Flores and Miss Paula

Months ago, I saw Melissa Rivero’s Flores and Miss Paula on NetGalley and was instantly intrigued. About an immigrant mother and her adult daughter, it describes their difficult relationship in the aftermath of a family loss, honoring their Peruvian culture while living in New York City, and navigating their future together. My husband is Peruvian, and I’m always drawn to stories either set in Peru or about Peruvian people. Flores and Miss Paula is somewhat literary—not a genre I read very often these days—but a book that really resonated with me. 

Special thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Summary

Two years ago, the Flores family lost Martín to cancer. He left behind his wife, Paula, and their adult daughter, Mónica Yolanda (her mom calls her Yoli, but everyone else just calls her by her last name, Flores). Still living together in their New York City apartment, Paula and Flores have a strained relationship, never really understanding each other and sometime believing the worst of one another. Both are caught up in their jobs while facing a looming eviction. How will they move forward once summer is over? Will they rebuild their bond and stay together or go their separate ways?

Review

Flores and Miss Paula is a book that surprised me. On the one hand, I was drawn to it for myriad personal reasons: It’s about a Peruvian family living in New York City (my husband is Peruvian, now living in the U.S.); it’s about an adult woman whose father has passed away (I lost my own dad in my early 20s); and it’s about the complex relationship between an adult woman and her mother. Despite what I thought I knew about this book going in, though, the way the narrative unfolded was at once unexpected and yet utterly engaging. 

This novel is fairly literary, at least more so than what I generally read. The chapters are divided between the two main characters’ perspectives, with Flores’s parts written in the first person and Paula’s parts written in the second person (addressed to her daughter Flores, whom she calls Yoli). There isn’t a clear plot, especially at first, and early on it struck me as somewhat stream of consciousness. Both Paula and Flores and describing what’s going on in the moment, but just as the mind works in real life, they frequently recall memories, feelings, and so on, fluidly going on tangents about these new themes as they arise. Eventually, this all comes together to paint a fuller, richer picture of who each woman is, what their shared history is, and where their relationship is now headed. 

A major theme in Flores and Miss Paula is grief over the loss of Martín, the father and husband of the family. He passed away three years prior, but his absence is still deeply felt by his surviving family. Both are still learning to live life without him, and yet both are also still striving to be what he wanted of them. I’ve grieved my own dad for more than a decade now, and the descriptions of grieving here rang true for me. What also rang true was how a daughter and her mother forge a new relationship now that a key family figure is gone. In the Flores family, Martín was the glue that bound them together, and without him, Paula and Flores don’t know how to understand each other or get along. It’s tough to see the divide between them at first, but over time, they find their way to each other. 

I mentioned some surprise about this book earlier; what I least expected is how focused on work the novel is. Especially in Flores’s chapters, she’s immersed in the startup company where she works. Her chapters frequently focus on the nuances of the business dealings, the relationships among her colleagues, and how the company will stay afloat. Paula, too, has a fair amount of focus on her own job working at a dollar store and how it’s helping her with her grief. Though I don’t normally have much interest in reading about careers and company nuances (there’s enough of that in real life!), I actually found myself absorbed into both characters—their careers, personal lives, and so on. I’m not sure how the author accomplished that, but kudos to her!

As the Flores parents are both immigrants from Peru, I also loved the frequent references to Peruvian culture, cuisine, and words. Since I lived in Lima for nearly a year, and my husband is Peruvian, it was all very familiar and special to me. Especially in Paula’s chapters, readers get a sense of what Peru is like and why she misses her home country, along with a great infusion of Spanish language. I understood most of it, since I speak intermediate Spanish, though I often asked my husband what some phrases meant. Readers who don’t understand Spanish at all my struggle in parts—having a Spanish to English translator handy could help. Many things are later explained in English, though, especially the more important phrases. 

Final Thoughts

Flores and Miss Paula is a beautifully written novel, with some passages so evocative and moving that they may lead to a few tears. It’s about grief, family relationships, secrets, and the assumptions we make, but it’s also about reconnecting and moving forward despite all that’s happened. This is a wonderful novel to read if you’re interested in immigrant life, Peruvian culture, or mother-daughter relationships. I greatly enjoyed this and look forward to reading more from Melissa Rivero. 

Get the Book

You can buy Flores and Miss Paula here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

Flores and Miss Paula by Melissa Rivero
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Fiction
Setting	New York City
Number of Pages	272
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	December 5, 2023
Publisher	Ecco

Official Summary

The Washington Post * Today * Sunset Magazine * Country Living * Good Housekeeping 

A wry, tender novel about a Peruvian immigrant mother and a millennial daughter who have one final chance to find common ground

Thirtysomething Flores and her mother, Paula, still live in the same Brooklyn apartment, but that may be the only thing they have in common. It’s been nearly three years since they lost beloved husband and father Martín, who had always been the bridge between them. One day, cleaning beneath his urn, Flores discovers a note written in her mother’s handwriting: Perdóname si te falle. Recuerda que siempre te quise. (“Forgive me if I failed you. Remember that I always loved you.”) But what would Paula need forgiveness for?

Now newfound doubts and old memories come flooding in, complicating each woman’s efforts to carve out a good life for herself—and to support the other in the same. Paula thinks Flores should spend her evenings meeting a future husband, not crunching numbers for a floundering aquarium startup. Flores wishes Paula would ask for a raise at her DollaBills retail job, or at least find a best friend who isn’t a married man.

When Flores and Paula learn they will be forced to move, they must finally confront their complicated past—and decide whether they share the same dreams for the future. Spirited and warm-hearted, Melissa Rivero’s new novel showcases the complexities of the mother-daughter bond with fresh insight and empathy.