First impressions review: With the Fire on High, by Elizabeth Acevedo
I picked up this book because it focuses on a young Latina single mom who wants to be a chef and who maybe has the opportunity to do an immersion class in Spain. I love Spain and Spanish food, and when it opened on a recipe, my first thought was: “Ooh, is this going to be like ‘Like Water for Chocolate’, where we get a recipe for every month? Nice!” Unfortunately, no (there are three recipes), and the Spain component seems a bit under-researched1. But it was a cute YA story that did speak to me in some other ways.
1. We get paella with saffron and chorizo, jamon iberico, and…a bunch of other dishes that do not seem very Spanish. Where is the seafood, for instance? What about bitter oranges (which would fit well with Cuban and Puerto Rican traditions)? And there’s a mention of sausage made from suckling pig, which is definitely not a traditional thing and kind of a waste of a delicate meat. Also, they see cobblestones as soon as they pass the sign for Sevilla? Seville is a very large modern city now, so that seems odd. Maybe it was the sign for the historic city center? Agree about feeling weird seeing the Columbus monument decked in stolen gold, though!
Emoni Santiago is an Afro-Puerto Rican girl who made a bad choice of boyfriend her freshman year of high school. But she is hard-working and talented, loves her daughter Emma, and is doing her best to keep moving forward. She lives with her abuela, who brought her up after her mom died and her dad returned to the island broken-hearted. I couldn’t help but think of my own grandmother, also a semi-retired seamstress…especially when Emoni ends up blending the Spanish/Latin American New Year’s tradition of eating grapes for luck with the Southern tradition of eating black eyed peas, because that’s exactly what my abuelita did2!
‘Buela has always said Emoni’s cooking is magical, and everyone knows it is her passion, so her homeroom teacher is eager to suggest the cooking class elective that includes that trip to Spain. Emoni doesn’t know how she’s going to pay for it, or if she’s even going to have time for the class with her afterschool work and childcare, but eventually decides to try. She doesn’t initially vibe well with the “cook it exactly like the recipe says” rules, and nearly runs off the rails for a bit in the middle of the story both in terms of the course and her plans for college. But she pulls it back together with the support of her friends and family and a new potential love interest.
2. Personally, I don’t think mixing grape compote with beans would work very well, though. Abuelita just cooked the black eyed peas as if they were black beans (with a bit of cinnamon – a suggestion adopted from an Iranian neighbor), and served the grapes on their own at midnight.
Emoni has to deal with a lot of assumptions. Most obviously, she notes that when you get pregnant freshman year everyone thinks you’re just a dumb ho who won’t amount to anything. But she also says:
“The Latin grandmothers at the Papi store tsk-tsk when they ask me a question in Spanish and I answer with my chopped-up tongue, or worse, in English…on the flip side, folks wonder if I’m Black American enough. As if my Puerto Rican side cancels out any Blackness, although if we go only according to skin, my Puerto Rican side is as Black as my Black American side.”
Oof, yeah. On point 1, knowing your immigrant relatives would be proud if you spoke their native language better weirdly makes it harder to learn and practice; there’s a lot more pressure. On point 2, I’ve definitely heard people from other parts of the African diaspora (eg. the UK) say they get comments from Americans like: “Oh, I thought you were BLACK black.” But a similar thing applies to any Latin Americans who aren’t medium brown with dark hair; Americans forget that Latine people come from a region that is as racially and ethnically diverse as the US, and with at least as complicated a history. So, with all that, I admire Emoni’s determination to be herself – all parts of herself.
In terms of other characters, I liked Emoni’s exuberant lesbian graphic-designer friend Angelica, and Malachi is such a sweetheart – not pushy, but very clear about the fact that he likes Emoni and wants to hang out with her in whatever context she’d prefer. Their relationship isn’t fully resolved by the end, but that’s OK; I love a high school story where romance isn’t the end-all be-all! Tyrone and his mom I kind of want to smack upside the head, but you can tell that they are working from a different set of standards for what family and relationships should look like. There was some unexpected character-development for Emoni’s family members too. At first you think her dad may just be a deadbeat, but that’s not true. He does a lot of good in the world and wants a place in Emoni’s life, but he’s so caught in his own pain over his wife’s death that he doesn’t really understand what his erratic coming-and-going is doing to his daughter. They’re finally talking about it by the end, which is good. ‘Buela also wants to live her own life a little, not just be someone else’s rock (and free childcare) - and good for her! Although…much as Abuelita liked babysitting me, I don’t think my dad could have wandered off and left me with her for 16 years - raising money for everyone but me - without her chewing him out about it pretty substantially! I would have thought that ‘Buela would do the same, given that she, like my grandmother, also had to raise a child as a grieving widow. Maybe that happened in the first few years and she’s just given up by now...
Overall recommendation:
While the writing was a little “young” for this stage of my life3, I still enjoyed the story. This would be a good gift for a young person who likes food or who can relate to fitting in to more than one culture or to trying to balance pursuing their dreams with difficult family obligations.
3. Why is it that as a 30-something I can find books written for younger children charming, but usually find YA books a bit tiresome? I’m not sure, but maybe it is that if they accurately appeal to the angsty self-centered nature of teenagehood (appropriately, mind you – when you are undergoing a lot of changes it is natural to feel angst and be very focused on figuring yourself out and maybe a little blind to stuff going on around you)…that’s not a mental space I really want to inhabit again!
