Verwandte Artikel zu Coconuts for the Saint

Coconuts for the Saint - Hardcover

Debra-spark

 
9780571198467: Coconuts for the Saint
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0571198465 ISBN 13: 9780571198467
Verlag: Faber & Faber, 1994

Inhaltsangabe

A young woman is drawn into a love affair with an enigmatic widower who has triplet daughters and learns about fate and identity, human understanding, and the role love plays in the formation of character.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Debra Spark teaches at Tufts University and Colby College.

Rezensionen

Portions of this occasionally well-written but ultimately disappointing hodgepodge of a first novel appeared as short stories in various magazines. Unfortunately, the pieces haven't been successfully unified into a whole. Sandrofo Lucero, a widower whose wife died giving birth to triplets, comes to Puerto Rico in 1968 to run a bakery. He falls in love with Maria Elena, who is determined to discover the secrets of his past. Maria Elena realizes that she will have to listen to the stories of Tata, Melone, and Beatriz before she can hope to understand their father. Maria Elena is the sole character to emerge as more than a one-dimensional construct. The voices of the daughters are indistinguishable from one another, and there is simply not enough character development for the reader to care what Sandrofo's background is. Not recommended.
Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Spark, author of a previous short-story collection not published here and editor of the innovative compilation Twenty Under Thirty (1986), offers an excellent debut novel that examines the nature of love, the power of family and the inexorable pull of the past. In 1977, Maria Elena is 35 and single, living in self-imposed exile in San Juan. She meets the man of her dreams when she faints on the doorstep of a bakery and is assisted by Sandrofo, the shop's proprietor. But the quiet, taciturn baker comes with lots of baggage: three daughters who are identical triplets; the ghost of his late wife, who died during childbirth; a sordid and hidden past. Spark deftly tracks the gentle courtship and new relationship, primarily through Maria Elena's voice but also from the perspectives of Sandrofo and his daughters. The subplot involving the influence of the past is equally well-wrought as one sister predicts imminent disaster when the family moves into a hacienda with a tragic history. Other material reflects minor first-novel flaws, particularly a flashback into the 18th century and ongoing episodes of unrequited love regarding a local layabout who falls for the middle sister. Overall, though, the emotional material is remarkably accomplished, and Spark uses her intricate, multilayered structure to deliver a myriad of entertaining scenes and marvelous insights.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Spark's first novel is a delectable and soothing concoction: she starts with the lilt and magic of a fairy tale, then adds some spicy feminine humor and wisdom, and a dash of noirish mystery. In the memorable opening scene, a man arrives on an island with his three young daughters--curly-haired triplets--looking for the bakery owned by his late wife's father. He's "emigrated in reverse" from New York City to Puerto Rico to raise his three motherless girls in peace. Then Spark spins ahead, and we learn that Sandrofo has devoted himself to his breads, cakes, and daughters for 10 long solitary years until Maria Elena faints and is brought into the bakery. It's love at first sight when Sandrofo offers her a piece of wedding cake, but, significantly, the cake was never delivered because the wedding was called off. Sure enough, Maria Elena's engagement turns out to be a struggle. Her fianc{‚}e won't talk about his past, so she turns to the girls, Melone, Tata, and Beatriz, and discovers that they each have their own interpretation of the truth. An enjoyable puzzle of a tale, written with great wit and tenderness. Donna Seaman

The Boston-based editor of Twenty Under Thirty reveals her own promise with this magical first novel, centered around a set of identical girl triplets and their mysterious father, who tries to lose himself in sunny Puerto Rico. In 1968 Sandrofo Cordero Lucero leaves Brooklyn with his three five-year-old daughters, hoping for a new, safe, anonymous life in the Caribbean. Having inherited a small San Juan bakery from his wife, who died in childbirth, Sandrofo promptly learns a baker's skills and spends the next ten years kneading dough and baking wedding cakes while his daughters serve a motley crew of customers over the counter. The three Lucero sisters--Tata, a dramatic actress-to-be; Melone, the smart one; and Beatriz, a sensitive girl who refuses to speak--are too obsessed with the town's daily scandals and intrigues to wonder why their quiet, handsome father refuses to seek a girlfriend and never talks about his past. Their complacency is challenged when 35-year-old Maria Elena Pico, an employee at a local art gallery, falls in love with Sandrofo and begins to question his daughters about their prePuerto Rican life. The girls realize they know almost nothing about their early history, and this discovery prompts them to explore their own emerging personalities and discover who they have become. Meanwhile, Maria Elena persists in digging into Sandrofo's origins, playing 20 Questions with her lover and finally consulting a local psychic. Her persistence and Sandrofo's refusal to own up to his duplicity eventually bring disaster to his family. In the end, Maria Elena and the girls learn that it is the love they share, more than who they happen to be, that provides home and security for them all. A captivating, sweetly lyrical tale by an up-and-coming talent. (First serial to Agni, the Boston Globe, and Epoch) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Verlag
Faber & Faber
Erscheinungsdatum
1994
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0571198465
ISBN 13 
9780571198467
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
283
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Uwe Hübener
26632959738
uhuebener@gmx.de

Waldstraße 4
Berzhahn
Rlp
56459
Deutschland