The Lost Children Archive

THE LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE

by Valeria Luiselli

 

Awards: Carnegie Winner 2020, Dublin Winner 2021, Rathbones Folio Winner 2020

 

Nominations: Aspen Words Finalist 2020, Booker Longlist 2019, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2020, Kirkus Finalist 2019, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2019, NY Times Finalist 2019, Women's Prize Longlist 2019

 

Date Read: July 11, 2022

 

The Lost Children Archive is truly one of the most beautiful books I have read in a while. Luiselli has confronted a tragic and ongoing tragedy with beauty, humanity and awareness, while also liking in the struggles of blended families and the obligations of documentarians to archive current and past experiences and voices. I am truly in awe.

 

The husband brought to the relationship a son and the mother, a daughter, blending the two households with the best of intentions. Everything does mesh together well until differing career paths and interests bring the couple apart and, consequently, their children. The husband is interested in documenting the echoes of the last Apaches in North America. The mother is interested in documenting the experiences of undocumented, unaccompanied minors in their travel and how they wind their way through the court system.

 

Luiselli doesn’t provide names for her characters. The children are referred to as girl and boy until they are given their Apache names, Swift Feather and Memphis. The girl only became Memphis because it was a compromise from her insistence that her name should be Guitar Swimming Pool. The parents become Papa Cochise and Lucky Arrow. Only through their association with the stories of Apaches does the family come into their insular identities. We also learn how precious those names are, not to be hidden but to be used with reverence.

 

Swift Feather realizes on their cross-country trip that their family is going to come undone at the end. In an act of defiance and to stretch out the time he has left with Memphis, Swift Feather takes Memphis on a journey to Echo Canyon – a journey that requires them to travel on a train and through the desert. The fact that they actually reunite with their parents seems nearly impossible. As a mother, their trip stopped my heart.

 

Also as a mother, I cannot imagine the anguish of sending off your children to an uncertain future and possibly death in an attempt to evade violence and almost certain death if they were to remain. I know this is the ultimate sacrifice a mother can make, yet the American perspective doesn’t acknowledge this whatsoever. The political view is that these kids are parasites who are overrunning our southern border. Compassion and understanding seem to be totally absent. I don’t know what the right answer is but disdain should definitely not be part of the discussion.

 

Through interweaving stories of Swift Feather and Memphis with seven undocumented kids making the harrowing journey to the border, Luiselli has crafted a masterpiece that I will cherish always.

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