"The Story of Us" by Catherine Hernandez
Review by Jamie Quinn, Manager, Bibliographic Services and Collections at Central Library
“The Story of Us” by Catherine Hernandez is Kitchener Public Library’s 2024 One Book, One Community selection.
Hernandez tenderly weaves the bittersweet story of a caretaker through the all-seeing and unusual perspective of a baby. This perspective allows for a novel depiction of the invisible load of caretakers, trailblazers and immigrants while also chronicling a tale of perseverance, ancestry and chosen family.
Mary Grace, known as MG, is forced to sacrifice her marriage and work overseas as part of the Filipino diaspora following the explosion of Mount Pinatubo. MG becomes a nanny in Hong Kong and then later in Canada. She takes care of children without respite, receiving inadequate pay, little appreciation and the disappointment of being let go by careless employers. MG pivots to a caretaking role for an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s disease named Liz. MG’s inexperience with queer and trans culture makes it difficult for her to understand Liz at first, although it does not prevent her from providing the best care Liz has ever received.
When MG is in crisis, Liz becomes the safe place MG needs. The two find commonality between the sacrifices they’ve each made in life and for feeling like “others.” MG becomes an advocate and ally for elderly and trans rights, becoming “the best and final person” for Liz. Liz in turn learns about MG’s life and immigration story through her baby, our narrator, who is welcomed into the world in the cottage Liz and MG share.
Hernandez artfully develops characters with such care and respect that you can imagine them being as real as your neighbour, your favourite clerk, your aunt, your co-worker – the people who make up the everyday sisterhood of our lives and the people that came before them, like the nesting dolls on the cover. MG’s baby by blood is no more or less family than Liz.
“The Story of Us” shows us the good and the bad, sometimes more of the latter than we’d prefer, but together “through time, natural disasters, death, heartache, pleasure and pain” the characters choose each other. They show touching open-heartedness toward one another despite their differences, despite the world, because of love.