The Hacienda: A Memoir [Paperback]

Lisa St. Aubin de Teran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 1999

From a prize-winning British author comes a lush, absorbing memoir--an "Out of Africa" set in the Venezuelan Andes. Tremendously atmospheric, "The Hacienda" brilliantly evokes the unique confluence of time, place, and people that shaped this powerful writer.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A child bride leaves England for a life of unimaginable cruelty, isolation, and beauty in this memoir that reads like the most magical of novels. Married at the age of 17, Lisa St. Aubin de Terán hardly knows her Venezuelan husband Jaime--and learns Spanish only to find that he seldom speaks in that language, either. Nonetheless, he persuades her to return with him to his hacienda, a sugar-cane and avocado plantation perched high in the Andean foothills. Here, her romantic notions of South American life soon wash away in the constant drizzle; the hacienda lies in near-ruins, and her husband's relatives treat her like a pariah--and a half-witted one at that. Jaime disappears for days, then weeks at a time, leaving her without food or money in a leaky, tin-roofed shack, surrounded by peasants who make the sign against the evil eye at her approach. In the years to come, St. Aubin de Terán finds inner reserves of strength she didn't know she possessed, learning to run the hacienda, earning the respect of la gente, bearing a daughter, and, most importantly, discovering the pleasures and consolations of writing. Meanwhile, her husband descends into unpredictable fits of violence and rage, and as his madness escalates, the increasingly ill and weak St. Aubin de Terán must find a way to smuggle herself and her daughter out of the country before he murders them both. Without resorting to either sentiment or self-pity, St. Aubin de Terán has created a loving portrait of a place and people that seem lifted from another century entirely. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Prize-winning British novelist (Keepers of the House) St. Aubin de Teran reminisces about her marriage to Don Jaime Teran. After her wedding to the Venezuelan aristocrat, which took place in the late 1960s when she was just 16 and he was 20 years older, the author drifted around Europe with him for two years before they returned to La Hacienda, her husband's sugarcane and avocado plantation in the Andes wilderness. Although she details how she came to terms with her husband's obvious madness and managed to make a life for herself despite the impoverished condition of the plantation, there are so many gaps in the narration that it is frequently difficult to follow. Shortly after their arrival home, the author's husband deserted her, but she managed to restore the plantation and deliver rudimentary health care to the workers there. When her husband returned, his episodes of madness became dangerous, and in 1979 the author escaped to England with their daughter, Iseult, who had been born in the Andes in 1973. The book is a compilation of interesting though disjointed impressions of an unusual experience. Photos.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (May 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316816884
• ISBN-13: 978-0316816885
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,092,108 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Venezuela

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written but with many flows concerning accuracy., June 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hacienda: A Memoir (Paperback)

It's a beautifully written book about the hacienda living in Venezuela. Being Venezuelan I was disapointed about many inacuracies that I found. 1) She says the Mayas Indians lived in the west part of Venezuela when the spaniards arrived. False. No Mayas in Venezuela. 2) The "Gaita" music she describes as coming from the plains (los llanos), has its origins in Zulia State. 3) The founder of the socialist party was Jose Vicente Rangel and not Rafael Rangel. 4) The head of the family, that she calls "padron", is the "patron" with a p. 5)Presidents are elected every five years, not every four years. And on and on. Is this bad editing? Probably so.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My neighbour's memoir, September 7, 2002

By 

"danielinyaracuy" (San Felipe, Yaracuy Venezuela) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hacienda: A Memoir (Paperback)

I do live a very few hours away from where the action of this book takes place. Since I read it I have not checked the place out but found some people that actually corroborated part of the story. This is why I reluctantly give it 5 stars. In spite of a certain inconsistency through the book, a few misplaced left leanings comment, a hard to believe naivete, the books stands firm as a good representation of Venezuelan rural mores, and a heartfelt memoir. Now, I do not want this to mean that Lisa Saint Aubin de Teran is an accurate reporter. She tries her best and only God knows how difficult it is to understand Venezuelan society. However she is very successful at conveying the spirit that moves things there, for good or bad. She is at her best when she shows how in spite of every hardship that falls on her, the country slowly gets into her and she cannot help but love it. I can relate with that, she is not making it up. And last but not least, in light of recent political turmoil in Venezuela, I can recommend this book highly: it will explain why a phenomenon like Chaves came upon Venezuela better than any long political analysis you might find around. Although Ms Saint Aubin kept her patrician acquired Teran she was unto something when she describes the "absentee landlord" mores of Venezuelan old elite families. Her comments on them are rather damming. But the reader needs not to worry, this is still a very strong personal memoir, that can also serve as a political memento.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing But Ultimately Disappointing, May 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hacienda: A Memoir (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book while recognizing its quite obvious flaws in development. Teran takes an unimaginable scenario of a young girl completely isolated from the world in an unknown and, to her, backward cultural and shows her transformation into a strong and independent woman from the lonely ineffectual child she was. Yet gaping holes seemed apparent in the narrative. The impenetrable character of Jaime is never fully developed. The fact that he is a shadowy figure in the book as he appeared in her life, you never fully realize the terror and frustration she must have experienced at his hands. It would be a more complex and ultimately more rewarding book if the narrative did not hide the ugliness of this relationship (or rather describe superficially) the same way the character of Lisa did in her letters to her mother. The parentage of the child Iseult is never explored either but for one paragraph early in the book. While there may have been reasons for Teran to hide the truth of paternity from her community she hides it from herself too - a strange and articifical literary conceit. Nevertheless the book is full of vivid characters and a nice narrative framework of the letters to her mother glossing over the loneliness and pain of her young adulthood. I was engrossed and throroughly enjoyed Teran's journey through a metaphoric and literal foreign land. If you like stories of personal growth and change you'll enjoy her prose.