"I’ve always thought that fiction was the way to approach Guatemala. You see, there are more lies than truth in the history of that little country."
The above quote, buried deep within the pages of her novel, gives readers a sense of what author Kelly Kerney had in mind when she wrote this book.

Hard Red Spring is an ambitious historical novel covering one-hundred years of American intervention in Guatemalan affairs. It begins with a volcanic eruption that, by presidential decree, did not happen and ends with the genocidal killing of as many as 200 thousand indigenous people which also, if the Rev. Pat Robertson is to be believed, did not happen.

The ‘novel’ part of the story consists of four long sections, each featuring American women who have traveled to Guatemala for one reason or another and who seem bound together by a shared sense of instability. Six year-old Evie, daughter of would-be cochineal farmers in 1902, struggles to understand a world which, figuratively and literally is blowing up around her. In 1954, Dorie fears her life is spinning out of control while her ambassador husband grows increasingly distant. In 1982, Lenore responds to a call for missionaries only to find a world vastly different than what she had been lead to expect. And in 1999, Jean travels with her war-orphan daughter back to the land of her birth in an attempt to help her learn her place in the world.

I am in awe of the amount of research that Ms. Kerney must have done in writing this book. Every page shows an intimate understanding of Guatemala and her history that can only come from personal experience and an abiding passion for the subject.
Sadly, the story collapses under the weight of the historical detail. It is clear that Kerney’s main objective in writing the story was to inform readers of the tragic events that have been going on in Guatemala but when you add too much information, the story stops being a story and starts to become a lecture. At one point, under the guise of a college class lecture, Kersey slyly inserts several pages taken verbatim from a United Nations atrocities report, only occasionally throwing in references to classroom noises to maintain the illusion of fiction.

On a personal note, I have been to Guatemala and I cannot fault her description of it at all. Granted, I was there before the worst years of the war and I found Xela to be a beautiful city that went out it its way to make visitors welcome. Guatemala City on the other hand, was much different. I recall entering it in a bus full of laughing and happy college students. By the time we reached the city center, all joy had drained out of us and we sat silently looking out the windows. It isn’t that he city looks any different than other cities we had visited. It just exuded an aura that was as cold and soulless as greed and corruption could make it. None of us felt safe for a minute until the city was far behind us.

Bottom line: If you are interested in learning about what has happened in Guatemala in the last 100 years, this is a very informative book. I found the information about Pat Robertson’s Operation: International Love Lift, a counterinsurgency program funded by contributions solicited from viewers of The 700 Club, particularly fascinating. For a novel, though, this is a pretty tough read. I give this book two of two stars for the research but only one for the story.

*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. ( )

3.5 stars

This book is ambitious, and well-structured. Unfortunately, it feels like it's missing its soul.

The story follows American women in Guatemala, but it really is about many more women, as many Guatemalan women as American. The takeaway seems to be that Guatemala will destroy you, whether you're an Amerian woman or a Guatemalan.

Evie Crowder is a six year old girl, whose parents have come to make their fortune. Her mother doubts they will succeed, and intends to head home; her father insists he is on to something. But the volcano erupts; the government takes all his workers to fix the railroad; the servant girl winds up pregnant with Evie's father's child. And by the time her mother has fixed a date to leave, it's too late for them all.

Dorie comes to Guatemala in the 50s, with her husband, the US ambassador. She has fallen for her best friend's husband, her husband's best friend, and finds herself pregnant. She is ready to run away with him to Brazil, until she is told she's been set up by her lover, and her husband, and her best friend. When she goes to confront her husband, she finds he is quite capable of this deceit, and much more.

Lenore and her husband go to Guatemala as missionaries in the early 80s, because the televangelist says to. They go to help set up model villages, but Lenore finds their work is not doing what she intended it to. She also learns that Guatemala is killing her: she is malnourished, sick, weak, and the subterfuge is driving her mad.

Jean takes her adopted Guatemalan daughter Maya on a Roots tour, to help connect to Maya, and to help Maya connect to Guatemala. But nothing goes as planned, and Jean finds herself in the midst of a mess that she can't even suss out. She's just desperate to get out, before it consumes her like it did Dorie, and Lenore, and Evie, and all the Guatemalan women they knew.

Kerney does a great job of placing the characters, and thus the readers, in Guatemala, throughout the 20th century. The oppression that everyone lives with, the corruption, the danger... it's all palpable on every page, for all the characters. She also does a great job of using imagery, such as the quetzal, and dogs, for example. She does a great job of making the reader ask the hard questions, and seek out those answers, for she provides them all. And she does a great job of bringing to a close what happened to Evie Crowder, way back in 1902. She does all this with skillful prose.

What's missing is the heart and soul of the story. Without it, this feels like a device to tell the history of Guatemala, more than an opportunity to share the common human condition. It reads as if no white American has any business being in Guatemala, and cannot find a way to live with these people, even when they have the best of intentions. That may be true, but if so, this is a tough way to learn that lesson. Given how hard the women in this story learn this, it very well may be Kerney's main point of writing this book.

My thanks to Penguin for an advanced copy of this book.

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Hard Red Spring by Kelly Kerney is a century long history of Guatemala told through eyes of four expatriates in four different time periods. The book turns factual history into an emotional, memorable fictional story. The connections between the people follow through all four sections, keeping the story line going, but the focus throughout remains the place.

Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2016/03/hard-red-spring.html

Reviewed based on a publisher’s galley received through NetGalley and for the Penguin First to Read program ( )