Hot Soles in Harlem (Discoveries (Latin American Literary Review Pr)) [Paperback]

Emilio Diaz Valcarcel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0935480617 | ISBN-13: 978-0935480610

novel, Puerto Rico, tr Tanya T Fayen

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New York City, as seen through the eyes of recently immigrated Gerardo Sanchez, can be vibrant and desolate, clear and irrational. Gerardo leaves his child and ex-wife in Puerto Rico for a better life in Manhattan. He meets Aleluya, an intellectual militant who is enraptured and enraged by Gerardo's ignorance of most everything. Aleluya looks out for Gerardo when he can, finding the newcomer a place to stay and leading him to a lawyer and a doctor when the ceiling in his slum apartment falls on his head. There are passageways to worlds Gerardo has never imagined, filled with transvestites, artists, activists and people of many nationalities. For all Gerardo's naivete, he is a keen observer of the city's people, images, smells and accents, which he relates in a stream of highly impressionistic consciousness. Forty-second street becomes "greasy corn-on-the-cob steakhouse turnovers pizzeria the store windows display hard core underground porn." The confusion generated by Valcarcel's ( Schemes in the Month of March ) relative indifference to punctuation and dramatic development is assuaged by the lucidity of the language, which often feels like poems strung together as prose.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Award-winning Puerto Rican writer Diaz Valcarcel has been publishing fiction since the 1960s. Some of his earlier works include Harlem Todos Los Dias (1978), Inventario (1975), and Schemes in the Month of March ( LJ 12/15/79), which was originally published in Spanish in 1972. In this work, Diaz Valcarcel uses numerous passages of descriptive cataloging reminiscent of Whitmanesque or Beat poetry. Touted for his innovative techniques, Diaz Valcarcel creates a cast of cosmopolitan characters to intrigue readers as they explore New York City with Gerardo, a newly arrived Puerto Rican immigrant. The possibilities for this novel at first seem limitless, principally because of Gerardo's fair skin, fair hair, and blue eyes. Unfortunately, readers may find his transformation into a "newyorican" not particularly revealing. Recommended for large Hispanic literary collections.
- Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 203 pages
• Publisher: Latin Amer Literary Review Pr (July 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935480617
• ISBN-13: 978-0935480610
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,268,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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