Angels in Tesuque: A Novel [Hardcover]

Michael Glasco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1995

On Christmas Eve, snow falls softly on the small adobe house perched in a field on the edge of the pueblo. Young Ben Touchstone, a half-breed, feels a tear snake past his cheekbone to his mouth. Born with pale skin, straw colored hair and cobalt eyes, his sad expression is reflected in the window. Rejected by the pueblo, he also feels the pain of knowing he is regarded as an oddity by anglos. Even the tourists on the plaza in Santa Fe cast curious glances. Ben feels forsaken in a strange limbo between the cultures. That night, in the mysterious chapel at Chimayo, he is startled and bewildered by the majestic appearance of his angel who promises Ben she will intervene and council him at every crossroad of his life. But does she? For many years Ben is puzzled by her absence. Will he be able to discern whether people in his life have been sent by the angel, or are they dark forces dispatched by some demonic being? Moving between the abject poverty of Tesuque pueblo and the wealthy social life of Santa Fe, Ben is constantly confronted with choices, choices he alone must make. Only in the final pages of the novel does Ben comprehend the significance and fulfillment of the angel's mysterious promises made thirty years earlier in the chapel at Chimayo. Publishers Weekly reports that 'Glasco keeps his sensitive hero on the right track through costly lessons' and Angel Times Magazine said that 'Angels In Tesuque is much more than an idea. It is a beautiful gift from the angels and from a talented writer who knows how to touch the heart.'

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this earnest first novel, Glasco juggles the miraculous realm of angels and spirits and the quotidian world of racism and politics while charting one man's search for identity and meaning. Born in a pueblo north of Santa Fe to a Tesuque Indian father and a white mother, Ben Touchstone rises out of poverty and a broken home, endures the taunts of classmates who call him "half-breed" and strives to become New Mexico's first Native American U.S. Senator. But Ben's climb to success is marked by moral compromise, due partly to his naive misjudgment of evil men?a tendency predicted by his guardian angel, who appears before a young Ben in a Catholic church on Christmas Eve. Growing up, Ben must cope with a jealous, alcoholic younger brother who vows to destroy him and with an abusive, drunken father who abandons the family when Ben is 13. A gentle old man called Two Crows, and Fernando, a groundskeeper at school, watch over Ben and save his life; that they may actually be otherworldly spirits is strongly intimated in the denouement, when Ben's angel reappears. Ben becomes an oil company executive and declares his intention to run for the U.S. Senate. He is threatened by blackmail and nearly betrays the Tesuque Indians, but Glasco keeps his sensitive hero on the right track through costly lessons. Ben benefits a little too easily from the grace of divine interventions: whether or not they're grounded in Native tradition, they function in this novel as a recurrent deus ex machina.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"ANGELS IN TESUQUE is...a beautiful gift...from a talented writer who knows how to touch the heart." -- ANGEL TIMES MAGAZINE, November/December, 1995

"Glasco keeps his sensitive hero on the right track through costly lessons." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, September 18, 1995 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 157 pages
• Publisher: Sunstone Pr; 1st edition (November 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865341036
• ISBN-13: 978-0865341036
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,940,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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