The Meaning of Consuelo: A Novel (Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Winner (Awards)) [Hardcover]

Judith Ortiz Cofer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2003 | Series: Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Winner (Awards)

La nina seria, the serious child. That's how Consuelo's mother has cast her pensive, book-loving daughter, while Consuelo's younger sister Mili, is seen as vivacious--a ray of tropical sunshine. Two daughters: one dark, one light; one to offer comfort and consolation, the other to charm and delight. But something is not right in this Puerto Rican family.

Set in the 1950s, a time when American influence is diluting Puerto Rico's rich island culture, Consuelo watches her own family's downward spiral. It is Consuelo who notices as her beautiful sister Mili's vivaciousness turns into mysterious bouts of hysteria and her playful invented language shift into an incomprehensible and chilling "language of birds." Ultimately Consuelo must choose: Will she fulfill the expectations of her family--offering consolation as their tragedy unfolds? Or will she risk becoming la fulana, the outsider, like the harlequin figure of her neighbor, Mario/Maria Sereno, who flaunts his tight red pedal pushers and empty brassiere as he refuses the traditional macho role of his culture.

This affecting novel is a lively celebration of Puerto Rico as well as an archetypal story of loss, the loss each of us experiences on our journey from the island of childhood to the uncharted territory of adulthood.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Puerto Rican novelist, essayist and poet Cofer (The Latin Deli, etc.) chronicles the childhood and young adulthood of Consuelo, a bookish girl growing up in a San Juan suburb in the 1950s. Cofer's novel is richly descriptive of the shifting mores of Puerto Rican culture and the historical particularities of the era (especially the growing American presence on the Caribbean island), but its deeper elements-Consuelo's growth into maturity; her sister's developing schizophrenia; and the demise of her parents' marriage-lack originality and are plagued by an overabundance of foreshadowing. Consuelo, her name signifying comfort and consolation, looks out for her younger sister, Mili, whose name derives from the word for miracle. The novel begins on a foreboding note: the local transvestite, Maria Sereno, interrupts a casual game of catch between the girls. They scamper into the house, scolded by their mother: "We do not associate in public with people like Maria Sereno." Life grows steadily gloomier for Consuelo: she botches her one high school romance; her beloved gay cousin, Patricio, moves to Nueva York; Mili starts acting strangely, singing to herself and speaking in tongues; and her father has an affair with a lounge singer at the hotel where he works. Cofer relies heavily on signposting, with lines like "It would be a while before we came to understand the true meaning of the word tragedia," which slow the narrative. Precise, near-sociological glimpses of island life in the 1950s-the introduction of mahones, or jeans; GI loans and new housing developments; the reassuring taste of sugar cane-add substance, but this is a plodding, overly deliberate effort.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The eldest of two daughters in a 1950s Puerto Rican family, Consuelo is a perceptive, book-loving girl who knows that she's expected to emulate her name, which means comfort and consolation, and look after her prettier sister, Milagros (miracle). Given her parents' epic battle over her father's infidelity and enthusiasm for all things American and her mother's fury and love of traditional island life, it's no surprise that Consuelo is the first to realize that all is not well with Mili. As Consuelo tries to protect her increasingly unbalanced sister and navigate her entry into womanhood and the cult of self-sacrifice (Cofer's insights into the art of female suffering are as devastatingly accurate as they are scathingly funny), celebrated poet, essayist, and novelist Cofer combines the timeless clarity and moral imperative of folktales with the timely wit of keen social criticism in an absorbing portrait of a smart and compassionate young woman whose coming-of-age saga subtly parallels Puerto Rico's struggle to retain its cultural identity and natural bounty. But when Consuelo declares, "I belong to myself" and "Words were the key to power and freedom," she speaks for all who learn that they must take control of their lives and write their own scripts. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 185 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (November 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374205094
• ISBN-13: 978-0374205096
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,445,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Critically acclaimed and widely published poet, novelist, and essayist Judith Ortiz Cofer knows that "words have the power to transform you and give you the power to shape your life. The minute you open your mouth, you have introduced yourself." Writing extensively about the experience of being Puerto Rican and her identity as a woman and writer in the U.S., she is a lauded Regents and Franklin Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Georgia where she teaches literature and creative writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Consuelo's quest for independence, April 15, 2005

By 

Bill's Best Books "www.alan-ya.org" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Meaning of Consuelo: A Novel (Bluestreak) (Paperback)

Spanning the growing up years of Consuelo and ending when she is sixteen, this novel is a coming of age story about a young girl finding out who she wants to be. She sheds her family's and her culture's attitudes about gender roles. Consuelo grows up in Puerto Rico with a progressive father and traditional mother, the older daughter whose role is to watch over her younger sister, Mili, who is the more beautiful and unfortunately, the more imbalanced. As Mili grows older, she slips into mental illness, and Consuelo struggles to care for her and her eroding family. In the end Consuelo must leave Puerto Rico for New York in order to become her own person. (H) Patient readers will enjoy the novel's complex plots and the story of Consuelo's quest for independence.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great coming-of-age story set in Puerto Rico circa 1950's, May 4, 2004

By 

S. Calhoun "rhymeswithorange" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Meaning of Consuelo: A Novel (Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Winner (Awards)) (Hardcover)

Consuelo resides with her parents and younger sister in a rented house on the periphery of San Juan, Puerto Rico during the 1950's. During this time period Puerto Rico is undergoing dramatic social and economic changes as the island is continually being Americanized. This rift is mirrored in Consuelo's household as her parents and relatives are split between welcoming modern American products and holding on to uniqueness of Puerto Rican history and culture. Her neighborhood, or pueblo, is filled with gossipy older woman who fail to allow anything to pass their gaze. What's worse, Consuelo's mother has an overbearing personality and is a bit nosey in her own rights. Her aunts and grandmother are a continued source of strength, comfort, and guidance to their family.

As Consuelo transforms into a senorita she begins to realize that the individuals who are closest to her are becoming a mystery. Her cousin and best friend Patricio all of a sudden reverts into his own world and stops attending school. There are concerning rumors circulating about his relationship with the pueblo's notorious cross-dresser. In addition, Consuelo's younger sister is slowing adopting curious and strange behaviors that include developing a language of her own. There is little solace or comfort with her parents as her mother suspects her father of having an affair with a woman at work. Nothing is at it seems.

THE MEANING OF CONSUELO is filled with frank and sorrowful details of how one girl's transformation to become a woman is burdened without being melodramatic or overdramatic. Judith Ortiz Cofer's prose is sprinkled with colorful Spanish words that add texture to this narrative. I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to others who enjoy multicultural themes or coming-of-age stories.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A novel of celebration, loss and escape, March 12, 2004

By 

David J. Gannon (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Meaning of Consuelo: A Novel (Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Winner (Awards)) (Hardcover)

The Consuelo of the title is the adolescent daughter of a Puerto Rican family living in a San Juan residential area in the 1950's. The novel is on a small scale about the trials and tribulations of the family as it deals with the vagaries of life in Puerto Rico at this point in time. On a larger scale the novel projects the overarching changes occurring in Puerto Rican society as American influence and cultural encroachment undermine many aspects of traditional Puerto Rican life and culture. All of this is viewed through the prism of Consuelo's turbulent, adolescent world view.

Judith Ortiz Cofer uses a variety of literary devices to create parallel aspects of divisiveness and turbulence within the family and Consuelo's family. Her father is very American oriented, her mother very traditionally oriented. The schizoid aspects of the greater society engendered by the breakdown in traditional cultures are mirrored in the family by the appearance and development of obvious mental disease in Consuelo's sister, Mili. And so on. Some of this works well, some of it comes off clumsily.

The strength of the book rests in the integrity of Consuelo's character as well as in the author's ability to evoke both the spirit and the instability of 1950's Puerto Rico. Her ability to create a truly empathetic and genuine Latino sense of family within Consuelo's home is also a strength, enough so that the artifice of some of her mechanical device manipulations are rendered, if not moot, at least minimal in terms of affecting the story.

On the whole I found this to be an excellent if somewhat disjointed novel. Cofer is a poet as well as a novelist and essayist and the prose has a poetic, well paced quality that adds effectively to the ambience of the story. Her characters generally are well fleshed out and sympathetically presented. The ambiance of the book is good if the mechanics are occasionally irritating.

In the end the quality of the story and prose, as well as Cofers ability to genuinely render a sense of the time and place involved, overwhelms the weaknesses of the book. This book is definitely worth reading.