Colombian author Buitrago's second novel—her first to be published in translation—is a bawdy, hilarious soap opera of unrequited love and the magical power of sexuality. As in Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate, erotic passion is linked inextricably with food—but, here, the result is a lot less soulful. Driven by an irresistible whim, the luscious Teodora Vencejos- -the eponymous Se§ora, soul of love and fertility—takes a surprise voyage home to Colombia after having spent four years in Madrid working for Dr. Manuel Amiel, a master of aphrodisiac cookery. Teodora's limitless femininity casts all she encounters under her spell: Her fragrance causes rosebushes to burst into bloom, her touch restores virility to impotent men. Yet Teodora herself is denied the pleasure of sex. She pines for her husband, the handsome wastrel Don Galaor Ucros, who, she dreams, will at last consummate the couple's marriage now that they'll be reunited. But when Teodora comes home, she learns what everyone there has always known: Don Galaor is nothing but a promiscuous drunkard who never loved Teodora and married her simply for her money. Worse, he's become fat, old, and ugly—and, shocked by the sight of him, Teodora falls into an enchanted sleep from which she can be roused only by Dr. Amiel's true love. While Teodora slumbers, her friends consult Maria Lionza, the goddess of love, for advice, and pursue the lovelorn Amiel across the globe via phone and fax. Meanwhile, the entire town is revitalized: Tourists come to bathe in its healing mud (where Teodora fell into her trance, the earth now rejuvenates the middle-aged), and romance and prosperity are in the air. If this sounds wildly over the top, it is—but the reader, carried along by Buitrago's brio, will revel in the excess. Vivaciously translated, Buitrago's novel occasionally veers into bad taste, but this sassy, lighthearted romp is well worth reading: a celebration of love and lust, innocence and sensuality, from a colorful, powerfully female perspective.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-017365-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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