From Publishers Weekly
Originally published in Spanish, this 1973 novel is the first of Cossio's books to be offered in English translation. Cossio, one of Ecuador's preeminent woman writers, poetically details the emotional and physical escape of 20-year-old Bruna Catovil from her Ecuadorian home, the Sleeping CityAso named for its soroche, or sleep-inducing mountain sicknessAwhere her family spreads shame as effortlessly as it squandered its once formidable fortune. Bruna's eccentric, scandalous ancestors initially seem to be exotic names confined to legends. But each of them plays a significant role in establishing the rigid, outworn code of behavior from which Bruna flees. After generations of secrets and lies, Bruna gradually unearths the buried truths, learning that her great-great-grandmother, Maria Illacatu (Maria the 23rd), was Indian, her dark skin painted white in a portrait to suggest a European bloodline. Carmela the Tearful, Bruna's grandmother, expresses her hatred for men by forcing her young nephew Francisco to dress as a girl. Alvarito Villa-Cato spends his life weaving a red carpet to stretch to Rome, hoping to entice the pope to visit. The family attributes their various members' afflictions to the soroche. But superstition eventually gives way to awareness when Bruna learns that soroche is another word for ignorance. Despite its dangers, the Sleeping City is a dreamy landscape that allows Cossio to exhibit her poetic sensibilities. The fantastic ancestral home is haunted by mischievous ghosts and a well is said to contain the penetrating "eye of the Devil." American audiences will appreciate the magical realism that Cossio adroitly employs. While details of Ecuadorian social history and folklore may be unfamiliar, this story of a young woman's search for identity is a classic one. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
As a chronicle of an eccentric family relying on magical realism (a pair of scissors assumes a life of its own, a carpet paves the streets), this novel is comparable to Garc!a M rquez's classic One Hundred Years of Solitude. The resemblance ends there, however, as Bruna reinterprets her family history from a feminist viewpoint. With incongruous humor verging on satire (one character is a nun, widowed, single, and married at the same time), Bruna rebels against an antiquated, oppressive patriarchal society, represented by "the sleeping city" (Quito in disguise). "The women...were all victims, playthings of their circumstances," she observes; men, however, are weak and ineffective (one relative fondly collects empty matchboxes). Ultimately, Bruna comes to terms with her authentic, indigenous past. A commendable translation of one of the major narrative works published in Ecuador in the 1970s by a writer who was then one of that country's leading new voices.ALawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
