This novel addresses the universal issues of class discrimination, male oppression and female servitude, and opens a window on Mexico's Catholic and pagan customs as well as its folklore, magic and corruption.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Employing an elegant, spare poetic style that speaks volumes about the plight of her Mexican protagonists, novelist and poet Clement (The Next Stranger) tells the story of a young peasant girl named Leonora who finds work as a domestic for a rich Mexico City couple with an Anglo last name. After growing up in rural poverty, Leonora finds her circumstances improved considerably when she moves in with the O'Conners; her fellow servants become a warm, caring circle of friends. But her ignorance leaves her helpless against the advances of Mr. O'Conner, and while he proves to be a gentle, compassionate lover, Leonora soon learns that he has a long history of infidelities. His wife tries to send Leonora away after the birth of the child (a girl the family names Aura Olivia and intend to raise as their own), but Mr. O'Conner convinces her to let Leonora stay and help with the child's upbringing, a decision that exacerbates his wife's various psychosomatic illnesses. Clement's short chapters are a haunting series of prose poems, some of them narrated in flashback by Aura Olivia as Leonora's troubles mount. Clement also uses the other domestics as a kind of Greek chorus, particularly a woman named Josefa who speaks solely in single-word sentences. This is a rich, memorable, multilayered novel.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Her subtle poetry of pain fills page after page of Jennifer Clement's debut novel. It is a rhapsody to colors, mostly to blue."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Jennifer Clement studied English Literature and Anthropology at New York University and also studied French literature in Paris, France. She is currently the President of PEN Mexico.
Clement is the author of the memoir Widow Basquiat that made the "Booksellers' Choice" list in the United Kingdom and two novels: A True Story Based on Lies, which was a finalist in the Orange Prize for Fiction in the United Kingdom, and The Poison That Fascinates. She is also the author of several books of poetry: The Next Stranger (with an introduction by W.S. Merwin), Newton's Sailor, Lady of the Broom and Jennifer Clement: New and Selected Poems. Her prize-winning story A Salamander-Child has been published as an art book with work by the Mexican painter Gustavo Monroy. Clement's work has been translated into 10 languages.
Jennifer Clement won the Canongate Prize for her story A Salamander-Child. In 2007 she received a MacDowell Fellowship and the MacDowell Colony named her the Robert and Stephanie Olmsted Fellow for 2007-08. In 2009 she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was named the Thornton Writer-in-Residence at Lynchburg College, USA.
Clement was awarded Mexico's prestigious "Sistema Nacional de Creadores" grant and in 2001 and she is also the recipient of a US-Mexico Fund for Culture (FONCA, Fundacion Cultural Bancomer, the Rockefeller Foundation) grant for the San Miguel Poetry Week, which she founded in 1997 with her sister, Barbara Sibley.
Clement's work has appeared in numerous anthologies including The Best of The American Voice and Akzente, The London Times, The Herald, Poetry London, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, National Geographic, The Warwick Review and The Independent Magazine, among others, have published her stories, poems and essays. Recently, the composer Jan Gilbert created an "Eleven Song Setting" of Clement's The Lady of the Broom for soprano, flute, viola, and violoncello.
Jennifer Clement lives in Mexico City, Mexico.
Clement is the author of the memoir Widow Basquiat that made the "Booksellers' Choice" list in the United Kingdom and two novels: A True Story Based on Lies, which was a finalist in the Orange Prize for Fiction in the United Kingdom, and The Poison That Fascinates. She is also the author of several books of poetry: The Next Stranger (with an introduction by W.S. Merwin), Newton's Sailor, Lady of the Broom and Jennifer Clement: New and Selected Poems. Her prize-winning story A Salamander-Child has been published as an art book with work by the Mexican painter Gustavo Monroy. Clement's work has been translated into 10 languages.
Jennifer Clement won the Canongate Prize for her story A Salamander-Child. In 2007 she received a MacDowell Fellowship and the MacDowell Colony named her the Robert and Stephanie Olmsted Fellow for 2007-08. In 2009 she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was named the Thornton Writer-in-Residence at Lynchburg College, USA.
Clement was awarded Mexico's prestigious "Sistema Nacional de Creadores" grant and in 2001 and she is also the recipient of a US-Mexico Fund for Culture (FONCA, Fundacion Cultural Bancomer, the Rockefeller Foundation) grant for the San Miguel Poetry Week, which she founded in 1997 with her sister, Barbara Sibley.
Clement's work has appeared in numerous anthologies including The Best of The American Voice and Akzente, The London Times, The Herald, Poetry London, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, National Geographic, The Warwick Review and The Independent Magazine, among others, have published her stories, poems and essays. Recently, the composer Jan Gilbert created an "Eleven Song Setting" of Clement's The Lady of the Broom for soprano, flute, viola, and violoncello.
Jennifer Clement lives in Mexico City, Mexico.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Story based on a Gimmick,
By
This review is from: A True Story Based on Lies (Hardcover)
As this story slowly unfolds, coming together like a jigsaw puzzle, the reader begins to see a picture emerge which is both broader and more powerful than first expected.Don't be put off by the first few chapters, which set up the gimmick of alternating narrators. Within a very few chapters you are hooked and then the book draws you along inexorably to the momentous conclusion.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A magnificent story,
By Kirsten (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A True Story Based on Lies (Paperback)
The amount of depth in such a slim volume is amazing. Clement's language and rhythm put me in mind of a folk tale that draws one in easily but lets go hard. I picked this up because I thought it would be a fast read, and it was, but it's stuck with me and I find myself thinking of it at odd quiet moments. Read it, savor it, but be careful if you read on the subway -- I kept missing my stops.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magical Mexico,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: A True Story Based on Lies (Paperback)
This book kept haunting me for weeks after I read it. It is a very moving story and the language is pure poetry.
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