A fresh translation of this classic of 20th-century Mexican literature, ready for a new audience to savor.
This coming-of-age story, originally published in 1981, explores the intensity of childhood passion even as it mourns the passing of a version of Mexico City subsumed by the tidal wave of consumer-based globalism.
Carlos is a child of the Mexican middle class, which is made up of “typical wannabes,” according to his brutish older brother, Héctor. During the post–World War II presidency of Miguel Alemán, Carlos’ Mexico City is poised on the dividing line between a way of living informed by traditional culture and the wave of industrialization, importation, and consumer marketing designed to “whiten the taste of the Mexicans.” Carlos’ father owns a failing soap factory which is being outcompeted by North American detergent brands, and his mother “despises anyone who [isn’t] from Jalisco,” which would seem to include Carlos and his younger sister, the only two of her five children not born in Guadalajara. Carlos takes a more egalitarian view of the national and ethnic identities of the people who surround him—whether it is his classmate Jim, who was born in San Francisco and speaks both English and Spanish with no identifying accent; Toru, who is Japanese and spent his early childhood in an internment camp; or scholarship student Rosales, who is from one of the worst slums in the city, Carlos believes that “nobody chooses how they’re born” and manages to float fairly seamlessly among the playground tribes. When Carlos meets Jim’s mother—the beautiful Mariana, rumored mistress of a high-ranking member of Alemán’s inner circle—his aimless drifting develops sudden purpose. In spite of his young age, Carlos falls deeply in love with Mariana. As his passion becomes obsessive, Carlos goes out of his way to gather information about Mariana from her son, to find excuses to stop by Jim’s house after school, and, finally, to sneak out of school in order to confess his love. The subsequent overreaction to Carlos’ actions by his parents, school officials, psychologists, and friends turns the order of Carlos’ life upside down, leading in a circuitous way to the family’s eventual departure from Mexico to a new life as immigrants in America. A tender and unequivocal exploration of the strength of a child’s passion, Pacheco’s work treats the passing of the Mexico City of his youth with the same wistful longing as he does Carlos' love, which, being secret and silent, is the most hopeless type of love and thus also the saddest.
A fresh translation of this classic of 20th-century Mexican literature, ready for a new audience to savor.Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8112-3095-7
Page Count: 54
Publisher: New Directions
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
Haig’s positive message will keep his fans happy.
A British widow travels to Ibiza and learns that it’s never too late to have a happy life.
In a world that seems to be getting more unstable by the moment, Haig’s novels are a steady ship in rough seas, offering a much-needed positive message. In works like the bestselling The Midnight Library (2020), he reminds us that finding out what you truly love and where you belong in the universe are the foundations of building a better existence. His latest book continues this upbeat messaging, albeit in a somewhat repetitive and facile way. Retired British schoolteacher Grace Winters discovers that an old acquaintance has died and left her a ramshackle home in Ibiza. A widow who lost her only child years earlier, Grace is at first reluctant to visit the house, because, at 72, she more or less believes her chance for happiness is over—but when she rouses herself to travel to the island, she discovers the opposite is true. A mystery surrounds her friend’s death involving a roguish islander, his activist daughter, an internationally famous DJ, and a strange glow in the sea that acts as a powerful life force and upends Grace’s ideas of how the cosmos works. Framed as a response to a former student’s email, the narrative follows Grace’s journey from skeptic (she was a math teacher, after all) to believer in the possibility of magic as she learns to move on from the past. Her transformation is the book’s main conflict, aside from a protest against an evil developer intent on destroying Ibiza’s natural beauty. The outcome is never in doubt, and though the story often feels stretched to the limit—this novel could have easily been a novella—the author’s insistence on the power of connection to change lives comes through loud and clear.
Haig’s positive message will keep his fans happy.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593489277
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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