Small Damages
And if you choose to bare your soul to it, it shall bare its soul to you back. First review, written in August of I think I might have to re-read this. And maybe re-read it once more. Because I don't think I have fully grasped onto all of what this book has to offer me. Hence the four stars. And don't come back until you know. And there are many ways one can interpret the writing. You could read the snippet above in a rushed tone, imagining the characters speaking in a hush, their breaths mingling into the crisp air.
Yet you could also read it like a stream flowing calmly, with a powerful undertone, as it leads to a dramatic waterfall with the last sentence. There's nothing else quite like it, and Small Damages brings out the best of it. Cuddling into my soft pillow, this book in my hand, Spain's soul around me. I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world. Sep 16, Melissa Stacy rated it it was ok Shelves: Near the very end of "Small Damages," the reader finally discovers this novel is set in But that really took me by surprise, since there's a scene early on in the book in which Kenzie calls her boyfriend from a pharmacy, right after peeing on a stick in a public restroom and finding out she was pregnant -- and Kenzie seemed to have a cell phone in that scene.
So I thought this novel was set in or Regardless of my initial confusion, is a long, long way from the s and '60s, when families went to great lengths to send their unwed pregnant daughters away from home to have their babies in secret. Kenzie lives a very modern, edgy lifestyle at home in Jersey, her boyfriend has been accepted to attend Yale, her friends are all cool and hip and kinda wild, her parental situation is chaotic, at best -- there is simply no way I believe this "secret preggers journey to Spain" could ever have happened.
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The story details here just didn't add up. Being ashamed in front of your PTA friends doesn't justify all the secretive scheming at work in this plot. I was hoping to read some lyrical escapism fiction packed with beautiful details of Spain. And I hoped the characters would speak Spanish, or discuss Spanish language, or reflect on Spanish history or the landscape in interesting ways.
None of which happened. Of the first pages of this novel, most of the scenes are backstory, describing how Kenzie came to be in southern Spain. Even though the novel introduces Kenzie in Spain, those initial pages prove to be story-hooks without substance. While Kenzie frequently points out there are oranges in southern Spain, and people say "Buenos tardes" about 58 times in this book, the repetition was as tiresome as the setting details were scant. Kenzie pines for her boyfriend, her friends, and the Jersey shore, as she ruminates on her life in America and how much she misses America.
There are some Spanish Gypsies who appear. The description of these people felt overly exotic and Othering. Given that Kenzie isn't actively trying to improve her Spanish or learn more about Spanish culture at all, I really wish the Spanish Gypsies hadn't been in the story -- they felt like "an exotic story detail" to interest readers in this nonsensical plot. The true beating heart of this book is the fact that Kenzie is really, really connected to her developing fetus, and she wants to be a mother. She addresses her fetus as "you" throughout the novel, and Kenzie's awareness and vocabulary of pregnancy and motherhood sounded much more like a woman of thirty than a teenager in high school.
The prose of "Small Damages" is literary, and the sentences are crafted with care, and meant to be poetic. But the problematic content really damages the entire flow of this book, as does the cumbersome repetition. The author uses a handful of Spanish words and phrases over and over, and Kenzie never translates the occasional complicated line of Spanish the Gypsies use in conversation. Since those lines of Spanish were plot-related and relevant to important characterization details, I found this highly frustrating.
Kenzie tells the reader she speaks Spanish in the book, though it is only ever written in English -- except when she says, "Buenos tardes" -- which she and the other characters use a lot. Given what I read of Kenzie, I would say that she harnesses the strength of her inner year-old who is hungering for a baby, and decides to keep her child by the end of this book.
So if you are a reader who also hungers for a baby and wants to read a YA novel in which a teenager makes the decision to become a mother at eighteen -- then you would probably enjoy "Small Damages" a lot more than I did. I picked up this book hoping to read about a young person in Spain, a young person who was hopefully speaking Spanish and learning more about Spanish culture, and what I got instead was this very adult-sounding woman ruminating over the Jersey shore and her growing fetus. This was just not for me.
Jun 18, Florinda rated it it was amazing. Feeling resentful and out of control, her stay in Spain seems like exile, and her inadequate knowledge of the language is only one source of her discomfort as she struggles to come to terms with the turns her life has taken. May 18, Tee loves Kyle Jacobson rated it it was amazing Shelves: I have to say I have never read a book like this before. It was so emotional and poignant and so true to what happens when young love goes wrong. Kenzie has it all. She has a great boyfriend and she got accepted into a great college but there is only one hiccup to all this.
See she gets pregnant and her boyfriend and mother are not happy about it. Her mother is having none of it and sends her to Spain so she can have the baby and give it up for adoption. Kenzie having no say in the matter is whisked away to Spain to have her child and give it up.
Once she is in Spain she meets Esteban and they become friends. She has a lot of time to think about things and she confides in Esteban and finds that things are not so black and white. She is angry that she never had a say so and her mother treated her like she had no choice but to read herself of that baby or destroy her life. Her boyfriend was a coward and wanted to act like nothing happened.
Once she starts thinking about things the one question remains on her mind and that is will she keep the baby? Will she be a good mother? Can she raise this baby by herself? This book tares at the heart and causes you to think about things in a different light. Get out your box of tissues because you are going to need them. Jan 24, Isamlq rated it really liked it. Reading Small Damages was different A lot is on the fuzzy side here: But we find out, like pi Reading Small Damages was different But we find out, like pictures slowy gaining clarity..
Better, I liked how there were parallels with her and the rest so that it's not just about the dilemma she's in, but the things that led up to it. Doing it that way, made all of them more real. That she's not just a girl dealing with a decision, but one who takes with her everything else: None of them are.
And that right there? Nov 12, Jessica Keener rated it it was amazing. This is a gorgeous book--a prose poem, lyric and sensual, and searching. There's yearning, there's love, there's a beautiful, restless yet sturdy and wise cast of characters--mostly adults and one young man who guard the narrator--Kenzie--the young woman struggling to accept the indelible impact of her actions. Kenzie lives in an ocean of memories--recent and more distant and these visions wash over her present. This aspect of time and timelessness saturates the story. Emotions gain traction wit This is a gorgeous book--a prose poem, lyric and sensual, and searching.
Emotions gain traction with each sentence moving forward, a gathering of heart that takes you to the final, riveting end. The descriptions of landscape and food, weather, and sky will take your breath away. Everything happens in a remote town outside of Seville, Spain. I didn't want this novel to end. What a supremely gifted writer and storyteller. May 31, Pam Victorio rated it it was amazing. Kephart has cemented herself as one of my most favorite writers in the universe.
This is a very small list and she is at the top. Small Damages is absolutely amazing from the setting, to the MC, to her decisions and all of the side things that force her along throughout this generous plot.
Hands down the best book I've read in Jul 28, Lainey rated it really liked it. There are several I loved about this book: I visited Spain once and I loved it, the architecture, the people, the paella. Reading about Seville and the countryside with its olive trees and sunflowers kindles the old wanderlust. Kenzie is also my kind of book tourist. There's a certain kind of book tourist I hate, of which there are lots of examples in YA, where a teenager is packed of by mom or dad to some foreign destination and hates it bec There are several I loved about this book: There's a certain kind of book tourist I hate, of which there are lots of examples in YA, where a teenager is packed of by mom or dad to some foreign destination and hates it because you're taking me away from my friends!
I'm sorry but it's annoying. If you can't appreciate Paris because you're too busy sulking I won't read about it. There is certainly a part of Kenzie that resents being sent by her mother to Spain to hide her pregnancy but she doesn't ignore the world around her nor is she apathetic to its beauty, she's observant in a way a good photographer or videographer is.
It's evident from the details we get: There are lots beautiful images in this book. There are also some passages about the dishes that Estela, the cook of Los Nietos, prepares which would appeal to someone like me who watches The Food Network for the food porn. There's a scene where Estela is making paella and Kenzie is filming her, Estela asks her to put down the camera and Kenzie refuses. Yeah, If I see someone making paella, I'd also want to record it. My only problem with the book is that some of the characters are not fully realized. Maybe the author is only giving us what we need to know or maybe, since the novel is written in the first-person, Kenzie is still trying to understand them.
However I'm not so sure because sometimes there was more telling than showing. Like with Kenzie's group of friends. I think the author tried to give each of them distinct personalities but they didn't seem like real people to me and I didn't care about any of them. Kenzie obviously cares about them but aside from the fact that she says they're close, I don't get why. There's also Kevin, her boyfriend and the father of the baby. In the flashbacks, he seemed like a thoughtful and generous guy. But his actions when Kenzie gets pregnant show him to be a selfish coward.
Nobody is asking him to throw his future away but he should at least assume some responsibility. I don't get why Kenzie still doesn't hate his guts.
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The characters in the cortijo are better handled I think although they could still use more development. There's Esteban who works with the horses and Kenzie is obviously falling for him. It's easy to see why, he's sympathetic and honest and he listens to her. However the shift in their relationship is a little abrupt. At first their conversations are limited to single sentences then all of a sudden there's all these details and childhood stories.
I'm not complaining about the details, just that it was sudden. Estela, I think is better realized which makes sense since Kenzie spends most of her time with her. There's all these scenes of her cooking, beating eggs and mixing and frying and it's easy to see her as this very efficient woman, maybe a little bitter but nevertheless loves the makeshift family around her.
Miguel, the owner of Los Nietos, is an interesting figure. He loves the bulls he raises, they die in the ring but he feels proud of them. There are also some Gypsies in the cortijo, singing songs and coming up with strange cures however aside from Angelita, I don't think the author bothered to distinguish one from the other which is a pity. In conclusion, as a travel journal the book is almost perfect however as a novel some of the characters could do with some work and maybe some scenes could have been longer because I always felt like there was more that was happening and there was more to be said when suddenly it cuts.
Overall, it could have benefited from being a longer book. Mar 26, Estelle rated it really liked it Shelves: We have Kenzie, a senior in high school, who has recently lost her father. A new relationship with her best guy friend comes soon after, which leads to this unexpected pregnancy. She is unhappy to be plucked in her life with Philadelphia, but, moreso, because her mother never stops to ask her what she wants. I found myself wanting to dive back into the book for the setting as much as for Kenzie and her story.
Smack dab in the middle of Seville is Estela, the cook Kenzie lives with and assist with her food and her shaky English. Truthfully, she was the reason I bought the book. This book is so much about grief and trust. Kenzie is struggling to deal with the death of her dad, and how her mom has changed since then. What are they up to know? Are they thinking of her? How is she suddenly the girl who does everything wrong when all she used to do was right? Kenzie talks to her child so much.
This is where the trust comes in. Does she even trust herself? I would not hesitate when buying it for the people in my life. The prose is so lovely; it wrapped me up and had me feeling so cozy, so into the story. And the supporting characters? So much to love, so much to highlight, and a book that I will definitely be rereading in the future.
Jul 23, Liviania rated it really liked it. The older characters remember living under the rule of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who is still dead. The eighties brought about a huge change in Spanish culture: But Spain didn't entirely assimilate. There's descriptions of the food, the clothes, the music, and the dancing. The dialogue gives a sense of the language barrier between Kenzie and her hosts. She sometimes tries her hand at Spanish and others attempt English, but the words are rarely perfect.
Kenzie has been sent to Spain because she's pregnant. She refused to terminate the pregnancy as her mother and boyfriend wanted. The compromise is to live with one of her mother's old friends' friend, Miguel, at his bull ranch Los Nietos and give up the baby to another couple, Javier and Adair. At Los Nietos she works in the kitchen with Estela and becomes fascinated with ranch hand Esteban, who both have their own stories. Kenzie is uneasy throughout most of her stay at Los Nietos.
Small Damages
She finds beauty in the people and the place, but she's unsure about what she's doing and not comfortable with the spoiled Adair. She's struggling to find her way. Then she begins to find it as she and the people around her open up to each other. I appreciated Beth Kephart's talent, but couldn't connect to the story. I am a huge fan of Kephart's writing. Her prose is as beautiful and absorbing as ever. If Kephart is one of my favorite authors, then why did I not love this book? And if I didn't love it, why couldn't I articulate what was wrong?
But I'm not a failure. There is nothing wrong with appreciating a book but acknowledging that it's not for you. There will be someone at the exhibit who sees a ray of light captured just so and is never the same again. Sep 08, Sandy rated it really liked it Shelves: Mixed feelings is what I have for this book.
However I'm not so sure because sometimes there was more telling than showing. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about literary YA set in Spain. Kenzie, pregnant at 18 with a child by a guy who is off to Yale and really doesn't see being a dad in his future, is sent off to Seville, Spain because 'we don't want our friends to know this shame'. Only her boyfriend and her mother know that she is pregnant. See the link here. Unfortunately I found there was a severe lack of depth in the characters, they were so two dimensional and predictable that I just stopped reading. She had an amazing boyfriend, and friends, got into an awesome film school in the fall, and she finds out she is pregnant, she is scared but kind of excited picturing what the baby would look like but her mother and boyfriend don't really feel that way which breaks my heart.
I fell for the characters but I hated the writing style. The broken up-short sentences that were used throughout the book, I had a hard time following it and it made for slow reading. As I reading, I had to stop and reread certain passages, as I was not sure what was even happening. It also confused me how the character of Kenzie jumped from thinking of her present-day situation to her life back in the states.
I realize that we do that ourselves but a Mixed feelings is what I have for this book. I realize that we do that ourselves but as a reader, I was totally confused a few times as Kenzie did this as I was reading and I had no idea where she was at in her thoughts. There were no lead-ins as why she changed, just bam…. I almost wanted to give up on the book but the relationship that Kenzie had with the people in Spain was so moving and I knew that something more wonderful was going to develop and boy was I right. Only her boyfriend and her mother know that she is pregnant.
In Spain, there is a couple who wants to adopt the baby, but Kenzie knows no one. She is to stay with Estela for the reminder of her pregnancy and then go back to the US after the baby is born. As she gets used to the daily routine in Spain, Kenzie learns about Estela and her life. Estela seemed so determined and rigid but at the end of the book, I think I loved her the most; I wanted to reach right out and hug her.
She really needed someone and perhaps she needed Kenzie as much as Kenzie needed her. The ending was so terrific and I know that if I was Kenzie, I would have done the same thing. The way the author described Spain using all the characters but especially Kenzie and Esteban as the mediums were wonderful. Their different perspectives, from the inquisitive state to the practical homeland were outstanding.
The Gypsies, the olive trees, the horse rides, the homemade meals and recipes that Estela shares…. The heat rides every wrinkle on her face. The writing is beautiful. The story is beautiful. The characters came to life on the page, and I loved spending time with them. Kenzie's story is an important one and I'm glad it was told. One person found this helpful. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. This book was amazing.
The range of emotion through out the book keeps you on your feet. I would def recommend to any YA book lover. The book is a weekend, beach read, but not one that will last in your mind forever. I was disappointed that my book group chose it as the summer reading choice. None the less it is a very pleasant book. Really enjoyed this book, could hardly put it down. Loved all the references to her unborn child.
Characters were introduced appropriately. Just wish the ending had not been quite so ambiguous. See all 22 reviews. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Set up a giveaway. Customers who bought this item also bought. Don Quixote Signet Classics. Before We Were Free. Your Guide to Becoming an Activist. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Learn more about Amazon Prime. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime.
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Small Damages by Beth Kephart is not only a coming of age story, but a story of discovery and one of love. Perhaps my favorite from Beth thus far. You read novel that makes you want to stand on top of a building and read the prose aloud to those walking below. Words that make you feel human and humble in the most gorgeous way.
If I could read Small Damages over and over again just like it was the first time I would never read another book again. This post is less of a review and more of a plea. Please go to your bookstore, or your library and bring this book home. Make yourself a glass of iced tea and sit in the sun and imagine that you too are in Spain and imagine the scents of Seville all around you while you read. She has both an artist's perception of the world and a teenager's self-absorbed blindness; Kenzie's not mean or selfish, but it takes time for her to see past her own admittedly huge concerns and sympathize with others.
But she's funny and kind, and she really does care, and I'd love to carefully wrap my arm around her and help her heal, because I think she's definite BFF material. Kephart has a skill unlike other young adult authors in that she never sees her younger readers as incapable of understanding or of deep emotion. She trusts them to follow her characters in their unusual circumstances and settings and garner a deeper understanding of what it means to mature from a child into an adult and the responsibilities that weigh on them even now when they are so young in this modern world. It is a trip to Spain filled with all of the warmth, personality and impressive history of that land.
The play of the modern American teen against that timeless background is pure genius, giving a story that could have been straight forward a real depth and power. This is an exceptional teen novel that will also be enjoyed by adult readers as a crossover title. It is elegantly written and gloriously beautiful. Appropriate for ages The things you sacrifice, the changes you undergo, the feelings of responsibility for another life. This is a truly lovely book that will leave its print on you.
I really can't do justice to its language with any of my own, so I'll just say that this is the author's love song to Spain - so much so that you'll be putting on a white dress and eating oranges and olives as you're savoring its pages. Check out my new favorite novel the library! We're all left with damages, small and large. Through Kenzie's eyes, we see those and those of the people in her midst. We see the sting of regret, but we also see the power of choices. Small Damages reminds the reader that even when we think they aren't, our choices are still there, always ours for the making.
I wanted to hug her, tell her it would be okay. I wanted much for this heroine. You had me going, Beth, you tricky angel. The writing and characters are all well-done, and I really enjoyed this read. I was not disappointed. The descriptive language in Small Damages is gorgeous. I could feel the heat and the dust of the country, see the crowds of Seville and hear the gypsy music play. The way Kenzie describes her surroundings also mirrors her mood throughout the book. It is desolate and depressing at first, and then gradually the beauty of the landscape comes out as Kenzie's mindset changes.
The Philadelphia Daily News interview can be found here. The Publishing Business today interview can be found here. The Publishing Perspectives profile can be found here. The Penguin interview can be found here. The Caroline Leavitt interview can be found here.