Memories of Ana Calderon [Hardcover]

Graciela Limon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

Now available for the first time on paperback, The Memories of Ana Calderón is the fictional memoir of a talented woman, born in tradition-bound rural Mexico, who comes to the United States and greater opportuninty only to find that here, too, society, family and religion seem to conspire to hold her back. In order to succed Ana must give up all that she holds dear. She must re-make herself into a rootless and obsessed individual. But even after accomplishing this, fate still conspires to wound her. Ana Calderón has will, guts and intelligence, but her battle against family, church, and the justice system shakes our belief in the ability to forge our own destinies.

The Memories of Ana Calderón is a second novel by the writer of who The New York Times Book Review hailed as one who "leaves the reader with that special hunger that can be created only by a newly discovered writer. Ms. Limón's prose is self-assured and engrossing."

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Limon's graceful writing and astute observations about the problems of Mexican-American life are often lost in this formulaic immigrant rags-to-riches story, which draws heavily on pop psychology for its suspense. Ana Calderon begins her life in abject poverty in a fishing village in southern Mexico. After her mother dies, her father, Rodolfo, takes the family north to harvest tomatoes. Limon does an excellent job of describing the hardships of migrant life and the driving emotions of the family patriarch, who quickly understands that he is being taken advantage of. The family escapes across the border to the L.A. barrio, where Rodolfo grows resentful of Ana's academic progress, finally forcing her to quit high school and find work in a shoe factory. An affair with her adopted brother, Octavio, leaves Ana pregnant. After Octavio refuses to marry her, a lonely Anglo couple take her in. What has begun as a sensitive exploration of one woman's attempt to come to terms with two cultures now becomes an increasingly chaotic portrait of a dysfunctional family whose lives are fraught with melodrama: attempted murder, a prison term for Ana, the disappearance of her son, and more. Events are unbelievably resolved as the novel closes, in 1975. One wishes that the talented author of In Search of Bernabe had confined her canvas here to the unique aspects of Mexican-American experience, which she portrays so well.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Abused by fate and family, Ana, the strong-willed protagonist of Limon's second novel (following In Search of Bernabe, LJ 8/93) endures a life of extremes. After her mother's early death, Ana and her younger siblings accompany their father in flight from the poverty of their Mexican sea village to East L.A. Despised and cursed by her father and betrayed by Octavio, her lover and lifelong friend, Ana first loses her son to kidnappers, then adoption, and spends two years in prison for a crime of violent passion. She also acquires strong friends and makes a strange, breathless ascent to great wealth and prestige. Yet at this summit, her father's curse returns in a series of deeply shocking events. Abrupt and disconcerting, but frequently riveting, this imagined memoir is for larger fiction and area collections.
Janet Ingraham, Worthington P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Arte Publico Press; First Edition edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155885116X
• ISBN-13: 978-1558851160
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,399,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful adaptation of the theme of Fate, December 8, 2000

By 

C. L. Schoon "highly calibrated sarcasm machine" (Longmont, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memories of Ana Calderon (Hardcover)

Ana is a fated woman- plagued by visions and dreams damning her and deriding her. And, as her story progresses, we see that her life must follow the path of despair in order to reach redemption. The story draws on elements of the Holy Bible (the stations of the cross), Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Oedipus Rex to play out a story of modern hardships, ancient beliefs, and destabilization of the status quo. This is a beautifully told story that undulates between first and third person, giving the reader the advantage of the first-person narrative and the objective third.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a remarkable read!, January 14, 2000

By 

toni (maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memories of Ana Calderon (Hardcover)

with The Memories of Ana Calderon, graciela limon gives us the story of an extraordinarily complex, fiercely determined, passionate and courageous woman! -- who, from birth, struggles both internally and externally with disillusionment and suffering. in a world that attempts to pre-determine fates, ana refuses to submit and/or surrender to what's been scratched out for her on life's slate. as the novel begins, the young girl is about to embark on a geographical journey that will take her more than miles away - that will, unbeknownst to her, lead to the greatest destination one can ever hope to reach: self-acceptance, where one realizes one's own self-worth.

ana ....

who -- as a child, blessed with a very vivid imagination, escapes the routines of a rotting world in which she wants no part, by dreaming, the only way to her young mind available ....

who -- fights and dares to be different from the women around her, the "dumb animals" that bow down silently to their own spiritual deaths in shameful disgrace ....

who -- somehow finds the strength to survive the brutal blows of a "father's hatred and rejection" and the heart-breaking realities and aftermath of a "lover's cowardice, abandonment and betrayal" ....

to know, ... and watch this ana grow, ... is truly to love her!

a determined dreamer and fiery fighter, ana, thanks to the "God-given talent of her brains," learns to pick up the "shattered pieces of herself and (over time) put them back into a better place." --- but, not before life's rocky road leads her home again -- where she will find that what she seeks can only be found within -- and where she discovers that SHE must forgive herself, and love HERSELF for who she is -- that she must be HER own saviour -- and she must accept and CHOOSE to live.

in ana, limon captures, with brilliant and uncanny insight, the inner turmoil and outer struggles of a woman who defies the odds -- and survives! and has written a novel filled with often intense ups and downs and highs and lows -- such as is life!

pick up this book! and follow ana in her travels. it will do you good -- and you'll be glad you went along for the ride!

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RECCOMENDED, April 26, 2002

By 

GABY (COLORADO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memories of Ana Calderon (Hardcover)

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK
ESPECIALLY TO LATINA WOMEN WHO FIND THEMSELVES IN A STRUGGLE WITH EITHER MEN, CHILDREN,FAMILY,OR WOMENHOOD
I BELIEVE MS. LIMON FIRST INTRODUCED OUT ANA AS A CHILD WITH A LOT GUILT AND PAIN WITH REGARDS TO HER MOTHER NOT EVER HAVING A MALE CHILD AND BEING THE ONE TO BE BLAMED FOR THAT ANA IS BROUGHT THROUGH SO MANY STRUGGLES FROM MOVING TO LOS ANGELES FROM MEXICO TO WORKING IN FIELDS AND HER FATHER REALLY NOT EVER BEING THERE FOR HER IN THE MOVE FROM MEXICO TO L.A. THEY BROUGHT ALONG THE ORPHAN FRIEND WHO LATER GETS ANA PREGANAT AND LEAVES HER WITH THE CHILD AND GOES WITH ONE OF ANA'S SISTERS...ALEJANDRA SHE ALSO GOES THROUGH THE PAIN OF LOOSING HER SON ON TOP OF THAT IS PUT IN PRISON WHEN SHE GETS OUT OF PRISION I BELEIVE THAT THIS IS WHERE MS. LIMON BROUGHT ANA OUT WITH A LOT OF COURAGE AND DIFFRENT WAY OF THINKING TOWARDS MEN PEOPLE AND SOCIETY SHE IS A DETERMIND WOMAN IN SEARCH FOR HER SON BUT IS VERY BITTER IN HER HEART SHE BEGANS HER SEARCH BUT IN THE MEAN TIME WORKS IN A FACTORY AND WORKS HER WAY UP AND SOON BECOMES THE OWNER AND VERY RICH FROM HERE ILL LEAVE IT TO YOU TO READ THE END IS VERY SCHOCKING AND LEAVES YOU WITH A ACHE IN YOUR HEART
GABY,19