Mona at Sea is a very funny, darkly comic
first novel about a high achiever, on the brink of starting her adult life, who
has her hopes and aspirations dashed amid the Great Recession.
In 2008, in suburban Tucson, Ariz., bicultural,
23-year-old Mona Mireles graduates from college--top of her class and with an equally
high opinion of herself--and is eager to start a promising new finance career
on Wall Street in New York City. When the job suddenly dissolves amid the
economic downturn, Mona becomes a "sad millennial" in more ways than
one. Down on her luck, she sinks into anxiety and depression. Broke, lovelorn
and not happy living at home--her parents' marriage is in a shambles--she is
forced by her mother to attend a support group for others also in search of
work. There, she meets other defeated, unemployed souls who make Mona's woes
pale in comparison as she gets a fuller experience of all that awaits in the
real world.
The story of Mona's efforts to reboot her life and find
meaning in its pitfalls is filled with unexpected, bittersweet twists and
turns. However, it's her intimately rich first-person narration--how her
scorching wit and wisdom mask her own vulnerability and foibles--that makes her
story come fully alive. Mona Mireles, ever a perfectionist--and unabashed in
sharing her cleverly rendered observations, criticisms and insights--will keep
readers laughing as she rises above her sad, zany lot in life.
Mona
at Sea by Elizabeth Gonzales James
Sante Fe Writer’s Project, $15.95 paperback, 9781951631017,
270 pages
Publication Date: June 19, 2021
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NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being
posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf
Awareness: Reader's Edition (July 6, 2021), link HERE