First, I think it’s such a sweet gesture of the author to memorialize his family’s lives in a book if this is real. The main character is named Ramiro, so I can’t tell if it is or not. But I don’t doubt it’s inspired by real events. The level of work it took to convert interviews into stories and drawings is extensive.

There’s a story in here about an older woman “turning out/taking advantage of a minor,” that’s a little ehhh. But I understand not censoring stories and giving the people interviewed the space to tell their stories without judgment. It’s still framed in a “you go, boy! You had an older woman” way, but life cannot be censored. And I've heard too many stories similar to this.

As the book progresses, family drama and a *gasp* family secret a la Tyler Perry gets revealed. If this is real, it’s a little tacky to reveal, but who knows the lines of fiction are blurred. The ending also is farfetched. this man this senile, but he can reveal the perfect bookend? i guess.

But personally, I found this extremely dull. ( )

The first half of the book is a complete snooze as a man named Ramiro travels from London to Costa Rica to interview his relatives about their family history as part of a project to create a book. (Semi-autobiographical? The author and the character share a significant other named Yoss.) Boring family anecdotes are told against a montage of recreated family photos.

The book recovers slightly as it slowly teases out a romantic triangle between two brothers -- one of them the author's grandfather -- and the girl next door. But even that bit of domestic drama gets a little silly as a forced coincidence brings it all to a tidy conclusion.

It probably shouldn't be a big deal, but I found it particularly annoying that a book about how important family is, does not actually give surnames to the two sides of the family tree being explored. ( )