A gripping South American adventure set in a bygone time and place.
Hernandez (Sangama, 2014) tells the story of an uncontacted Amazonian tribe taking a white woman captive.
In this new translation, Enstam brings the late Peruvian author, known for his writing about the Amazon basin, to English-language readers. This book, first published in Spanish in 1954, is a version of an allegedly true story of the late 1920s. Mariana, the young wife of hunter Alfredo, accompanies him into the jungle in search of game. A band of warriors from a native tribe approach them and appear friendly at first—but then, when Alfredo’s guard is down, they use his shotgun to murder him and kidnap Mariana. If this attack seems treacherous to readers, the author explains that it’s simply the way of the jungle: “The mind of the savages does not conceive the attack from the front, above all in their wars. They mock the white man who marches through the jungle, announcing his presence to the four winds.” They carry Mariana away and make her the wife of one of the warriors; as a result, she’s treated to a crash sociology course in the ways of the Amazon. Even as she becomes immersed in her captors’ culture, though, the words of the dying Alfredo are never far from her mind: “Don’t be afraid; someday you will be able to escape.” The novel’s premise may be problematic to those with modern post-colonial sensibilities. The language is certainly marked by the common worldview of the time of its original composition; it consistently refers to the Amazonian tribesman as savages, for example. That said, if readers can get beyond the author’s Western bias, there’s much to enjoy in this tale. Hernandez is a wonderful, hypnotic writer of action and fear, and his rendering of the jungle, which pulses with life at every level, is a treat to inhabit. Enstam’s translation is also wonderfully readable; indeed, this is a book to get lost in.
A gripping South American adventure set in a bygone time and place.Pub Date: March 31, 2015
ISBN: 978-0978691417
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Quaestor Press, Limited
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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