The Great Offshore Grounds

June 15, 2020
A dysfunctional family's understanding of who they truly are is upended by a long-held secret. Livy and Cheyenne are sisters in their early 30s, born on the same day to the same father but different mothers. This isn't the end of their messy family tree: Raised together by Kirsten, one of their birth mothers, Livy and Cheyenne are now "flunk[ing] adulthood." Newly divorced and jobless, Cheyenne is crashing in her sister's basement apartment; underemployed Livy is trying to figure out how to get enough money to make ends meet. When the father they haven't seen in many years reaches out to invite them to his wedding, the sisters attend only to be greeted with a gift: an envelope containing the address of their other birth mother, who abandoned the family when the girls were babies. With the financial help of Essex, their adopted younger brother, Livy and Cheyenne embark on the first of a series of travels in an attempt to find the woman who mothered one of them; back at home, Essex and Kirsten undertake journeys of their own. In the process, the anti-authoritarian quartet grapple with their desires to be washed "clean of history" at the same time they understand the parts they play in the tangle of the others' lives and the larger story of America. Veselka takes a kitchen-sink approach to the novel: Points of view shift kaleidoscopically, passages of history and politics are woven into the questlike narratives of the characters. The result is a fiery and occasionally luminous chaos that feels true to the experiences of those for whom each day is lived at the edges of mainstream society. An energetic, if messy, examination of the push and pull between freedom and belonging.

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Starred review from June 22, 2020
Veselka (Zazen) returns with a sprawling work of astonishing depth and scope about three siblings contending with poverty in the Pacific Northwest. Half-sisters Livy and Cheyenne, both 33, were told a “fairy tale” by their father, Cyril, when they grew up, that one of their mothers wanted children and the other wanted to chase the North Star, and both got what they wanted without marrying him. Veselka opens on Cyril’s first late-in-life wedding, which the sisters, both broke and with no love for Cyril, attend for the free food and drink. They reunite with Kirsten, a biological mother to one of them, who raised both sisters and Essex, their adopted cab-driving brother. Cyril gives them information about the other mother, Ann, who agreed with Kirsten to let her raise both daughters, provided Kirsten not reveal the details of who belonged to which mother. The sisters drive to Boston, hoping to find Ann, but strike out. Livy then heads to Alaska, where she becomes a sailor’s apprentice and protests offshore drilling; Cheyenne continues to pursue Ann; and Essex, desperately lacking direction, enlists in the Marines. Meanwhile, Kirsten gets a terminal cancer diagnosis and summons them for a reconciliation. Veselka blends fascinating details of seamanship, cab driving, and boot camp with intimate, spot-on descriptions of contemporary American poverty, such as Cheyenne being shuttled to the couch to make room for Airbnb guests when she’s late on rent and selling plasma. This gritty and unsentimental work is compassionate, funny, and deeply human.

August 1, 2020
Thirtysomething half-sisters Livy and Cheyenne are barely afloat when their wealthy father throws them a curveball by telling them the name of a woman who is allegedly the birth mother to one of them. Is it Livy? Cheyenne? They're broke, but they have to find out. Cobbling together a few dollars, some from their adopted brother, Essex, the two set out from the West Coast, heading to Boston. The epic quest triggers a series of cascading events, a few tragic, a few bizarre, that tests the sisters' love for each other and their tenuous family unit. Veselka (Zazen, 2011) has a keen eye for social class: money was everywhere, hidden in the make of a hiking boot and in the confidence with which people asked for things. And motherhood, a theme she wields sharply to highlight the precarious existence of people living on the fringes. A fitting story for our times of families trying to stay together despite all odds, redefining their own relationships along life's perilous journeys.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)