The Lucky Ones

The mixture of politics, friendship and the media causes a struggle among four women whose desire for power gets in the way of their friendship. The excitement of the novel is fueled by a presidential election and a hostage crisis, but Kathleen O'Malley fails to deliver excitement. The first half of the book is reported like a history lesson. Whether she's reading dialogue or the chronological events of the novel, her disinterest in the material carries over to the ear. The bonus is the preview of an Olivia Goldsmith novel read by Frances Cassidy, who makes you wish she had read the previous story. Her lyrical reading brings you inside the action; O'Malley's leaves you outside. J.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 16, 2017
Pachico’s history-bound debut novel is a carefully yet fiercely composed collage of voices that bears witness to the executions, forced disappearances, and other atrocities that took place in Colombia from 1993 to 2013 during the country’s violent civil war. The book provides a searing glimpse into the conflict through 11 interconnected short stories—each focusing on a different aspect of the struggle. The novel’s riveting first installment, “Lucky,” takes place in 2003 and sets an ominous tone. In it, a young girl is holed up inside her family’s mansion while they’re away for the weekend. What she doesn’t know—but begins to suspect as she hears a knock at the door—is that they’re never coming back. In “Lemon Pie,” one of the strongest vignettes in the book, an American former middle school teacher has been held captive by the FARC for “five years, eight months, two weeks, and five days.” When not locked in a shed, he passes the time via sessions of “Parasite Squishing” and by delivering lectures from memory on Hamlet and The Scarlet Letter to his class of twigs, leaves, and trees in the Amazonian jungle. The most unique story is “Junkie Rabbit,” a twisted glimpse into a rabbit warren filled with bunnies subsisting on the last remnants of coca plants from a ransacked estate. Having lived in Colombia until she turned 18, Pachico has a firsthand connection to the country’s charms and troubles that shines through on every gripping page.

Pachico's audiobook explores the Colombian conflict of 1993 to 2013 through the perspectives of many characters of various stations in life in and around the city of Cali. Narrators Marisol Ramirez and Ramon de Ocampo help to provide some differentiation to the series of short stories, which are all interrelated in some way, mostly through their characters--though some of these relationships may seem elusive because they're revealed over time, and the listener may find it challenging to keep up. The narrators both pronounce Spanish words and place names well, placing the characters in the context of a conflict that is unforgiving, whether physically, psychologically, or both. S.E.G. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine