Sky over El Nido (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction) [Paperback]

C. M. Mayo (Author)

Book Description

Series: Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction | Publication Date: April 1, 1999

“Mother rescued the three zebras that escaped from the London zoo”--so begins the first story in this whirlwind collection by C. M. Mayo. Though Mayo’s characters ricochet around the globe in search of diversion, money, enlightenment, cachet, and escape, she sets many of the stories in Sky Over El Nido in Mexico. This is not the gringo’s Mexico of margaritas, mariachis, and inscrutable house servants, but a fin-de-siècle world where a Mexican boy who guards tourists’ cars for small change wears a T-shirt that says “Six Flags Over Georgia.” Mayo’s strangely beautiful yet disturbing stories reveal characters who envision the solutions to their lives in a world where nothing is stable, nothing can be nailed down, and we are all suddenly, dizzyingly faced with sharing the same pitiless sky.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this short-story collection, distinguished by intriguingly elliptical story lines and coolly precise prose, Mayo makes a remarkable literary debut. The author sets her stories all over the globe, but she favors Mexico, particularly the wealthier enclaves of Mexico City. Most of the 13 stories here follow the same template?a glimpse of a life thrown out of balance, followed by an ambiguous conclusion?and combine sympathy with critical reserve. A Mexican art student escorts his Japanese girlfriend (swathed in Moschino, daubed with Chanel, held blithely aloft with hallucinogens) through the Yucatan; a poet drunkenly toys with the sinewy, menacing pet jaguarundi of her former mistress. Elsewhere, a matron at a wedding dives after a drowning child in a gesture poised between self-sacrifice and suicidal despair; and, in the companion stories that open and close the book, a businessman?exhausted by the glitzy, hollow lives he and his cold, lovely wife lead?reaches out to a homeless man with AIDS on a Manhattan sidewalk. The stories hold bathos at bay with tautly fashioned prose, alive with myriad turns of phrase as on-target as they are idiosyncratic: a bibulous housewife's face resembles "a boiled tomato"; to Albert, lovely Eiko's laugh is "like a piccolo"; a woman's braids "writhe on her back like snakes." Deservedly, Mayo's collection has won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

" `You're the Empire State Building' and `You're a Mont Blanc pen' or `a Hermes tie' and `You're the best linguini with four cheeses at the Cafedes Artistes.' Later I realized she didn't make all that stuff up. She took me once to a club in New York where this chubby little Negro pounded the keys and sang it. Bobby Snort or something." Mayo won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction for Sky. She lives in Mexico City but must travel quite a bit, for her characters jet about the world--Mexico City, Krakow, Cairo, San Salvador, Veracruz, New York. The stories are somewhat fantastic and can startle the reader with their occasional macabre details. The first story, "Chabela del Rio y de la Fuente Contreras, Thrice Married (Once Divorced), Reflects on Her Relationship with Her Mother While Lying on Her Bed, Mexico City, 1990," introduces that aspect with Chabela contemplating a woman who once rescued three zebras that had escaped from the London zoo. In that regard, and in the offbeat humor, her work is reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor's. And like that old master, Mayo is addictive and her collection has a unity that is very satisfying. Bonnie Smothers --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (April 1, 1999)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 0820321192
• ISBN-13: 978-0820321196
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #456,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've been living in and writing about Mexico for many years. Twenty three, last I counted. I'm the author of THE LAST PRINCE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE, an historical novel based on the true story, which was named one of the best books of 2009 by Library Journal; also, MIRACULOUS AIR: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico; a collection of Mexican literary works in translation with the somewhat misleading title (I mean, it's not a guidebook!), MEXICO: A TRAVELER'S LITERARY COMPANION; and SKY OVER EL NIDO, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction. My latest translation is SPIRITIST MANUAL, the secret book originally published in 1911 as MANUAL ESPIRITA, by Francisco I. Madero. www.cmmayo.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly melodic stories with a Mexican undertone., July 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sky over El Nido (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction) (Paperback)

C.M. Mayo has the unique voice that enables you to not only envision the setting but the emotional swings and feelings of the characters. She writes of characters we wish we knew for pieces of them have been in our lives. Sky over El Nido is a perfect gift for the lover of the writing craft. Each character jumps up and is alive in the first paragraph. You wish you could revisit them sometime again in a longer story. Simply marvelous.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fab and Fun stories, June 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sky Over El Nido: Stories (Hardcover)

This collection of stories is not to be missed. A romp around the world about curious and intriguing people. The characters will stick in your mind like the rather scary and funny guy who eats remorras.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You should read this!, January 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sky over El Nido (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction) (Paperback)

Sky over El Nido is an amazing collection of short stories,not only because the writing by C.M. Mayo is superb,but also because it is a "box" full of surprises.The author (she or he?) provide us with continuous examples of a masterly use of ímage patterning,which keeps the reader wondering what will come next.No wonder C.M. Mayo won the Flannery O'Connor Award!