Remaking A Lost Harmony: Stories from the Hispanic Caribbean (Secret Weavers Series) [Paperback]

Margarite Fernandez Olmos (Editor), Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995 | Series: Secret Weavers Series

These diverse stories, all of which were written after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, reflect both the unique and colorful culture of the islands and the social changes that provided the impetus to search for the lost harmony of Caribbean and Latin American culture.

“Wow! An important and timely collection of voices long known in the Caribbean...from this vital part of the hemisphere.”—Julia Alvarez

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While many readers in the U.S. are now familiar with writers from South and Central America, fewer know those from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The 25 stories collected here attest to a tradition worthy of wider notice. Written since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, these stories struggle with themes and situations not so different from those of their authors' counterparts on the mainland. The urgent social realism of such established island authors as Luis Rafael Sanchez and Jose Alcantara Almanzar has given way in recent years to a kind of Raymond Carver domestic realism, but whatever the style, they both offer worthwhile insights into a distinct culture. Hilma Contreras's "The Fire" and Veronica Lopez Konina's "Silvia" focus on gripping female protagonists that are victims, but not so much of their nation's political upheavals as of the lives they've made for themselves in the shadows of men. In sharp contrast, Pedro Piex's lyrical "Requiem for a Wreathless Corpse" offers a fresh treatment of the political themes common to earlier island writers. Having spent much of their lives under repressive rule, this postrevolutionary generation of writers have invented new ways of escaping the pervasive societal lassitude.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The 25 stories in this collection--written since 1959 by Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican writers--make accessible Caribbean literature long lost to most readers in this country because of differences in language, politics, and culture. Despite the variations in style, setting, and period to be expected in such an anthology, there are some common threads here, notably the evocation of Caribbean heat and light and the intertwining of the political with the personal. Police massacres rend the fabric of everyday life in Ana Lydia Vega's moving, multifaceted "Lillianne's Sunday" and disrupt a delicate voodoo ritual in Mayra Montero's "Corrine, Amiable Girl" ; and the body of a notorious guerrilla leader is a family pawn in Pedro Peix's multivoiced "Requiem for a Worthless Corpse." An impressive collection, which opens the door to a body of work "sandwiched between the North American and Latin American continents and literatures," in the words of author Julia Alvarez, and too long ignored. Michele Leber

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: White Pine Press (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1877727369
• ISBN-13: 978-1877727368
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,034,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)