In keeping with Romani traditions, young Marisol must enter an arranged marriage, though she\u2019d rather stay with Mammie, Gran Rose, and her sister, Flora. Sneering \u201cYou\u2019ll do what I want,\u201d her future husband Levoy is abusive, just like Marisol\u2019s father, so when both men are killed in a brawl at her wedding, Marisol isn\u2019t heartbroken. However, Romani culture shames widows, and left without funds, the women travel to Buckeye Lake Park in Ohio to work as fortune tellers. Two people at the park play a pivotal role in Marisol\u2019s future: Lila, the park manager\u2019s wife, honors her dead child who loved books by helping Marisol to practice reading; Will, a young man who enlists in World War II as a pilot against his parents\u2019 wishes, locks eyes with Marisol in her exotic fortune-telling costume and is smitten. Their courtship remains clandestine\u2014Will\u2019s family thinks \u201cGypsies\u201d are thieves, and Romanis discourage relationships outside their clan. It\u2019s a summer of many adventures for Marisol\u2014a loathsome park man, Hal, makes her life difficult, and disasters, including a fire and a twister strike the park, but positive events, such as experiencing first love and applying to study medicine, balance things out. Paul convincingly captures the ambiance of a 1940s small-town carnival: A saltwater taffy stall has \u201cblue, pink, and yellow puffs twisted into waxy papers,\u201d the boardwalk is lined with hanging flower baskets, and big-band music pours from the speakers. The dialogue sometimes sounds flat, as everyone, young and old, speaks in a similar manner; however, Marisol, Will, and Lila are likable, kind, and open-minded. The less charming characters are similarly well-developed; readers learn that Hal, whose wife left him, resents the entire Romani population because he believes they have taken all of the available jobs. Overall, Paul presents a nuanced portrait of Romani culture, depicting the Romani as more than martyrs\u2014despite Nazi persecution\u2014and displays varied traits like those in any other group.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In keeping with Romani traditions, young Marisol must enter an arranged marriage, though she\u2019d rather stay with Mammie, Gran Rose, and her sister, Flora. Sneering \u201cYou\u2019ll do what I want,\u201d her future husband Levoy is abusive, just like Marisol\u2019s father, so when both men are killed in a brawl at her wedding, Marisol isn\u2019t heartbroken. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}