The Secret of the Bulls (Paperback)

by Jose Bernardo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Steamy sex scenes, lush prose, genial spirits and exotic locale (Cuba, mostly Havana, between 1911 and 1938) lend commercial appeal to this unabashedly sentimental first novel. Yet, although it seems to aspire to the earthy comedy and sophistication of Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate, the writing here is pat and predictable. When Dolores, a wealthy landowner's daughter, elopes at 18 with the butcher Maximiliano, her family disowns her. She finds happiness with her errant husband, however, excusing his constant philandering because he's "an aging champion bull who's just afraid of getting old, so he has to prove to himself all the time that he is still a champion." This taurine imagery pervades the story, in which women are likened to "female bulls," deadlier than the male once provoked. Nevertheless, Merced, daughter of Dolores and Maximiliano (and a Taurus, naturally), can't keep the reins on her husband, who discovers his homosexual nature in a bordello and later commits suicide. Meanwhile, one of Merced's brothers is beset by baseless doubts about his parentage, and another, learning that his wife is unfaithful, refuses to kill the cheating duo, as custom dictates. Bernardo-born in Havana, now living in New York-drenches his present-tense narrative in the lilting rhythms of a more mellow, pre-Communist Cuba. Author tour; simultaneous Spanish hardcover edition from S&S Libros en Espanol.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
In his fictional debut, Bernardo resurrects prerevolutionary Cuba replete with the sights, sounds, and odors of Havana's barrios, as well as its earthy lifestyle. He follows the fortunes of the butcher Maximiliano and his well-born wife, Dolores, who, with their four children, come to the capital to make a new life after a hurricane destroys their entire village. Using the bulls of the title as a metaphor for the swaggering machismo of Cuban men, Bernardo turns this family saga into a brilliant tapestry of the human condition. Love, gossip, jealousy, fear, wisdom, sacrifice, and death all swirl around Maximiliano and Dolores as their children grow up, leave home, and come to terms with their individual natures. The dignity with which the author imbues his characters and his engaging conversational style make for a wonderful novel. It should be a hit in most fiction collections.
-?Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1996 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: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed edition (March 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684831376
• ISBN-13: 978-0684831374
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,713,898 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tantalizing glimpse into another culture, July 1, 2005

By	Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Secret of the Bulls (Hardcover)

This book drips with the richness of Cuban culture, burns with the fiery passion of the characters, and dazzles with the vividly described beauty of the exotic locales.

You'll find yourself hooked from the prologue, as the author introduces his main characters, Maximiliano the butcher's son, and Delores, daughter of a wealthy landowner, and the love that ignites them from their very first meeting.

Turning her back on her family, Delores elopes with her one true love, standing by him through good times, fires and hurricanes, infidelity and adultery, bending like the royal palm trees and then rebounding tall and proud to hold her family together.

The story skillfully weaves its way between the lives of their children - Mani, heir apparent to the trade, who carries on his brawny shoulders the fears and mistakes of the past; Merced the eldest, headstrong and artistic; Gustavo the shy poet and Marguita the youngest. While Merced's marriage ends disastrously, and Gustavo fights to keep his together, Mani remains in awe of the fearsome animals that race down the Street of the Bulls in their last run before they end up on his slab, tenderly and skillfully converted to prime cuts for the waiting and appreciative customers.

Full of local culture, nosy neighbors, steamy seduction and time honored male rituals of honor, this story is never boring, but subtly brings out the strength of the Cuban woman and the importance of family.

Amanda Richards, July 2, 2005

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great story told with heart and passion. A great read, October 10, 2001

By A Customer

How can one rate this book? What is higher than five stars? A firmament? Well then, this book deserves a firmament.

I have read The Secret of the Bulls not once, not twice, but three times; and each time I read it I find something new in it. I confess that I have been deeply moved by it every single time I have read it, and yet, I have been moved in different places, which I find it strange. I guess I bring the state of my own personal life into the reading.

I fell instantly in love with all the characters, particularly that of Mani, a young boy who is the son and the grandson of a butcher but who dreams of being an artist, something almost impossible in the macho society in which he lives. Like Mani, I also come from a very poor background and yet I am pursuing a life in the arts, so I thoroughly identified with him. We first meet Mani as a boy, and we last meet him when as a young man he discovers what the Secret of the Bulls is all about: Finding your own identity and living your life at your own speed, following your own way, whether other people like or not. You have to read the book to the very, very end to understand what I mean. So please, I beg you to read it, it may change your life. It has changed mine. It has given me a lot of hope, and I always feel great when I finish reading it. The book has made me laugh (I mean, I actually laughed aloud as I read it); it has made me cry several times; and let's face it, the sex sceneswhich are indeed essential to the story for a changewere called steamy by Publisher's Weekly, and WOW! They were not kidding!

A great story told with heart and passion.

A great read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Tapestry of the Human Condition, June 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Secret of the Bulls (Hardcover)

In his fictional debut, Bernardo resurrects prerevolutionary Cuba replete with the sights, sounds, and odors of Havana's barrios, as well as its earthy lifestyle. He follows the fortunes of the butcher Maximiliano and his well-born wife, Dolores, who with their four children, come to the capital to make a new life after a hurricane destroys their entire village. Using the bulls of the title as a metaphor for the swaggering machismo of Cuban men, Bernardo turns this family saga into a brilliant tapestry of the human condition. Love, gossip, jealousy, fear, wisdom, sacrifice and death all swirl around Maximiliano and Dolores as their children grow up, leave home, and come to terms with their individual natures. The dignity with which the author imbues his characters and his engaging conversational style make for a wonderful novel. It should be a hit in most fiction collections. çopyright, LIBRARY JOURNAL, February 1, 1996.