In This Land of Plenty
When Nicole Sinclair, a young California woman, gets the results of a DNA test, she’s shocked to find that her ancestry contains Spanish, Native American, and Irish forebears. Shortly thereafter, she gets to know her feisty great-grandmother, Irene, and her efforts to help her grandmother stay in her Victorian home in San Francisco pit Nicole against her father and estranged half-sister in a fight over who will control the family legacy.
Unfolding alongside Nicole’s trials are the stories of the ancestors she hopes to discover. Diego Castro leaves Barcelona to sail to New Spain and, as a soldier helping spread missions up the Pacific coast, is with Ortega when he first discovers San Francisco Bay. Joaquina and her parents make the weary march with de Anza from the Sonoran Desert to Monterey and find prosperity in the new land. Sholeta, an Ohlone woman forced to work in the mission, finds safety in Diego’s house and bears him sons who will have very different destinies in Alta California. As they face war, growth, and change, the stories of love, tragedy, and betrayal among Nicole’s ancestors tell the larger history of California as a multi-storied, multicultural land.
The historical backstories, by far the bulk of the book, make the frame story feel frail at times; the past settings are more richly detailed and the characters emotionally complex. Most poignant are the conflicts of the female ancestors, forced to sacrifice for the well-being of their families, and the fates of the natives of the area, all but eradicated. Though the writing tends more toward summary than scene, the prose is smooth and the research strong. Smathers’ novel offers a nuanced and appreciative illustration of a complicated past, threaded through with hope for unity and understanding. A rewarding and enriching read.
