Red Weather: Searching for Truth in a Life of Questions


Guest Post by Susan Thomas
 

Red Weather tells the story of Neva, a woman whose parents left her and her brother for a weekend with their grandmother and never came back. The story develops as we learn the parents were Native American activists and their disappearance relates to this. Neva’s life is in a stalemate. A bad marriage, a nothing job, estrangement from her brother all seemingly created by the unanswered lifelong question of what happened to her parents. With the discovery of a clue to their disappearance, Neva leaves this life behind to go in search of her parents.

 

The story takes us to a small town in Central America where the political unrest and heavy hand of the government becomes more violent page by page. Neva finds work teaching English, housemates turned friends, and a love affair that consumes her. Still, all these elements are jaded by her continuing search for her parents.

 

McAdams expertly weaves heavy issues such as the sterilization of Native American women, U.S. involvement in Central American government, and class struggle into her story. But just enough so the story is not bogged down with facts but leaves the reader with the feeling of wanting to know more.

 

Red Weather is a beautifully written book that revolves around a life put on hold and the resolution necessary for it to begin again. McAdams brilliantly gives the reader a sense of urgency for resolution as the intensity of the story builds.

 

Susan Thomas lives and reads in Birmingham, Alabama.

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