Literary Scene: Three Stories with Secrets

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | May 2023

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez
by Claire Jiménez
(Grand Central Publishing, March 2023)

Claire Jiménez’s debut novel is all about a secret—13-year-old Ruthy vanished one day after track practice. For the next twelve years, the Ramirez family suffered in the way that people suffer when a loved one is taken from them. 

Set in a deeply religious community in Staten Island, the story unfolds in the alternative perspectives of older sister Jessica, younger sister Nina, mom Dolores, and Ruthy herself. While this isn’t an effective technique for some novels, here it allows each woman to tell her own important truth. 

The story gets underway when Jessica becomes convinced that she’s seen the long-lost Ruthy on a reality TV series called “Catfight,” which is like a female-only “Big Brother” meets “Survivor,” where contestants get to stay if they literally win a fight with fellow townhouse members. Jessica and Nina scrutinize the show, trying to determine if the show’s cast member “Ruby” might actually be Ruthy. Do their old memories match the reality before them? Is that the same beauty mark beneath her eye? 

The entire family—along with Dolores’ explosive friend, Irene—decides to road trip to where the show is filmed to uncover the truth. 

The story is rich with humor, sadness, and intergenerational trauma. Dolores struggles with the loss of her third daughter. Jessica struggles with her hospital job and a newborn baby. Nina struggles at a low-paying lingerie shop despite having a college degree. Yes, this is a family with heartbreak, but Jiménez brings a lot of humor, too, such as how Dolores’ prayers are full of expletives.

This world in general and this family in specific is well described and rich with detail. It’s a very strong debut novel.

Ryan’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
www.ClaireJimenez.com

A Likely Story
by Leigh McMullan Abramson
(Atria, March 2023)

Imagine turning thirty-five and discovering that everything you thought about your family was an elaborate lie? That’s the story at the heart of Leigh McMullan Abramson’s debut, a book-within-a-book about a young writer (Isabella Manning) on the verge of a breakdown as her society hostess mother (Claire) dies and Isabella learns that she sacrificed far too much for family. 

Some readers might balk at how authentically (read that as “deeply flawed”) both Isabella and her father (and iconic American novelist) are. It’s always a challenge when characters are potentially unlikeable. As a writer, how do you keep readers reading? It’s difficult, to be sure, and perhaps Abramson overcomes that by a vivid rendering of 90s New York and other worldbuilding moments that ring quite true.

I’m a fan of books that deal intelligently with anxiety and mental health, and I can certainly get behind a story where a woman wants to steal back the spotlight from someone who cheated his way to “success.” Plus, some readers will be charmed by the multiple points of view as well as the book-within-a-book structure.

Claire is the unsung hero here. And I imagine stay-at-home moms in particular will resonate with this book. 

Ryan’s Rating: 4 out of 5
www.LeighMcMullanAbramson.com

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
by Colleen Oakley
(Berkley, March 2023)

USA Today bestselling author Collen Oakley’s new novel, The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, has an Odd Couple setup that I find charming. On one hand, there’s eighty-year-old Louise who broke her hip and needs a live-in caregiver. Not her own daughter, of course, because she’s just too busy. On the other hand, there’s twenty-one-year-old Tanner, who had an accident that caused her to lose her college soccer scholarship and has now been kicked out of her mom’s basement and simply wants an easy job so she can loaf around and play video games in her sweatpants.

The two pretty much ignore each other, which suits them both fine. But then they’re forced into a road trip together (I won’t spoil why, save to save it’s a middle of the night decision involving police sirens), which is the ideal setting to prove how much they need each other. California, here they come!

The plot echoes with all manner of 90s movies—Thelma & Louise, Midnight Run, etc. But this is more than a Xerox of those stories. There’s more than enough fun and freshness here to please most readers. And maybe Tanner will learn something important too from a woman old enough to be her great-grandmother.

Ryan’s Rating: 4.25 out of 5
www.ColleenOakley.com