“Goldengrove”: Francine Prose

Erin Hernandez / The USD Vista

I came across Francine Prose’s “Goldengrove” while sifting through numerous books. The book jacket outlines the grief that young Nico and her family suffer after the death of her older sister Margaret. This made me highly skeptical because I usually turn to the Shakespearean tragedies when looking for tales of woe and sorrow. Also, I was not familiar with this author’s writing, having never come across any of her works before. Nonetheless, I decided to purchase the novel, risking the chance of severe disappointment.

To my great satisfaction, I found that Prose has the ability to weave a beautiful story of realization and self-discovery. Her characters, especially the protagonist, Nico, feel a sense of displacement with the loss of Margaret. Nico, who had spent most of her time as her sister’s co-conspirator, no longer knows her place in the world. Her parents do not feel the same sense of belonging in the family bookstore as they once had. Through these characters, the author shows that each person has a different method of coping with grief.

Nico starts to believe that her dead sister has been contacting her from beyond the grave, in order to send messages to her boyfriend Aaron. With the naivete of a 13-year-old, she starts her own pseudo-relationship with Aaron. Most of the time her behavior, particularly her interactions with Aaron, made me want to shake some sense into her.

A lot of the time I find books centered around grief and depression difficult to read all the way to the end, so I did not set high expectations for myself when reading “Goldengrove.” However, Prose’s words paint a detailed and touching story that I enjoyed reading.