care and comfort. But when Kathryn witnesses her ex-husband hugging Mara, she is fired. And Mara realizes how sad she is to not have her in her life any longer. Periodically driving past her Kathryn's home, she happens to see her getting her mail and their eyes meet. Without anger, without disappointment, but perhaps with resignation that this is how things have ended.
A story about a mother's love as well as a daughter's, and long-standing misunderstandings that could have healed them and put them on a different path......but put them on the path they were supposed to be on.

Ana and her little girl, Mara, take care of each other in their home in Copacabana, Brazil. Ana works as a voice-over actress but her job brings in little money. In desperation, she agrees to take a job posing as a citizen with information about student guerillas in an attempt to lure the violent Police Chief Lima from his post. Ana then makes a decision that tears their lives apart.

Years later when Mara comes to America undocumented, she takes a job as a caregiver to a woman, Kathryn, who is suffering from stomach cancer. Caring for Kathryn brings up memories of Mara’s mother and Mara struggles to come to terms with her past.

This is a beautifully written book about the relationship between a mother and daughter and what lengths a mother would be willing to go for her daughter. The characters are very well developed and the book is full of heart and compassion.

The author, Samuel Parks, passed away from stomach cancer shortly after writing this book. At the end of the book, his essay that was published in the New York Times is shared. It’s called “I Had a 9 Percent Chance, Plus Hope” and it’s a must read for all. After reading this book, I’m even more anxious to read “This Burns My Heart”.

Recommended.

The writing is beautiful and there were many poetic descriptions in the book but somehow I couldn't get invested in the characters. Though I appreciated the eloquence of the writing, the story just never seemed to do much for me. Three stars for the good writing.

Beautiful exploration of the mother-daughter relationship and the immigrant experience, wrapped in a suspenseful and compelling narrative.

Samuel Park has written a beautiful and engaging novel about a young woman born in Brazil. Mara's relationship with her mother - complex, loving and at times terrifying - defines her future relationships, including her role as as caregiver after she moves to the United States. Mara is observant and fully aware of the economics of life in Brazil - namely the poverty - but most important to her is the love, comfort and safety she receives from her mother.

A single parent, Ana does what she must to support herself and her daughter - from cleaning to voice over work on movies being translated to Portuguese. When Ana agrees to a job that impacts the safety Mara has always felt, Mara's eyes are opened to the fine balance between survival and getting by. The events of this job bring the political upheaval and corruption of Brazil's government into focus - Park excels at highlighting these stark and unsettling realities. Park's descriptions and language is soulful and real even at points when the story may feel unreal or too foreign to the reader, particularly American-born readers who may not have great familiarity with the history of Brazil's many corrupt leaders over the decades.

But the humanity of this story is true no matter where we're from - the desire to know that a parent loves a child more than anyone else in the world, the need to feel safe and cared for, no matter how little one has. The emotion of this relationship and the strength of emotions Mara feels long after she has moved away from Brazil to a country where she does not feel safe and loved but "other" and foreign makes The Caregiver a soulful slice of life - moving and gentle at times and painful and uncertain and mystifying at others.

For those of us of Brazilian descent, there are just enough references to foods and other cultural touch points to make us feel at home. Beautifully written.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review of this book.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The story has two time periods going on at once. It starts with Mara as a 26 year old working as a caregiver for a woman with stomach cancer. The other part of this novel focuses on the relationship developement between Mara and her mother during the 80s Rio de Janeiro revolution and how it has lead to Mara's career choice.

Let me preface this and say that this isn't a book I would normally read. It's not a genre I gravitate towards. This book was full of emotions. The author, Samuel Park, had passed away from stomach cancer just after writing this book which took on a whole meaning for me while reading it. Although I did love the mother-daughter relationship depicted throughout the novel, the story never captured my attention. I felt like I was overhearing someone's life story and didn't really want to keep eavesdropping. The situations they had to go through are not lighthearted and not to be dismissed as dull, but I was anticipating a little more. It could be that I read so many thrillers that I'm always anticipating something to jump out and I'm just not used to reading something like this. In the end, it was very well written. 

3/5 Stars

Beautiful writing and a unique plot made this a wonderful read. Told in dual time line and location, it is the story of Mara, a young woman who finds herself working as a caregiver in Los Angeles for a woman dying of stomach cancer after she flees Brazil. Don't worry= this is not a medical book and there are few details of the cancer. At its root, this is about a woman who understands one thing about her mother and then finds something else and because of that, it's quite sad. I suspect I'm not the only one who was unfamiliar with the politics of repression in Brazil in the 1980s so this was also educational for me. I had to admire Ana, the mom, for her determination to provide for her daughter, although revelations late in the book will give you pause. There are great lesser characters- I liked Janete in particular. My only quibble was with the epilogue, which felt forced but did not affect my admiration for the rest of the novel. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This deserves the plaudits it has received.

It’s hard to leave a review note when you know the author has passed away. I feel any statement that I make that might be deemed in a negative light is considered speaking ill of the dead. That being said, The Caregiver was well written. There were several lines in particular that I would re-read just for the beauty of its prose.

I don’t think this will be a memorable novel for me, one that I will refer to unconsciously, but it was a book that I’m glad I read. It would have been wonderful to see what else Samuel Park would have written.

The book begins in California in the 1990’s when twenty six year old Mara Alencar, an undocumented immigrant from Brazil is a caregiver to an affluent woman with stomach cancer. In these early pages, I found Mara’s reactions to America fascinating and so enlightening as she tells of all of the things she has been surprised about in the ten years she has been in America. The narrative describes these things for several pages - how much is free here, public bathrooms, so many cars, that single women could be friends with married women, that it wasn’t okay for husbands to beat their wives, how everyone could eat at restaurants, that not everyone was white, grandparents lived separate from their grandchildren, that there were no words for certain things and so much more in these pages. This gave me a perspective that I quite honestly had not given much thought about, how strange things here might seem to an immigrant. Mara as an immigrant is only one facet of the story.

This is a multilayered story which covers a number of themes in a cohesive way . We are soon taken back to her childhood in this well written, first person narrative, taking us to Copacabana, Brazil in the 1970’s when she was eight years old. It’s in this time and place that we get a glimpse of the unconditional love of a mother for her daughter as her mother Ana gets caught up in a political scheme with a police chief who tortures people and the dissidents, the rebel guerrillas. Ana is a voice over actress who will do what it takes to provide for her daughter, even putting herself in danger. A horrific event takes place before Mara’s eyes and over the years Mara’s view of what happened and her mother’s role is never clear for her. She loves her mother and at the same time believes the worst about her.

There is yet another layer here with Mara’s role as a caregiver. How Kathryn deals with her illness is poignantly described and is even more impactful knowing that Samuel Park knew of which he wrote, dying of stomach cancer after this novel was written. It’s a captivating story about many things, not the least of which is a mother’s love for her daughter and a young woman coming to terms with the past.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley.

This was an absolutely beautiful read. Samuel Park's writing seems to fly off the pages and bring his characters to life here.

The story is complex, emotional, and very touching without being overly sentimental.

Mara, born in Brazil, is a caregiver in California. The story goes back and forth from present day to Mara’s life and what brought her to Brazil and then to becoming a caregiver. This book has the ability to open so many eyes as to why people leave their home country and live in the United States without documentation. Samuel Park is a brilliant writer. His legacy will be this book.
I recommend reading this.

This novel shows us the life of a Brazilian born woman, Mara, who works as a caregiver in California when the book opens. Shifting timelines between Mara's current life in the US and her upbringing in Brazil and the circumstances that led to her leaving her home country. The story itself is compelling and builds slowly over time, but what gives this novel it's knock-out punch is the lyrical and spot on writing of Samuel Park. Time and time again, his metaphors took my breath away. Recommended.

There are certain characters that appear in fiction (and some times in life) as background characters: caregivers; servants; gardeners; anyone who’s job it is to make another, richer person’s life smooth and comfortable. As background characters, we rarely get a chance to hear their stories, find out how they got where they are, and, most importantly, what they think. Samuel Park’s The Caregiver is one of those rare looks into the life of a character who represents so many who are bossed and not paid enough to look after people higher up the social ladder. In this novel, we follow Mara Alencar, an undocumented woman from Brazil, as she cares for her latest client. Mara also takes us into her past, so that we know why she left Copacabana and why she can never go back.

In the early 1990s, Mara is living as comfortable life as she can manage as an undocumented immigrant in California. She lives with two other Brazilians in a small apartment. She pays her rent in cash. To make money, she works as a caregiver for people with serious illnesses. When we meet her, Mara works for a rich woman in Bel Air with terminal stomach cancer. Katheryn, Mara’s client, is a withdrawn woman mourning her too-short life and squandered opportunities, as well as mourning her broken marriage. Instead of staying at home, “being sick,” Mara pushes Katheryn into doing things that will make her happy.

This inspirational but low key plot is balanced by the chapters set in the late 1970s in Rio de Janeiro. When she was a child, Mara lived with her single mother, Ana. Ana struggles to make ends meet as a cleaner and voice actress. The two live a hungry existence in Rio’s favelas. They might have gone on with their boom-and-bust life if Ana hadn’t been recruited by a cadre of communist students for a plot to rescue a bunch of their incarcerated comrades. The plot makes their already tenuous status even dicier, while simultaneously teaching Mara a hard, sharp lesson that she cannot entirely rely on her mother to take care of her.

As the novel moves back and forth between decades and continents, Mara’s character is revealed. In Brazil, she clings to her mother with as much fierceness as she can muster until her trust begins to break. In the United States, Mara is the one people cling to as they suffer their final illnesses. Mara’s matter-of-fact ability to care for others does not come, as our culture might assume of women, from a naturally occurring maternalism. Rather, it seems to come from Mara’s slow realization that everyone needs mothering when there is no mother available. Katheryn has no one, but her money can pay for someone like Mara. However, Mara also comes to learn that caregivers—like mothers—can be blamed and pushed away because of terrible misunderstandings.

The Caregiver is an emotionally complex novel that touches on immigration, racism, and revolution as well as caregiving. There were times when one side of the plot or the other was more interesting, but I felt they balanced each other nicely. This book is meant to make us take a closer look at the people we take for granted. After all, lives aren’t always one long, slow arc from cradle to grave. For many of us, lives are punctuated by abrupt changes, bad luck, and good fortune. From Mara, Ana, and Katheryn, we can learn that we don’t always have to be what others expect. We can transform ourselves.

Such an unexpected, lovely story about immigration, history, family, and secrets. It's even more beautiful knowing the author's personal story. The writing is engrossing and vivid, highly recommend and I hope this book gets the recognition it deserves.

I was heartbroken to read that the author, Samuel Park, died of stomach cancer at age 41, shortly after finishing this novel. The piece orginally published in the New York Times' Sunday Review, 1/14/2017, MUST BE READ; it follows the epilogue.

The setting, Mara Alencar, comes to Bel Air, California, from Brazil. She is a 26-year-old caregiver for Kathryn Weatherly, early 40s, divorced, childless, and diagnosed with/dying of stomach cancer. [hmmm]

The back story. Mid-to late 1970s. Brazil. Mara is eight. Her mother, Ana, is a struggling voiceover actress. Ana "...becomes involved with a civilian rebel group attempting to undermine the city's torturous Police Chief [Lima], who rules over 1980s Rio de Janeiro with terrifying brutality." The story of Ana's life, the political climate in Rio, the characters--both in Rio--especially Janete, a travesti [transvestite]. But most importantly the story/relationship of Mara and Ana. And what Ana did and the slow reveal.

And in the US, the story of Mara and Kathryn, Kathryn's ex, Nelson, and Mara's roomates--Bruno--a hoot, and Renata.

First and foremost, the beautifully descriptive language. Seeing the US through the eyes of an immigrant. The many cultural differences--both simple phrases and observations from Mara--and what it was like to live in America after her situation in Brazil.

Consider:

supermarkets--"So much choice so many different ways to fill yourself up.... Going to the supermarket was free; there was no admission price. Nobody questioned my right to be there. It was the most democratic institution in the city."

"In America, I was constantly asked questions that weren't really questions. "How are you?""

"The night was a vinyl record, dark and full of scratches, in perfect sync with the needle of God."

"My mother's body was the barometer that allowed me to measure the amount of joy or pleasure to be had, or in this instance, fear."

"...metal noodles of chains and locks..."

"...mad clock sat lodged in ther chest..." [heart disease]"

"...woman standing haloed by the sun behind her."

describing ants: "Their black uniforms stood out against the bright whiteness of the ceramic...chased their own behinds... so selfless and cooperative, foraging for the collectivety... little creatures, small but ambitious..."

And much more.

I was reeled in instantly at the beginning. Then I felt peaks and valleys. Nonethess, an admirable book. I learned much about the political situation in Brazil in the 1980s. And I thought Park nailed the female voice.

Read.

“You taught me precious secrets of the truth, withholdin' nothin'
You came out in front and I was hiding
But now I'm so much better so if my words don't come together
Listen to the melody 'cause my love's in there hiding

“But I love you in a place where there's no space or time
I've loved you for my life, yes, you're a friend of mine
And when my life is over, remember when we were together
We were alone and I was singin' my song for you, yes
We were alone and I was singin' this song for you, baby
We were alone and I was singin' my song
Singin' this song for you”

-- A Song For You, Leon Russell, Songwriters: Leon Russell

This story begins with the prelude in Bel Air, California in the early 1990s with Mara Alencar, who is at that time 26 years old, and an undocumented home caregiver for a woman, Mrs. Kathryn Weatherly, divorced, is in her early forties, and has been diagnosed with stomach cancer.

The story then leaves the 1990s and California and takes a step back in time, and place, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the mid-to-late 1970s. Mara is, at this point, eight years old, and she and her mother Ana are living in Copacabana, when a song in America, Copacabana sends American tourists there in droves.

Ana does voice-overs for actresses, dubbing over their English to Portuguese, and is attractive enough that men turn and stare as she walks by, a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by Mara. Mara has never known her father, and Ana doesn’t want to discuss him with her, he’s the past and together they are the future. Money is tight and, after much convincing, she’s persuaded to take a job she’d prefer to decline. The problem is, this job involves the student guerillas, revolutionaries, and the police.

Back in 1990s Bel Air, Mara struggles in caring for Kathryn, her fear of reliving those days before she came to America, and as these days of giving care to Kathryn go on, the roles begin to blur more, while Kathryn speaks of leaving her house to Mara, and speaking of her to others as her daughter. Kathryn speaks more frequently of her fears of dying, words that haunt Mara, and she finds herself revisiting old memories of the days caring for her mother.

Beautifully written, this is Park’s final novel, a poignant story of life with all its struggles, of love in all its variations, the push and pull of maternal love, the confidential and clandestine nature of romantic love, a moving contemplation of the end of our days and of those with whom we share our love.

Shortly after he finished writing this novel, Park’s own battle with stomach cancer came to an end, leaving us with this, a final gift.



Pub Date: 25 SEP 2018


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Simon & Schuster

The Caregiver by Samuel Park
The title of the book relates to Mara who is a caregiver in 1990’s Los Angeles. Her charge is Kathryn, who is fighting stomach cancer. Mara was born and raised in Brazil by her single mother and left that country when she was 16 years old. The novel goes back and forth between Brazil under dictatorship in the 70’s and Mara’s life as a caregiver in Los Angeles. The book is mostly about mother daughter relationships, what a mother is capable of in order to protect her daughter under all circumstances. In spite of graphic descriptions of life in 1970’s Brazil and twists and turns, this book didn’t grab me, I found the two story lines disjointed loosely tied up in the end. For me, no more than three stars.
Thanks NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advanced copy. Unfortunately the author passed away of stomach cancer shortly after finishing this book.