Umami

Umami / Laia Jufresa; translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes
Oneworld Publications, 2016, c2015.
276 p.

Mexico City: a mews, four families, five voices. Umami takes its name from the courtyard with five houses clustered around it. Alfonso, owner and professor, named it Umami when he bought it, being a food specialist and all. 

But the term also highlights the five voices telling the story - a mix of all the flavours to be found in life. 

We hear from three young characters: Ana, 12 yrs old, her friend Pina, and Ana's young sister Luz whose death colours the entire narrative. And there are additional chapters from Alfonso, who is also grieving for his recently deceased wife, and Marina, a young woman who's just moved in to one of the houses and has her own struggles. 

All of these stories wrap around one another; the propinquity of the homes and the characters mean they are all telling sides of the same story -- with additional personal details. 

It's a wonderful concept, and the story is overall absorbing and full of description of life, from gardens and dirt to music to colour and beyond. But some voices were stronger than others, for me. Ana's narration is clear and straightforward; her sister Luz's chapters are less successful, partly because reading a five year old's thoughts and 'cute' language mishaps isn't appealing to me at all. Also I felt terribly anxious all the time while reading Luz's story, afraid I was about to stumble upon the scene of her drowning. (spoiler: it's not described). 

My favourite voice was Alfonso's -- his experience, his overwhelming grief and how he managed it, his study of amaranth and food history -- all of this combined with his style to engage me in his story most strongly. But I am sure a favourite character will be different for everyone who reads this.

I thought it was a fresh, intriguing book, one which I haven't read before. But there are flaws. And unfortunately, the biggest flaw was the ending. The book is going along strongly, it's building up the tension and the detail, and then the end kind of peters out weakly, like the air going out of a balloon. 

I'm not sure why Jufresa made this choice, but as a reader I felt there was no climax, no resolution that a reader would hope for. I was disappointed in the ending and felt like there was something missing. I'm not 100% enthusiastic about this book because of that.

For the characters and the setting, and the writing (even if the British translation choices showed at times), this is worth reading. Plus the cover of this edition is just gorgeous. But, a little more story with an actual conclusion would make this a more satisfying read.