Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

I heard of Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino from Susie on Sarah's Bookshelves (the podcast).

The premise is that Adina is an alien and she sends and receives faxes from her home planet. But don't let the sci-fi element fool you. This is a book about coming of age, about struggling through, about grief, about life, about death. The alien slant is interesting in its own way, but if you're not into sci-fi books, this still might appeal to you because it's not the main theme. It was heartbreakingly sad and (spoiler here), the dog dies. I'm just warning you. 

I liked this a lot. I felt like it resonated with me and made me sad and hopeful all at the same time. 4/5 stars

Lines of note:

It is September 1979 and Americans are obsessed with Star Wars, a civil war movie set in space. Bounding to the stage after hearing her name, a Price is Right contestant loses her tube top and reveals herself to a shocked Burbank audience. (page 3)

A civil war movie set in space. Ha! Also, that poor lady on The Price is Right. It's immortalized on the internet to this very day. 

Their routine changes so frequently they don't need much language (page 19)

Sometimes my husband and I don't even talk. We just know what's going to happen. 

...being physically present in one place while your mind is in another is loneliness. Loneliness can make you hang with phonies to distract yourself. (page 82)

Interesting. I'm not sure that's how I define it, but to each their own, I guess. 

It must be the opposite of homesickness, to return home to find it more beautiful, to return and still feel distance. (page 83)

One of the hardest things is figuring out where home is (your childhood home? where you sleep now? your favorite aunt's house?) and figuring out how to react when it's not longer the place you're most comfortable. 

For the first time, Adina feels that no one on Earth or even beyond understands her. (page 113)

I have to admit that this line made me guffaw. Teenagers, you know?

She answers the phone, keeps the candy jar filled, and monitors the bathroom key. Ten minutes out of her twenty-minute training was candy-jar related. (page 177)

LOLOLOL. My boss keeps a candy-jar filled in our office and I swear to you that half her job is candy-jar related. When she goes on vacation for a week and it gets low, there are COMPLAINTS.

(page 180)

This passage about the geese made me laugh and think of Lisa and her boys, particularly the "It's big in the Midwest." 

Things I looked up: 

Pando (page 157) - the world's largest tree, a quaking Aspen, in Utah

parp (page 183) - to make a sound like that made by a car horn

double Cancer (page 194) - honestly, astrology posts make me cry - I have no idea what these means

Eames birds (page 222) - it's a carved bird; there's a history there, but it also made me want to cry with boredom

Hat mentions (why hats?):

The man chuckles at the women, bundled in hats and scarves. (page 99)

On the ride, Dominic pulls a bong, a toilet paper roll, and two tinfoil hats from his back seat..."And the hat protects you from mind control from other planets." (page 151)

Adina arranges the hat on her head. (page 151)

"You can keep the hat," Dominic says, and she says, "What hat?" (page 154)

"...I like your hat." (page 256)

The fancy-cheap brocade boxes, the caps like faux-gold hats. (page 279)

Cocktails on the lawn, groping hat-in-wind. (page 287)

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Are you a double Cancer? Do you even know what that means?