RaveThe Mercury NewsThe overwhelming love and loathsome, crushing boredom of mothering a young child arrive in profound, convincing and equal measure ... Kiesling’s debut novel risks being categorized—mistakenly—as chick or women’s lit. Instead, read it as a buddy adventure story—albeit, Daphne’s sidekick can’t talk yet and throws blueberries. Themes beyond the maternal emerge: avoidance of work and family responsibilities disguised as travel; class and cultural schisms evident in an Islamophobic, bigotry-laden secessionist movement, ancestry and progeny stitched into identity, aging and ideas of home. Ultimately, Golden State not only puts fathomless familial love on display, but also unleashes the power of fiction to provoke empathy, shame, fear, imagination, memories, despair and joy ... it’s likely the last pages will translate into lingering consideration of the book’s major themes: Above all others, the glorious, haunting, flawed, uncontrolled, cascading love between people of all ages.
