I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I was interested in this book based on the description - I grew up about 15 minutes from Waterbury so I'm pretty familiar with the area and I was interested in reading a book centered around someone from there. It was fun to see so many local things mentioned in the book, like nearby towns and restaurants. Other than that though I couldn't find much interest in the story line of the book. I found both POV's to be immature and somewhat annoying. The plot of the story was also pretty depressing, and if I'm being honest the ending felt like a rip off and left a lot of things unresolved. The story line was interesting in some parts but overall was just not something that I personally enjoyed. I thought the author's voice was very interesting and that she told the story well, it just wasn't a story line that I personally found much enjoyment in.

As a waitress with big dreams, Elsie hopes that her job will help her to start a new life. Bashkim is a line cook at the diner who catches Elsie's eye. Finding herself in love, pregnant, and attached to a man with secrets, will Elsie have the future she dreams?

Fast forward seventeen years: daughter Luljeta sees her dreams dashed with a rejection letter from her top-choice university. Refusing to be stuck with her mother Elsie, Luljeta decides to seek out the parts of her past that her mother is determined to keep hidden.

As the novel bounces back and forth between the two narratives, that of Elsie in the past and Luljeta in the present, the story lacks the continuity it needs to make the story compelling. I never really quite felt connected to Luljeta and only slightly more so with Elsie. Overall, Brass is not a novel I would recommend to other readers.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Brass by NetGalley and the publisher, Random House. The choice to review this book was my own.

Brass shows the true dynamic of mother/daughter relationships

Brass has two narratives that alternate with each chapter: one belongs to Elsie and the other focuses on her daughter, Luljeta, 17 years later. Elsie tells her story of first love and pregnancy in a sassy, first-person voice that draws you in. Meanwhile, Luljeta tells her coming-of-age story in a striking second-person voice that complements Elsie's chapters. While you might think that these types of narratives combined would be confusing or off-putting, like I did at first, the narratives absolutely work together to create a unique, sassy, and captivating novel.

This novel is kind of perfect to read around Mother's Day

This book really pinpoints the reality of mother/daughter relationships, particularly their struggles. I know, the phrase "mother/daughter struggles" is not one you often hear around Mother's Day because everyone is so focused on how amazing motherhood is and how important it is to appreciate your mother... and that's great, but life is hardly ever that simple. Brass doesn't sugarcoat motherhood or hide the fact that not everyone has a great relationship with their mother, but it also highlights the sacrifices and hardships that mothers endure to provide for their children.

I intended to review Brass back in January around the time of its release date, but I'm glad I'm posting this review around (U.S.) Mother's Day instead. Brass is one of the only mother/daughter novels I have really been able to relate to. Perhaps that's because Elsie has her own narrative that focuses on when she was young (I think 17 years old) instead of focusing on her character as solely Luljeta's mother. Often, "mother" characters in books are solely that—their primary role is to be someone's mother. They hardly get an identity aside from that. By having Elsie be the same age as her daughter in her narrative, she gets to be herself and her own character. It is important to acknowledge that mothers do not solely exist as their "mother" role, although that is obviously a huge part of them. This is something women often struggle with during motherhood—holding on to an identity that is separate from their children.

Plus, Elsie comes from a lower-class family and everything is a struggle. When Elsie finds out she's pregnant, she has no idea how she will be able to afford a baby. While pregnant, she sleeps on a deflated air mattress and wakes up at the crack of dawn to get to work. There are so many mother/daughter books that focus on middle class families, but Brass is the only book I've read that delves into the details of how being poor or lower class can affect a mother/daughter relationship.

The characters are flawed and you might hate them at times

Some readers love likable characters that make the right choices and do the right thing 100% of the time. I, however, like flawed characters that are sometimes mean, who sometimes make the wrong choices, etc. Elsie and Luljeta are young and naïve, but think they know better than everyone else, including their own mothers. They repeatedly make poor decisions and mistakes, and at times I was beyond upset at how much they managed to mess up their own lives....

But that's life. It's gritty and sometimes hard to read about, but it's real and getting that perspective is important. In Brass, we see (sometimes ungrateful) daughters looking past the mistakes of their mothers and learning to appreciate their ability to endure hardships to make the best of their lives.

While I think you'll appreciate this book a whole lot more if you're a mother or a daughter, this is a gritty, funny novel that will move just about anybody.

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

★★★★★

I just could not get into this book. I tried a few times but this book just was not for me. I apologize.

This is my favorite kind of book. Quiet, family drama with gorgeous writing and a narration that was easy to follow. I was pulled into the story with ease, and fully enjoyed all of the characters. I would have liked to see more of a relationship between our main protagonist, and her daughter. I therefore knocked a star from my rating. All in all, this book had beautiful prose, intriguing characters and a captivating story.

Such a great coming-of-age story/ies told through alternating mother/daughter narration. Fresh and unique-I can’t wait to recommend this one.

I was unable to finish this book. It did not grab my attention as hoped. I started reading it three different times but never got more than a couple chapters into the book.

This story was absolutely captivating. The necessity of the bond between mothers and daughters in the absence of fathers holds the story together. The struggle of single parenting along with the need to escape to a better life makes this a novel that will speak to anyone who has striven to find more than what they were given.

This book was furnished to me by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. Thankmyou for this opportunity.

Without giving anything away just get this book now!!! It's very compelling and I literaļy flew through it. This book can not be missed!!

Mothers, daughters and those who come between them are the focus of "Brass," a debut novel by Xhenet Aliu. The novel is written from two perspectives - Elsie, a mom whose earlier dreams of a house with a picket fence are crushed by her Albanian boyfriend; and Luljeta, a daughter who wants answers and a college education. The paths Elsie and her daughter take are interesting, criss-crossing without their knowledge. The blend of Albanian perspective on work ethics and family add flavor to the novel.

I've always been interested in the stories that we tell one another, especially those we love, in an effort to guard or protect each other from painful truths, harsh realities and negative feelings. In her debut novel, Xhenet Aliu shares the lives of Elsie and Luljeta, a mother and daughter, and they beautifully quench my thirst for the types of stories that both build and break.

"You feel like you have some version of that disease which makes people believe that their limbs aren’t really theirs, so they travel to Indonesia and pay doctors big American dollars to amputate their not-their arm or not-their leg, only you have a version where you feel like you ended up in a family that isn’t really yours, surrounded by bodies that are just a little off."

While I braced myself for emotionally-heavy fare, equipped with an acknowledgement of my own broken parental relationship, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of laughing I did while reading this novel; I found the perfect balance of thoughtful prose and witty, sarcastic observation.

"Your mother’s plan has been for you to be the first in the family to never have to rely on government assistance, to live a life of such comfort that when early heart disease sets in, you won’t even have the will to swallow your daily prescribed beta-blockers."

Most notably, as Elsie and Luljeta each evolve and mature individually and in relationship to one another, the men in the background have a significant role but they never stand out; in Brass, the shine belongs solely to these strong, persistent women who work so hard to escape the dead ends they encounter at every turn.

"Your plan, meanwhile, is to bloom into something freakish but interesting and impossible to ignore, like a corpse flower. [...] You’ll be wild and mysterious, like the father you’re not supposed to want to resemble."

Instead of feeling despondent or discouraged by the seemingly endless obstacles, I found myself feeling hopeful; I was left with a profound sense of empowerment and resilience that speaks to the remarkable writing of this brave new author. I will not soon forget these characters!

Aliu's debut novel dramatizes the search for the American dream and for one's true family through the story of one mother and daughter.

In 1996, Waterbury, Connecticut is a town of abandoned brass mills. Eighteen-year-old Elsie Kuzavinas explains that the industry "hauled ass out of town" a few decades ago. The move left her father unemployed, while her mother continued to work for the Mounds/Almond Joy factory in nearby Naugatuck.

Elsie's language immediately gives us a taste of her sassy voice. A second-generation Lithuanian-American, she is desperate to leave town and escape her parents' blue-collar example, but ends up working at the local Betsy Ross Diner instead. Here she falls for an Albanian line cook named Bashkim Hasani. Bashkim frequently tells Elsie she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Even though she knows Bashkim has a wife back in Albania, Elsie allows their relationship to progress and soon discovers that she is pregnant. We follow Elsie's story from this point until she gives birth to Luljeta, aka Lulu.

Elsie's narrative alternates with chapters narrated by teen Lulu seventeen years later. Lulu has just received a rejection letter from NYU and been suspended for fighting with a classmate. Even though Bashkim has never been a presence in her life, Lulu can't stop thinking about her father and extracts his story from Yllka, the diner owner. Learning that he moved to Houston to open a pizzeria, Lulu sets off on a road trip to Texas to find him.

The novel is thus set up around two parallel journeys: Elsie's towards motherhood, and Lulu's towards the truth about her father. Despite her apprehension, Elsie maintains her sense of humor about her situation: the baby is due on April Fool's Day, and she jokes that with its mixed Lithuanian and Albanian heritage it will be "a mutt, which everyone knows are stronger, smarter, healthier breeds." Like the proverbial melting pot, Lulu is to be a symbol of different cultures and histories adding up to make a resilient American. Elsie has always wanted Lulu to have a better life than hers.

Bashkim takes a backseat to the strong female protagonists, but his story illustrates the disillusionment that can set in when the American dream goes sour. He was born in an Albanian work camp (see Beyond the Book), but never stopped believing that he would strike it rich in America. Although his various investments (including a pyramid scheme that ate up a loan from Elsie's sister) turned out poorly, he didn't give up hope. His mantra, as Elsie describes it: "An impossible dream was better than no dream at all."

Brass is a striking portrait of the immigrant and second-generation experience in America. I especially liked how Xhenet Aliu—who has previously published a short story collection and is herself from Waterbury, CT and the daughter of an Albanian father and Lithuanian-American mother—weaves in different uses of the title "brass," as in "brass knuckles," "brass trumpets" and a "brass knocker." An inscription above Waterbury's City Hall reads (in Latin) "What is more lasting than brass?" Elsie keeps asking herself that same question. Will her love for Bashkim and the shaky stability of their new family last longer than the brass mills did in town? Though never stated in the book, it is possible that some readers might apply the unflattering adjective "brassy" to these outspoken narrators.

Lulu tells her story in the second person, distancing herself from her unhappiness by shifting it onto a nameless "you," as in "you feel like you ended up in a family that isn't really yours." My only misgiving about the novel was the extended use of this second-person narrative. I have encountered it in individual short stories or book chapters before but have rarely seen it take such a significant role in the narration of an entire novel. I found it experimental and a little bit strained; couldn't Aliu have told us Lulu's story in the first or third person instead?

I suspect some readers will find the style of the narration off-putting, but most, I hope, will be able to overlook it and sink into a touching story of the American working-class struggle and motherhood against the odds.

So this book is fairly dark and sad, so it may not be everyone's cup of tea. And I can also see being unsatisfied by the ending -- it's definitely not Hollywood-style. But the more I read, the more I admired it (it's not a book you really "like") for some really astute observations about life. And I respected the author's need to write a fairly gritty and real story about the kind of people who are largely hidden in our society. In all the talk about immigration, we don't hear much about poor white (Eastern European) immigrants and their communities, so it was a perspective I enjoyed learning about. And any book that has observations about mama and baby pandas is one I am going to like, most likely. I will definitely look for more from this author in the future.

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful debut novel, captivating and well written.

I loved this book so much! Told from alternating points of view, this is the story of Elsie and her daughter Luljeta. A great family story, and I loved the fact that it was set in New England (Waterbury, CT).

This is the author’s debut novel and I really enjoyed her writing style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of this book.

A good first effort. The story centers on a mother and daughter trying to find their way in Waterbury Connecticut. The town has lost most of it's manufacturing jobs and locals see it as dying with little opportunity to escape.

Elsie enters into a relationship with an Albanian immigrant, becomes pregnant, and has to figure out her place in the world. While they were never in love, she has to deal with her choices and their weird co-dependent relationship. Her decisions back then affect her daughter, Lulujeta, as she prepares to graduate high school and pursue college. It's a weird, yet compelling family dynamic.

While I think the plot of the story is well thought out, sometimes the writing style was a bit much. The long run-on, stream of consciousness sentences got tedious after a while. The back and forth storytelling was also a bit much. I understand the thought behind using flashbacks and alternating chapters as a means to show the different perspectives of the two characters, I just think it could have been done effectively without using this method. All in all though, I think the story was good and for a first novel, it wasn't bad. Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC for review.

This book was not for me. It was a little dark, but I'm sure that many people will really enjoy the lives of this mother and daughter struggling to rise above poverty in a down and out town.

Made me grab my pogo stick!!

Nodding my head yes yes yes! Super well written and insightful, this debut novel made me grab my old pogo stick and hop all over the place in glee. Whee! I even highlighted sentences from the Acknowledgments!
Oh, there are so many gem sentences, so many rockin’ rubies. They aren’t all glittery with flowery poetry, but they fed my head. Sometimes a writing style fits your psyche perfectly, and that’s what happened here. If the shoe fits, I’ll wear it and strut—because these sentences grabbed me.

I like this author’s mind—she’s imaginative, smart as a slap, and knows how to make me care about the characters. The metaphors are a-plenty but never belabored. I never knew where the story was going, and that was part of the fun--and I was always hoppy happy when I got there. The author picks up on the little things and lets us see them from a different angle. The sentences, the insights, they were all accessible. Accessibility is sometimes hard to achieve in literary fiction. The writer can be overly intellectual and make my head hurt—but here, no worries.

Okay. What’s this story about? We have two narrators, mother and daughter, alternating chapters, and the story is told from different time periods. Elsie is the mom and her story starts when she is in her late teens. Her daughter, Luljeti, tells her story when she’s in her teens too.

Elsie falls in love with an older, weird Albanian dude, Bashkim, with a strong heritage. He is chasing the American Dream, having left his tumultuous country. They both work in a diner. One of the first things he says to Elsie is this:

“I swear to Allah, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”

This is repeated several times in the chapter—it’s unclear whether Bashkim keeps repeating it or if Elsie keeps repeating it in her head. This simple proclamation pulled me right in. In one short sentence, I learned a whole lot about Bashkim. He’s perhaps religious, he’s from another culture, he thinks flattery will get you everywhere, he’s eyeballing the young stuff, he’s relentless in his pursuit. He’s instantly an intriguing sleazy character. Elsie, who is insecure and looking for meaning and escape from her boring life, falls for it. Their relationship is clunky from the beginning. Much unspoken drama happens and she has a baby, Luljeti.
Luljeti tells her story when she is an angsty teenager trying to find her way. She's weird and cool, confused and wander-y, curious and imaginative, and definitely flawed.

Both storytellers interested me equally, both had strong voices, both had good stories to tell. The author knows how to create unique characters that corral you into their worlds. Elsie’s story is told in first person, and Luljeti’s story is told in second person. I was a little skeptical of a story being told in second person—unclear of its purpose, actually—but it works.

If I had one complaint, it would be that the plot stalled a little in the middle. The stall made my engine idle a bit too, but I was so in love with the sentences and the thoughts, it was no biggie. Besides, there were a couple of dynamite chapters at the end—engines revved bigtime—which more than made up for the stall. One Elsie chapter in particular is a doozy, and it shows off the author’s ability to write a tremendous dramatic scene.

There are a zillion sentences that I loved. Here are a few:

“I picked up the phone, and right away I could hear every single one of the miles between us. Our voices were thin after traveling the long line of string beneath the ocean, and the constant echo and delay made it feel like we were having parallel conversations with ourselves instead of a single conversation with each other.”

“Suds dripped from her fingertips as if she bled cleanliness, and could just wash over us with it, but she held her arms close to her, cradling herself.”

“What a shitty, sad life moths led, I thought. They’d do anything to get at the warmth of the light, and as soon as they reached it they burned up and died.”

“It made me nervous, though, knowing all that fuel was inside just waiting for a spark.”

“The pregnancy test, in fact, was telling me to fuck off, one slim pink middle finger stuck straight up the center of that stick.”

“He was the person who taught me to drive a stick and give a proper hand job and make everything taste better with feta cheese.”

That last quote reminds me to tell you another great thing about this book: parts of it are damn funny. There’s a hilarious scene in a supermarket. Luljeti is carefully thinking about things to put into her cart, things she doesn’t need—like cat litter, even though she is only imagining having a cat. I guess you had to be there, but it had me laughing.

This book is character-driven, with huge psychological insights, delivered on a platter of sentences that are perfectly rendered. A writer who uses language that is sophisticated, witty, and accessible almost always gets an A+. Now I have to get my hands on her short story collection, Domesticated Wild Things and Other Stories. And meanwhile, I’m in line for her next book, I’ll tell you that.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

BRASS by Xhenet Aliu is a new novel that I originally thought might work for Junior Theme because it deals with the American Dream. It's the parallel stories of a mother and daughter: Elsie, a young girl desperate to leave Waterbury, Connecticut in the mid-1990s, but who ends up pregnant; and Luljeta who seventeen years later is searching for the father she never knew. After a look at a preview copy of BRASS, however, I feel like the language, some scenes, and structure (multiple narrators) is intended for more mature readers. Booklist said, "Advanced YA readers will relish the pouncing wit and sexual candor of young Elsie and Luljeta, as well as their nearly hopeless battles to boost themselves into a better world." That's very apt; as a debut effort, I found BRASS to be extremely clever (" ... my mother slumping over the assembly line at the Peter Paul Mounds and Almond Joy factory down the street in Naugatuck, where she sometimes felt like a nut but more often she felt like a highball."), but overly concerned with describing the sexual lives of the characters. BRASS received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus and Library Journal.