It would be a stretch to say, Porcupines, a fresh fiction by author Fran Fabriczki, is the next great American novel. However, the debut work touches on significant American issues and merits kudos for its entertaining plot and wonky characters. Fabriczki follows the plight of eighteen-year-old Szonja Imre, an illegal immigrant, a rather prickly, single mother who ingeniously conceals her past from federal law-enforcement agencies, nosy PTA moms and her own daughter. We applaud her inexhaustible vitality, her joie de vivre as she navigates her own path with fierce love not only for her child but also for her adopted country that wants no part of her.
Szonja is thrilled to travel from her native Hungary to L.A. though no stranger to America—her father is a retired Hungarian diplomat who had been posted in Washington some years ago--- this trip will be different. Szonja will be traveling on her own. Excited about her new adventure, she’ll be staying with her married sister, Rina, with whom Szonja was very close when they were growing up in Budapest. Soon after her arrival however, Szonja feels estranged from Rina and her husband, Aaron, an observant, ultra-orthodox man. Their home grounded in religious ritual centers around the synagogue --- a vastly different atmosphere from her secular family life in Hungary that branded Szonja’s liberal values. Almost immediately upon Szonja’s arrival, the relationship between the sisters becomes uncomfortable then sours. But Szonja meets other like-minded friends to realize her goals abroad before her return to Hungary, at summer’s end.
She registers in an English class where she meets soulmate and buddy Tania Yugoslavia, a bon-vivant, party girl, just the person Szonja needs to relieve the tension in her sister’s home. Out of gratitude she indulges Rina to attend Hebrew classes. There she meets Dovid Green, a friend that welcomes her into his boisterous American, interfaith family and years later becomes her protector from rigid immigration laws that threaten her security. Quickly transforming herself into an American girl, she changes her name from the Hungarian Szonja to the sassy American Sonia. She passes a driver’s test and intentionally misses her flight to Hungary when she discovers she is pregnant. Not really “knowing what to do” Sonia faces challenges--- a single mother without legal status trying to make it in America may not be as easy as she had imagined.
Presented in alternative time frames that toggle between the 1980s and in 2001, Porcupines allows us to enter two worlds, Sonia’s life in socialist Hungary and America the country of her choice but not a country that readily embraces illegal immigrants. Having violated the conditions of her three-month visa, Sonia’s now not only an undocumented immigrant but faces the responsibility of raising her precocious daughter Mila on her own. For many years, Sonia manages to keep herself safe from the law. Sonia’s guarded social life, and scant interaction with the PTA mothers in Mila’s school, preserve her private and rather lonely life. However, Sonia can’t shush Mila’s persistent curiosity about her paternity. When ten-year-old Mila asks, “Who Is My Daddy?”, past and present converge in most unexpected ways.
Heartwarming and witty Porcupines (the book title based on the intimate habits of porcupines!) opens a provocative dialogue about the complexity of relationships and a country that forsakes those who need her the most.