L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón; Flatiron Books, 2021; ISBN 9781250-802569; 295 pages; $14.99
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — This novel concerns a Mexican-American family of mixed Catholic and Jewish religious backgrounds, one which celebrates Easter and Passover, Chanukah and Christmas as cultural holidays rather than religious ones. There is plenty of drama in the Alvarado family, but not because of any noticeable differences in religious outlook.
Instead, L.A. Weather focuses on the other kinds of storms that can engulf a marriage. Oscar and Keila Alvarado have their marital troubles; so too do all three of their daughters: Claudia, Olivia, and Patricia. As the novel continues, one wonders which, if any, of their marriages can survive.
Claudia is a television chef, cook book author, and caterer. Her husband, Gabriel, is part literary agent, part talent scout; an influential fixer who introduces talented writers to financiers. He has homes on both coasts, but Claudia lives in only one of them.
Olivia is in the real estate business, spotting homes that can be remodeled or restored, then flipped. Her husband Felix is in real estate sales, but he is not nearly so successful nor as savvy as Olivia.
Patricia, the youngest of the daughters, lives with her parents, and pursues a successful career providing social media services to corporations. After having lived some years as a single mother, on a lark she married Eric, whose business keeps him mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area. They get together on some weekends, enjoying sexual intimacy without any sense of family-building.
As for Oscar and Keila, their marriage is troubled by Oscar’s increasing depression, his unexplained constant monitoring of the weather channel, and his troubling psychological withdrawal from the affairs of his home. His unwillingness to confide in Keila is corrosive of their nearly 40-year marriage.
As Keila is Jewish, daughter of Eastern Europeans who immigrated to Mexico City, so too are her daughters Jewish, as well as Patricia’s son Daniel, and Olivia’s twin daughters, Andrea and Diana. Oscar, whom she met in Los Angeles while a high school exchange student, is Catholic and the descendant of a proud land-owning old California family.
While the two religions might have been fertile ground to explore, author Escandón just touches on them lightly, similar to the way her characters comment in passing on the landscape, the weather, and the culture of Los Angeles versus that of New York.
In New York, suggests Gabriel to Claudia, “You self-exploit, you wear the bags under your eyes like badges of honor, and you erroneously believe that Angelenos are laid back and lazy. In Los Angeles, people are like ducks on a pond. They glide effortlessly on the tranquil surface, but when you go underwater you can see they’re frantically paddling along. They just won’t admit it to anyone.”
“Frantically paddling along” also describes the relationships of all four Alvarado women with their husbands, and, in some cases, with each other. None of the women is without flaws, nor bereft of some endearing qualities.
Over the course of the Year 2016, the Alvarados learn that family ties can be quite fragile, or, no matter how stressed, indestructible. What accounts for the difference may keep many readers turning the pages.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com