Review of The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez

*The Great Divide* by Christina Henríquez (2024). Published by Ecco.

I have many different ways I try to diversify my reading lists, and one of the ways has been through carefully curating what kinds of social media accounts I follow, when it comes to reading specifically, and finding online book review publications that cater to my tests.

I see a lot of books on these places again and again, so when I see them in real life, I recognize them.

That said, I kept seeing The Great Divide on these platforms and thought it sounded interesting from the synopsis I saw on these accounts.

So when I was wandering my local library branch one day, I saw the book available there and picked it up. It helps that it has such a gorgeous cover, too.

I had realized I had never picked up a book from an author about Panama, or who had come from the region. That was such a gap in my knowledge, which is why I also wanted to read this kind of book in the moment.

All in all, it took me about four days to get through this book. I usually get through books of this length a little bit sooner, but because I did not know the historical contexts, I tried to do my research while I was reading.

Anyways, enough with my rambling! Let’s get into the review.

The story of the Panama Canal’s creation—but through the eyes of people who slip through the cracks.

This is a novel that takes on the perspectives of multiple different people living within Panama at the time of the creation of the Panama Canal. We bounce around perspectives throughout each chapter, so if you’re not paying attention while you’re reading, you might slip up a little bit.

Anyways, let’s go through this narrative character by character. First, I’ll mention Francisco. He’s a local man who is coming to be angry at how the foreigners are coming into his country and changing it. He makes a living as a fisherman, but he sees, along with his village, how they are destroying the local way of life.

While he becomes more involved with protesting against the government, becoming more angry when they do not listen to the everyday people, his son sees an opportunity. Named Omar, he gets a job with the same canal that might destroy their way of life, which naturally angers his father.

Not only does Omar see this as a financial opportunity, but he also sees it as a chance to meet other people. His life in the village was quite lonely, and now he finally has the chance to change things for himself and go out into the world.

We also meet Ada, who left behind her family in Trinidad as a stowaway. After her sister fell ill, she came to Panama in search of work, despite only being sixteen at the time. At first, it’s difficult to find a job, but then she lands a gig as a caregiver for a wealthier American woman named Marian.

Marian is married to John Oswald, a scientist from the United States. He moved his wife and he from their home in Tennessee so he could continue research on malaria, and Marian struggled with Panama and acclimating to her new life there.

However, when she goes for a walk in the rain one day, it leads to an illness that changes everything for them. This is what led Ada to the family, changing the trajectory of her life, too.

Suddenly, more than ever, she finds herself thinking of home. For each of these characters, home represents something different, but Panama is in shifting circumstances. We see resistance as their home is forever changed by the Americans and people are are not from Panama, but it also becomes a place of opportunity.

Overall Thoughts

This was such an interesting book for me because of the historical context, which you could probably gather from my thoughts before. It was also very well written—I felt like each character was fleshed out in an interesting, compelling way.

However, I do think it is very difficult to write novels like this because of how there are so many split, but connected narratives. It’s a tad too fragmented, and I would have liked more from the novel, making it longer, to make it seem a bit more complete.

It’s still a good novel though! It’s very well written, but it could be pushed to the next level perhaps if we got to spend more time in this world.

Go read this if you’re interested in the synopsis and background. It’d be worth picking up potentially for you, and maybe you’ll love it more than I did. Taste is subjective.

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