THE GRAND PALOMA RESORT, by Cleyvis Natera
Welcome to the Grand Paloma Resort, a top-rated hotel on 2,500 beachfront acres in the Dominican Republic. Visitors to this fictional paradise will enjoy a Michelin-starred restaurant, a golf course, tennis courts designed by Venus and Serena Williams, a world-class spa and a slate of activities ranging from yoga to shaman healing to consciousness expansion.
Of course my mind went to “The White Lotus” when I beheld these offerings in the opening pages of Cleyvis Natera’s second novel, “The Grand Paloma Resort.”
Maybe I watch too much television; maybe I need a decadent vacation complete with a complimentary waffle-weave bathrobe. But Natera doesn’t spend much time with the hotel’s pampered, entitled, badly behaved, rum-swilling patrons — and I didn’t miss them. Instead, I got to know the people who serve them.
Natera, who was born in the Dominican Republic, dedicates her book “to the workers and laborers who keep the Caribbean tourism industry thriving.” She focuses on the downstairs aspect of the “Upstairs, Downstairs” equation, with thought-provoking — if occasionally heavy-handed — results.
The story begins in the Grand Paloma’s employee quarters, which are surrounded by artificial flowers because “nothing got watered in this part of the resort.” Elena Moreno, a 17-year-old staff babysitter, hunches over the inert body of an 8-year-old girl, the daughter of resort guests, begging her not to die. The girl’s injuries are a result of Elena’s negligence.
Desperate for help, Elena calls her sister, Laura, who is a manager at the resort. She’s the family caretaker, the one who makes it possible for Elena to attend private school. She’s also the winner of the Soaring Paloma Employee Award and the creator of the Platinum Member Companion program. Laura is going to write the sisters’ ticket out of the world they were born into while bearing the burden of a complicated family legacy.
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