Tom Riley, a quiet pet-shop owner from Chicago, is left reeling by the death of his wife after only 8 years of marriage. She has been the driving force in the partnership and without her he feels his life is over. They had always talked of going to Egypt to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, but instead Tom heads off alone to Mexico where they spent their honeymoon. In the town of Lago de Luz, he meets an American lady writer who tells him that if he wants to start over he must `change the plot' of his life and `introduce new characters'. So enter Consolata Arispe, a strong-willed Mexican woman who runs the local cafe and fights for her children's survival and her 18-year old daughter, Divina, the most beautiful girl in the town. Fate takes over and Riley is elated at the unexpected gift of a life renewed.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Returning to the setting that served her so well in Gringa (1989), Scofield augments her literary reputation with a heartfelt, elegiac story about a newly widowed man who journeys to Mexico to assuage his grief and emerges with a surprising new love. Tom Riley is a middle-aged pet-store owner from Chicago who finds himself "out of place, between the two humps of the camel" after his wife's death. During an extended holiday in the tourist town of Lago de Luz, Tom, frustrated with the local American expatriates, finds himself longing to connect with the Mexican peasants. He is drawn to Consolata Arispe, a mystically minded widow who runs a small cafe and whose lovely 19-year-old daughter, Divina, works as a domestic in the local tourist hotel. Riley's romance is facilitated by the novel's narrator, Charlotte Amory, an expat novelist who meets the widower in one of her writing classes and who employs Divina as a model for her paintings. Scofield draws her romantic principals together with a graceful, wry sense of humor, converting Riley's indecision into a warm, wise exploration of the mysteries of love, and she turns an ending that could have been cliched into a genuinely profound revelation. This is top-shelf Scofield, a novel that recalls the compassionate, emotionally incisive storytelling of her early works while adding new layers of depth and maturity. First serial and dramatic rights: Emma Sweeney.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Publisher
The highly acclaimed author of Opal on Dry Ground and Beyond Deserving--a finalist for the National Book Award and one of the New York Times "Notable Books of the Year" for 1991--writes a stirring and evocative new novel in which a middle-aged man discovers a world of possibilities.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Solid Read from Scofield,
By
This review is from: A Chance to See Egypt (Paperback)
Having heard Ms. Scofield read her latest work Plain Speaking at my college campus and greatly enjoyed it, I picked up this earlier work and have enjoyed it as much as Plain Speaking. Ms. Scofield has an amazing grasp on the human spirit and has written a well-formed book with an inspiring plot.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Chance to See Egypt,
By "packrat101" (AUSTIN, TEXAS United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Chance to See Egypt (Paperback)
T randomly bought this book this summer and was so surprised at how it touched me -- the colorful descriptions of life in Mexico not only made me think of the country and its people in a new and much more accepting light, but also made me feel as if I knew the characters personally. The intelligent weaving of events and characters also intrigued me until the very last page. And last but not least I felt a deep connection with the main character that as an avid reader I don't remember feeling before. The way he acted and reacted towards events provided much appreciated insight. Thanks for a great book!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Happy endings aren't always necessary.,
By
This review is from: A Chance to See Egypt (Paperback)
I was enchanted with the first half of Scofield's book, and felt privileged to be "present" in the life of a Mexican village. The people and settings were vivid and believable. But things began to get trite and smarmy in the last chapters. It seemed as though the author put most of her energies into developing happy (and not too believable) endings for everyone. The last chapters were saccharine and disappointing.
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