The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @eccobooks for the review copy of The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez.

Are you a mood reader? Or do you make elaborate plans before you choose reading?  I do make elaborate plans on what I’m going to read, but I do veer off with varying moods.  The Great Divide was a late book added into my March reading and I veered into reading it as I was greatly intrigued by the premise.

In 1907, people are all gathering in Panama to work on one of the wonders of the world, the Panama Canal.  Ada left her home in Barbados to look for a job to earn money to pay for medical procedures to help her sister.  John Oswald hires her to be a caregiver to his wife, Marian.  Marian and John had traveled to Panama from Tennessee.  John is a scientist that is working on the cure for malaria.  Marian is a scientist herself.  Omar does not want to be a fisherman like his father and has set off on an adventure of his own.  How will these characters’ stories intertwine?  And how will they intertwine with the many other characters in this novel?

My thoughts on this story:

·       The Great Divide gave a great overall sense of how many people from all different places and walks of life that it took to build the Panama Canal, and how it impacted the people that lived there.

·       Sickness was very prevalent and terrifying.  Malaria killed so many people that were working on or supporting the work on the canal.

·       There were a lot of characters in this story, and it took awhile to build up the story and figure out how they were all together.  I liked learning the connections.  It was like an interwoven tapestry of life.

·       As there were a lot of characters, I wish there would have been a character list and family trees at the start of the book for me to reference as I was first getting into the book.

·       This was a great character driven novel and I found it to be intriguing.  It was not plot driven, so it was a slower read for me.

·       The description of the location made me feel like I was there.  I would love to visit Panama someday.

·       I wish there would have been details about the engineering and construction of the canal.  I’m an engineer and I was first attracted to this book because the back of the cover described the Panama Canal as a major historical engineering feat.  That is about as much engineering as you will get with this book.  It’s all about the characters.

·       The Great Divide made me think about how many people it takes to build such great engineering marvels and how they are the unsung heroes that don’t usually get their story told.

·       Speaking of unsung heroes, I don’t want to spoil a plot point, but I thought it was interesting when a female character passed away and how her obituary only really discussed her husband.  It makes you wonder how many stories we don’t know about people after they passed, especially women.

Overall, The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez was historical fiction as its best, telling the interwoven stories of many people at a key point in history.

 This book was published on March 5, 2024.