The Long Night of White Chickens [Paperback]

Francisco Goldman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1993

This debut novel was greeted by overwhelming and unequivocal praise. "Goldman's beautiful first novel is at once a story about a boy growing up in two cultures, a love story, and a mystery about an unsolved murder."--The Boston Globe. Author reading tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set mainly in Guatemala under military tyranny in the 1980s, this accomplished first novel introduces a talented writer with a distinctive voice and an assured prose style.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This rich, embellished debut novel, which brings together Guatemalan and American culture, focuses on the murder of Flor, the head of an orphanage in Guatemala. When she was young, Flor had been sent to work as a maid for a family in Boston. There she befriended the family's only child, Roger Graetz. While trying to uncover the facts surrounding Flor's death, Roger recounts the elaborate events of his family life, giving us an engrossing and colorful picture of American and Guatemalan culture. Flor is an appealing character whom the author uses successfully to ignite our curiosity about Guatemalan culture and reflections on our own private lives. Recommended for all fiction collections.
- David A. Berona, Westbrook Coll. Lib., Portland, Me.
Copyright 1992 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
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr; Trade edition (August 1993)
• ISBN-10: 0871135418
• ISBN-13: 978-0871135414
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,218,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book to read on Guatemala, fiction or non-fiction, November 13, 2005

By 

tembrina (washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Long Night of White Chickens (Paperback)

I've worked in Guatemala as a human rights observer as well as with many Guatemalan asylum seekers in the United States.

This book, in evoking what Guatemala is like, with its beauty and cruelty and silence, is the best I've encountered. Sometimes a fictional narrative can explain the truth of a situation better than any recitation of historical facts. This is one of those rare books.

While you could obviously read Rigoberta Menchu, the Guatemala Nunca Mas Report (REHMI, which got the Archbishop killed in 1998), the Historical Clarification Commission Report, or Fear as a Way of Life by Linda Green, Goldman's book probably explains best the complexity of Guatemala.

I don't want to diminish the great literary quality of the book, but what impacted me the most was how Goldman had put into words my most complex feelings about my time in Guatemala, the amazing draw and beauty, and this sense of silent horror penetrating the entire place.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mesmerizing....they need to make this into a movie..., August 9, 2005

By 

D. Pawl "Dani" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Long Night of White Chickens (Paperback)

This was one of the books I assigned as "summer reading" to myself, a year ago. I am so glad I did it. Francisco Goldman juxtaposes magical realism, humor, human tragedy and sexuality into one amazing epic of a novel. I was first introduced to him when I read "Half and Half," a book filled with accounts of bicultural and biracial writers, recalling their experiences growing up in two factioned worlds in society. For Goldman, it was the Jewish world of his father, and the Guatemalan world of his mother. He transposes his experiences loosely, in the perspective of Rogerio, the main character and (sometimes) narrator of "The Long Night of White Chickens."

Rogerio is biracial/bicultural young man, plagued by illness, as a young boy, and living between the middle class world of his Jewish father, and the village life of his Guatemalan mother. It is through a remarkable twist of fate that he comes to know Flor, the beautiful heroine of the book, who is his nanny/companion, throughout his childhood and into adulthood. Flor haunts many people with her memory, after a horrendous tragedy that leaves all she touched stricken by sadness.

This book is really hard to describe, but hopefully my little review encourages you to check it out!!!!

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sooo true!, December 15, 1999

By 

"anabe" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Long Night of White Chickens (Paperback)

Although there have been many complaints about the author's writing, I had no trouble following this book. This guy writes like Guatemalans talk (he has no discernible train of thought, jumps from subject to subject and goes on way too long)and his narrator is annoyingly shallow and self-involved and feels way to sorry for himself, so it was like going out on any given occasion and hearing a typical sob story from a guy who's had too much to drink... I felt right at home! He got all the expressions and all the scenery right.. the description of street kids sniffing glue while looking in store windows made me laugh and cry, because it's so familiar and sad. But I must admit that the most fun I had with this book was passing it around to my family and friends and then figuring out who the characters really were (and if you're Guatemalan, you can). Fijate vos, I really enjoyed this one...