Thanks to Kathy Sexton for this great review of Elena Georgiou’s The Immigrant’s Refrigerator at the American Library Association’s Booklist.
Although immigrants aren’t the sole characters in Georgiou’s collection, they are the thread that binds its 12 quiet, yet powerful stories. Many are fleeing violence, like the Irish writer in the title story who’s running from the war that tore apart his family, or the Somali man living in Maine after years spent in a refugee camp. But some are just trying to fulfill the promise of a better life, like the Bolivian woman forced to work as a cleaning woman and a stripper to provide for her child. Georgiou uses repetitive imagery to tie the stories together along with themes of displacement and loneliness. What elevates this collection is that it is just as often the American characters in their own homeland who experience these feelings as they’re searching for the elusive thing called home or, more likely, simple human connection. It is this mutual longing that shows characters’ shared humanity and the compassion and kindness that can help overcome differences. Georgiou’s timely collection will appeal to any reader interested in immigration issues.
