Felicia Gullotta // Blog Writer
by Gina Oschner
If you were an ailing mother trying to tell your son his life’s story, where would you begin? Would you begin with his birth? Maybe a moment that stood out in his childhood? You could even begin with your own story, but then that begs the question of where does your story start? Gina Ochsner tries to answer these questions for herself through her novel The Hidden Letters of Velta B. The story centers around Inara, a woman on her deathbed trying to tell her son Maris a new version of his story, her version. Instead of starting with the day of Maris’s birth, Inara begins with a peculiar day when he was starting the third grade, when he looked at her with sad, knowing eyes that his inhumanly large ears would once again bring new rounds of torment. From here the story takes on a nonlinear structure, jumping between different points of Inara’s and Maris’s past. Sometimes Inara goes back beyond her past to tell of her own parents’ childhood, and there is particular interest over the life of Velta B., Inara’s grandmother who died before Inara could come to know her personally. As Inara’s retelling of her family’s history grows and deepens, readers learn along with Maris the history of the small town in which they live and how intricately tied these two things are to one another—an interesting examination of family relationships to say the least.
Ochsner keeps alive the refreshing magic of the story with strong, almost poetic language. Readers easily fall into the stories that Inara weaves for her son, as the details are so vivid and alive it’s impossible not to be sucked into her past. In fact, it almost doesn’t feel like the past at all, but that you are living through it in real time. No matter how much you might want to escape the hardship and heartbreak of the past, neither Inara or the reader can do so, and Ochsner keeps you there through her language. However, there are many points of respite from tragedy where Ochsner’s language becomes even more poetic, as even something like an eel (which is talked about often in the novel) becomes something to seriously consider as more than a creature living in the murky water of a river.
While Ochsner does a great job creating beautifully written scenes that bring the past to life for the reader, there as some aspects of the novel that fall flat. At first the novel appears to be written in the second person, a bold choice for any writer; however, this seamlessly slips into the first person, as you realize that the story is told from Inara’s point of view and the metaphysical “you” is a stand-in for her son Maris. Therefore the reader takes on the role of son and obedient listener. Unlike novels like Jane Eyre where the direct address of the reader happens only once or twice, Ochsner continually has Inara address the reader as “you” throughout the novel, which can be off putting for some readers. However, if you can and like to suspend your imagination in this way, then The Hidden Letters of Velta B is the book for you. Another possibly problematic point for readers might stem from the strong influence religion has in the book. As the story deals with a lot of death and deals with immigration and the clashes (but also ties) created between people of vastly different backgrounds, it is understandable that religion would be touched upon in some way. While Ochsner does a great thing by not putting any one religion as superior to others, there is an underlying theme that it seems the reader can’t escape, and that is God is everywhere. Quite literally, God is everywhere in this book and in the characters’ lives. If you’re looking for something that explores what/who God is and the way He influences/cares for us in life and death, then this is a book that will greatly satisfy you.
Overall, The Hidden Letters of Velta Bprovides readers with beautiful language that brings to life the touching story of family relationships, even with its potentially irksome point of view and religious undertones.
Grade: B