Bitter Grounds [Hardcover]

Sandra Benitez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

The critically acclaimed author of A Place Where the Sea Remembers presents the saga of three generations of Salvadoran women whose lives are changed in unexpected ways by a letter that has lain unopened for twenty-six years. Tour."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bitter Grounds, Sandra Benitez's American Book Award-winning novel, chronicles the lives of three generations of women in war-torn El Salvador. After losing most of their family during the massacres of 1932, Mercedes Prietas and her daughter Jacinta go to work for Elena de Contreras and her family, who own enormous coffee and cotton plantations. During the next 40 years, the women of both families help each other endure the many hardships that come their way. Benitez manages to portray both the poor and the rich women in this book as complex, sympathetic characters. Like the heroines of Los dos, their favorite radio soap opera, the women in this novel suffer heartache, unrequited love, betrayal, and the loss of loved ones. One by one, all of Jacinta's family members are killed amid the country's political turmoil. Elena's heart breaks when she discovers her best friend in bed with her husband on the eve of their daughter's marriage. The Contreras family struggles to retain control of its land during the late 1970s government-mandated redistribution of wealth. Through it all, the women sustain each other, even after circumstances separate them: "Sometimes, late at night or, most often, very early in the morning, when Jacinta lay in her cot in the little room she shared with Rosalba, her mother stirred within her. This was not craziness, but a consolation. To feel her mother's flesh, her bulk, shored up along the banks of her own bones and flesh." Bitter Grounds is a thoughtful, vivid account of the lives of some very resilient women.

From Library Journal

Centering on a letter that remains unopened for 26 years, Benitez's impressive saga follows the intertwined lives of three generations of Salvadoran women, the very rich and the very poor, friends and mothers and daughters, mistresses and servants?and, finally, oppressors and victims and guerrillas. Their lives are played out against the backdrop of the ever-present radio soap-opera serial and the violence and corruption of the police state and civil war of 20th-century El Salvador. Benitez's prose is rich and fluid; one tastes and smells the world of Jacinta and Magda and their mothers and daughters. Like her first novel (A Place Where the Sea Remembers, LJ 9/1/93), this work is another welcome addition to the growing body of Latina literature.?Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, Ore.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 445 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Books; 1st edition (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786861576
• ISBN-13: 978-0786861576
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,941,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An end with a bang, April 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bitter Grounds (Hardcover)

This is the first book I have read by Sandra Benitez. I have done much research on the the 1932 matanza in El Salvador and some on the civil war. I am Salvadoran and began reading the book critically and from a historical point of view. It began quite slow for me and somewhat sided, but as I read on I began to feel as I knew the characters and their realities. This is an excellent book. The realities of life, love, family, death, and war are presented strongly and passionately. The ending is gripping and seems unlikely, but definately portrays the difficult times of the civil war. Read it, it will provide a fictional story of the lives of some in a war torn country.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Violent but compelling, August 28, 2002

By 

J. Lockard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bitter Grounds: A Novel (Paperback)

My bookclub decided to read this book as a follow-up to the non-fiction From Grandmothers to Granddaughters by Michael Gorkin that follows 3 generations of Salvadoran women through the civil war and into the 90's. This book was an excellent fictional follow-on. It follows the paths of 3 generations of one lower class family and one upper class family through the turbulent 20th Century in El Salvador. Benitez does not hesitate to share the gory details of Salvador's turbulent history from 1933-1977.

I found the book very easy to become engrossed in, despite my dislike of violence and blood-drenched descriptions. Her descriptions of life in El Salvador are true to life in every detail. I live in San Salvador and found myself searching for "Tresores" or the carjacking spot on the road to La Libertad in Santa Tecla.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in what it is like to live in this country, what the Salvadoran people have experienced, or who just wants a beautiful, albeit sad, story of human survival in adversity.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful journey and well worth the read!, September 24, 1999

By 

Margaret A. Purcell Alberg "mapachip" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bitter Grounds: A Novel (Paperback)

As a big fan of Sandra Benitez's A Place Where the Sea Remembers I eagerly looked forward to reading Bitter Grounds. What I found was a very different book although equally as satisfying and enlightening. As in A Place Where the Sea Remembers Sandra's intoxicating lyrical style leaves an indelible mark on you as you read Bitter Grounds. But in this story I felt myself being pulled much deeper into the lives of the families whose existence is inextricably connected to El Salvador's politics and coffee trade. Moving quickly, the story covers many miles, tragedies and celebrations and suddenly you're at the end-not quite ready to leave, and never able to forget the rich stories within the story. A wonderful journey and well worth the read!