The Fifth Sun [Paperback]

Mary Helen Lagasse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Winner of the 3rd Annual Miguel Mármol Prize from Curbstone Press, Mary Helen Lagasse's The Fifth Sun is an inspiring story of an immigrant who struggles valiantly for a better life for herself and her family. The young Mexican woman, Mercedes, leaves her village to work as a housemaid in New Orleans. This fast-paced novel takes her through her adventures in New Orleans, her marriage, her struggle to raise her children, her -deportation, and her attempt to re-cross the river and be reunited with her children.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Lagasse's engaging debut novel traces the footsteps of a young Mexican girl from her small village to New Orleans and back again during the early twentieth century. Mercedes is 13 when her mother dies. She is taken in by her father and his wife, but they treat her like a servant, making her wear her half-sisters' hand-me-downs and sleep off the kitchen. When she becomes pregnant at 15 and her father disowns her, a friend of her deceased mother arranges for her to become a housemaid in New Orleans, a very foreign new world. Mercedes eventually marries and has three more children, and her efforts to make their lives better than her own are what keep her going. Lagasse introduces secondary characters in their own chapters, actively engaging the reader in a widening circle of protagonists who both help and hinder Mercedes' struggle. Packed with period details and Mexican folklore, this is a welcome addition to the increasingly popular genre of immigration fiction, which can serve as a powerful antidote to immigration paranoia. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

Winner of the 3rd Annual Miguel Mármol Prize from Curbstone Press, Mary Helen Lagasse's The Fifth Sun is an inspiring story of an immigrant who struggles valiantly for a better life for herself and her family. The young Mexican woman, Mercedes, leaves her village to work as a housemaid in New Orleans. This fast-paced novel takes her through her adventures in New Orleans, her marriage, her struggle to raise her children, her -deportation, and her attempt to re-cross the river and be reunited with her children.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Curbstone Books (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931896054
• ISBN-13: 978-1931896054
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,886,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous book., May 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fifth Sun (Paperback)

The most disconserting thing, maybe the only disconserting thing, about this book is that as I read, I couldn't help thinking "this is a FIRST novel." It's just too good. MHL has a tremendous command of English and literary rhythm and in The Fifth Sun uses both with just the right amount of Spanish to add realism and flavor.
I read the book at the suggestion of a friend (it is not on my list of normal genres) and I'm glad that I did. I think this book will be around for a long time. Readers who enjoy Allende, Borges, Marquez and the other romantic mystical novels will like this book.
It's the best kind of story, about life and struggle, endurance and hope. A great deal of the book takes place in New Orleans. But the characters are not in the New Orleans that Americans know. They're immigrants, physically and spiritually. Aliens in every sense of the word. MHL takes you there, where the immigrants live, in The Fifth Sun.
This is a book you'll want to give your friends. Your mother, sisters, that literary aunt, in fact any one you know that enjoys good literary fiction (and secretly wants it to also be a good story). It's a darn good story, and MHL is a darn good writer.

4.0 out of 5 stars A really good tale, April 22, 2008

By 

Paul Lappen (Manchester, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fifth Sun (Paperback)

This novel is about Mercedes Vasconcelos, a young Mexican woman convinced that the road to a better life for her and her growing family passes through the United States.

Set in the early 20th century, Mercedes is used to poverty while growing up in Mexico. Armed with a name and address, she takes a boat to New Orleans, to make a better life for herself. Around this time, she has a child out of wedlock, and is told, in effect, don't come home.

Life is hard in 1930s New Orleans, but Mercedes becomes a housekeeper at a local rooming house, and she manages (sometimes just barely). She meets Manuela Maldonado, an older woman from the same part of Mexico. Manuela is a strong, proud woman who becomes a sort-of substitute mother to Mercedes.

When the housekeeping job ends, Mercedes and Manuela cook various food items, like tamales, and sell them door-to-door. Mercedes marries Jesus, who changes his name to Jesse, and has several sons. One of them is born with severe digestive problems, and doesn't live very long.

The family is sent back to Mexico. Letters from Manuela assure Mercedes and Jesus that their three boys will have no problem returning to New Orleans, and can stay with her (they were born in America). Through a bureaucratic snafu, Mercedes and Jesus are not allowed to join them. The reason is the concern that Mercedes and Jesus will immediately go on welfare, despite the total lack of evidence that the two ever used welfare in the past. After months and months of separation, a very pregnant Mercedes enlists a coyote to take her across the Rio Grande River.

This story of the Mexican immigrant experience is a quiet tale from a native of New Orleans, but a really good tale and is well worth reading.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good literature, October 22, 2007

By 

Thomas Hofer (Morgan City, LA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fifth Sun (Paperback)

THE FIFTH SUN is an excellent contribution to the common history that New Orleans and Mexico tend to have. Mary Helen Lagasse, who is one of my friends from Tulane days, has done an excellent job in describing the plight that refugees have to go through. In addition, she is making a contribution to the understanding of single mothers in very difficult circumstances. Fortunately, I know enough Spanish to be able to read the Spanish words in her text. The plot of the story takes place in the late 20's and early 30's; still, it applies to today's world as well, especially to the issue of Hispanics and the United States. Also, Mary Helen did an excellent job in inflecting the scene in Mexico and New Orleans at that time, as I can tell from my knowledge of the history of New Orleans and Mexico.