The Day of the Moon [Paperback]

Graciela Limon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999

In The Day of the Moon, novelist Graciela Limon tells a dramatic story of forbidden loves. This is a tale that spans across the twentieth century, across the Southwest from Mexico to Los Angeles, across skin colors, across life and death, and across four generations of a family named Betancourt. Among its members are Don Flavio, who believes that chance may win one a fortune, but only ruthlessness can hold onto it . . . His secretive sister, Brigida . . . And his beautiful, golden-haired daughter, Isadora, who refuses to submit to her father's dictates, however terrible the cost may prove to her and to everyone around her.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lim?n's commanding second novel, after her praised In Search of Bernab?, follows four generations of the Betancourt family throughout five decades of Mexico's tumultuous political and social history. In 1906, with the luck of a gambler's hand, 26-year-old Don FlavioAson of a Spanish father and an Indian motherAwins land, wealth and power on one card game and begins a new life in the world of wealthy gringos. But his sudden nobility will have its price. Don Flavio's brutish treatment of Velia Carmelita, his new bride, sends her into the arms of Br!gida, his gentle sister. Furious and confused to discover the two women are lovers, Don Flavio leaves the ranch in disgust. When he returns four years later, his wife is dead, his sister near-mad with grief, and he now has another female to control, his blonde little daughter Isadora. After she grows into a young woman, Isadora's love for Jer?nimo Santiago (a Native Indian, and a member, like all indios, of the servant class) creates a furor in her family, dramatizing the hypocrisies of the Mexican upper class in dealing with the Indians who work their land. Don Flavio's disavowal of his own Indian mother, and his embracing of Spanish "purity," haunts him throughout his life, and he inflicts his self-loathing and violent bigotry on his family's future generations. Alonda, his "brown" outcast grandchild, waits for Don Flavio's death to finally come to terms with her ethnic identity. Lim?n contextualizes her saga with crucially placed details of Mexican political and social history, providing a sharp critique of the Mexican class system while embedding several passionate and eloquently rendered love stories. Through multiple points-of-view, this novel deftly explores one family's tragic reckoning with issues of cultural identity, sexual autonomy and interracial love.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Limon has created a story rich in ideas and excitement, a suspenseful tale with memorable characters." -- Ellen Shull, The San Antonio Express-News

"Limon's commanding novel . . . while embedding several passionate and eloquently rendered love stories . . . deftly explores one family's tragic reckoning." -- Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Arte Publico Press; 1st edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558852743
• ISBN-13: 978-1558852747
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I would like to hear from my readers!, May 24, 1999

By 

[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day of the Moon (Paperback)

I am Gracciela Limon, the Author of "The Day of the Moon" and I would sincerely appreciate hearing the views of my readers. Even the negative ones. It's very important for any author (I think) to hear from those who take the time to read one's novel. Please let me hear from you. You're very important to me. As a matter of fact, I would like to hear views regarding my other novels as well (here listed by Amazon).

Gratefully yours,

Graciela Limon

P.S. The five stars listed above is not my rating.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Look at the Raramuri, April 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Day of the Moon (Paperback)

Limon uses a historical setting in Mexico during one of the many Mexican revolutions to spin a tale of forbidden love, jealousy, and opression of native peoples. All readers from teen to adult ages would enjoy it. Beautiful language is used in description of characters and setting. The reader can really picture the people and places. I highly recommend this book, not only for the story, but also for the important underlying themes concerning the Raramuri people of Mexico.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Racism, Secrets, Forbidden Love etc., etc., August 8, 1999

By 

Ellen M. Shull (San Antonio,, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day of the Moon (Paperback)

What a wonderful book! Once I had started, I could not put it down. I see it as a combination of Romeo and Juliet (but this Juliet tries to shoot her father), Othello (but the "general" here is jealous of his sister's love for his wife), and maybe even some Cask of Amontillado thrown in for good measure (yes, someone is walled up). Classic themes, however, are treated in a fresh way-lots of them, including family secrets, murder, dismemberment, casting out, imprisonment, forbidden love, racism, and a quest for one's place and identity. What is particularly interesting is the way the novel is set up with sections devoted to most of the main characters. All are told with the omnicient point of view except one, this one almost in the very middle of the book and coming from the voice of Ursula Santiago who by speaking in a letter appears to be talking directly to the reader. Graciela Limon has written a wonderful novel illuminating the situation of the Indians who escaped the Spanish Conquest by fleeing to the mountains and caves, a place called El Cañón del Cobre. The Spanish called the people the Tárahumara, but their name for themselves is Rarámuri.

Read this excellent book. It will capture you completely.