 The Duppy by Anthony Winkler (04-10-08) |
 The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson (02-21-08) |
 The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (12-26-07) |
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 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (9-9-07) |
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Recently Published Books in Hardcover:
See what's new in paperbacks...
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The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa - Ricardo Somocurcio is in love with a bad girl. He loves her as a teenager known as “Lily” in Lima in 1950, when she arrives one summer out of the blue, claiming to be from Chile but vanishing the moment her claim is exposed. He loves her next in Paris, where she appears as the enchanting “Comrade Arlette,” an activist en route to Cuba, and becomes his lover, albeit an icy, remote one who denies knowing anything about the Lily of years gone by. Whomever the bad girl turns up as—whether it’s Madame Robert Arnoux, the wife of a high-ranking UNESCO official, or Kuriko, the mistress of a sinister Japanese businessman—and however poorly she treats him, Ricardo is doomed to worship her.
(October 2007) The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz -
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ-the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations... (September 2007) Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat - Edwidge tells of making a new life in a new country while fearing for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorates. (September 2007) Havana Blue by Leonardo Padura - Lieutenant Mario Conde is suffering from a terrible New Year's Eve hangover. Though it's the middle of a weekend, he is asked to urgently investigate the mysterious disappearance of Rafael Morin, a high-level business manager in the Cuban nomenklatura. (May 2007) The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson - A magical story about an abandoned toddler narrated by the woman who becomes his foster mother at the age of 50. (February 2007) Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicana Literature by Cristina Garcia - October 2006) The Uncomfortable Dead by Paco Ignacio Taibo II - In alternating chapters, Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos and detective Hector Belascoaran Shayne create an uproarious murder mystery with two intersecting story lines. (September 2006) The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle - Engle dramatizes the boyhood of the nineteenth-century Cuban slave Juan Francisco Manzano, who secretly learned to read and wrote poetry about beauty and courage in his world of unspeakable brutality. (April 2006) |
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Related to this Bookshelf:
| Thirty Years of Hispanic Literature in the United States |
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About this Bookshelf:
My
fascination with Latin American Writing started shortly after college
while living with eight housemates in one of those grand old houses
in Portsmouth, NH. As only energetic young people can do, we started
a democratic non-profit theater organization to showcase locally
written and otherwise little known one-act plays. I had my first directing
experience with four friends and a play called "The Story of the
Man Who Turned Into A Dog" by Osvaldo Dragun (Selected Latin American
One-Act Plays by Francesca Colecchia). As much as I'd like to think
that it was our talent and our unique set, I still believe the true credit for the strength
of the play, goes to the writer. This was Generic Theater's most
frequently and longest run one-act play. We presented it for years
at many functions for fun and for fund-raising.
"The Story of the Man Who Turned Into a Dog" is about four actors who tell the story of a man they knew. He needs a job, but every time he applies for one he is told that there are no jobs. Not unless someone dies, retires or is fired. And then the night watchman's dog dies. Our man applies for the job and gets it. He talks his wife, Maria, into living with some friends since he now has a dog house to sleep in. It takes a bit to adjust to his new job. (The Man: "This dog house is too tight." The Boss: "Get on all fours and squeeze into it. Come on try it, you can do it!" The Boss: "Now when I walk by, you must bark. Come on try.") Maria visits him but she is more and more distraught by his behavior. ("You bit me!" "No, I was only trying to kiss you, Maria.") Until finally, he is last seen running through town on all fours. It's a simple story with a deceptively easy script, yet it's an enduring message. I directed this play in 1981, just after one of the worst recessions. But this is not about finding a job in a tough job market. It is about becoming your job.
My next major encounter with this style of writing, was when I automatically received the Book of the Month selection, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. Again, I was caught by the language, the vividness and the thinking. Craving for more, I picked up a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude. I read One Hundred Years of Solitude twice right off. I'm not even sure if I understood the term Magic Realism during those early days. I certainly did not understand it as a genre. I just knew I had found something good and original that resonated with me.
Magic Realism is commonly defined as blurring the distinction between fantasy and reality or treating the exceptional or extraordinary as common place. Here's some links that can give you a better feel:
- An overview of Magic Realist's Short Story Art
- Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community Zamora and Faris, Editors
- Margin: Exploring Modern Magical Realism
About five years ago, I started to actively search out more material by Latin American writers. I am fairly lucky since there has been a surge (or maybe just recognition) of Hispanic writers being published. After living in the Florida Keys, I have a keen fascination for Cuban writers (such as Margarita Engle, Carolina García Aguilera, and Cristina Garcia) thus you'll find my growing list of writers in this category as well. Finally, I tend to agree with Zamoris and Faris that the Magical Realism genre goes well beyond just Latin American writers and thus in the future I may add some of my favorites that fit this category, but are not traditionally Latino.
