The Flower in the Skull [Paperback]

Kathleen Alcala (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 1st Edition/1st Printing edition (1998)
• ASIN: B001QNHBDO
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Kathleen Alcalá's life is all about stories. She is the author of four works of fiction - Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist; Spirits of the Ordinary; The Flower in the Skull; and Treasures in Heaven - and a collection of essays. Her work is the recipient of a Governor's Writers Award, the Washington State Book Award, a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and a Western States Book Award, among others. Kathleen teaches Creative Writing in the Low Residency MFA program at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts on Whidbey Island. Two of her stories are included in the recent Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. More at www.kathleenalcala.com.

"I began writing as a way to explain the world to myself. So much family history did not match the 'official' history of the Southwest, that I had to become an explorer, an adventurer, an ethnographer, a scholar and a writer in order to discover who we were and who we are today. I believe that writing, in and of itself, is a political act, and that the artistic cannot be separated from the political. Writing makes the invisible, visible; the silent, audible; the absent, present."

Quotes:

This is a book of wonders. Each story unfolds with humor and simplicity and perfect naturalness into something original and totally unpredictable. Not one tale is like another, yet all together they form a beautiful whole, a world where one would like to stay forever. The kingdoms of Borges and Garcia Marquez lie just over the horizon, but this landscape of desert towns and dreaming hearts, of lost sisters and ghost scientists, canary singers and road readers, is Alcalá-land. It lies across the border between the living and the dead, across all the borders - a true new world.
- Ursula K. LeGuin on Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist

Kathleen Alcalá captures the essence of the magical realism in her work. Her stories convincingly move the reader from one reality to the other. Kathleen's craft illuminates the souls of her characters: the Mexican women who carry the universe in their hearts.

- Rudolfo Anaya

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting, Beautiful Book, August 24, 2001

By 

Daniel Olivas (West Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Flower in the Skull (Paperback)

Kathleen Alcala's "The Flower in the Skull" is a haunting, beautiful and well-researched novel that begins deep in Mexico's Sonoran Desert in the late 1800s and follows three generations of women up to the present. Alcala's language is clear, evocative and, at times, heart-wrenching as she tells this story of diaspora, lost family connections and personal discovery. One of the most moving chapters (titled, "The Girl in the Closet") is Alcala at her best as she captures the almost overwhelming fears of a woman beaten down by the sexual transgressions of her employer: "If I just stay here, I will be fine. Before I shut the door, I got a box of crackers from the kitchen, so I will be fine." This is a powerful novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adapting to new worlds is not an easy task, March 29, 1999

By 

"berenjena" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Flower in the Skull: A Novel (Hardcover)

In Flower in the Skull we see three generations of women trying to adapt to their sorroundings and at the same time make sense of their past. This is no easy task but the characters make an effort, and although they are not always totally happy, they manage to make it on their own. A very good book, very honest and informative.

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous story of mexican history, October 8, 2007

By 

L. E. Wells (Corvallis, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Flower in the Skull (Paperback)

I read this book first of the trilogy. I fell in love with the stories and read all three in just a few weeks time. The stories take us to a time, a place and a people who are forgotten. The women and men of Mexico, in the transition time when borders are fluid and countries are defining themselves, creating themselves, on the backs of the poor. They are people whose lives do not have happy endings. People who lived as best they could with few resources and no opportunities. My heart was taken by the characters. Alcala does a wonderful job of weaving history into a story that could be true.

It is a lovely read. Enjoy.