Women with Big Eyes (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Aunt Leonor had the world's most perfect belly button: a small dot hidden exactly in the middle of her flat, flat belly..." (more)
Key Phrases: todas las tardes, las ganas, sus amigas, Aunt Elvira, Aunt Celia, Aunt Jacinta (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thirty-nine indomitable aunts are captured in a series of lyrical snapshots in this autobiographically inspired collection, a bestseller in the award-winning author's native Mexico. Mastretta (Lovesick) originally conceived these brief stories as a way of telling her daughter about her long line of powerful female ancestors; the resulting fictional series of portraits delivers charming lessons in life and love. Among the most memorable of Mastretta's big-eyed women are dutiful Aunt Leonor, her only clandestine desire a craving for medlars, a bittersweet fruit; Aunt Paulina, who meets a Jewish musician and learns that neither love affairs nor works of art are ever quite complete; Aunt Natalia, who dreams of becoming a mermaid; Aunt Fatima, who is courted by the same man for 10 years and discovers that "love, like eternity, is a yearning"; Aunt Daniela, who "fell in love the way intelligent women always fall in love; like an idiot"; and Aunt Ofelia, who never shares her troubles with anyone, determined to "wrinkle up" with smile lines rather than "wrinkle down." Homing in on the essence of each aunt, Mastretta also captures the flavor of her native Puebla: "...the volcanoes, the sky, the mole, the chalupas, the national anthem, the highway to Mexico City... the bittersweet chocolates, the music, the smell of tortillas...." This edition includes the full Spanish text and showcases Mastretta's engaging ability to capture the pivotal moments of a woman's life, when everything changes or begins to make sense for the first time. Though the translation can sometimes be rocky, this celebration of womanhood will captivate readers who enjoy Isabel Allende and Laura Esquivel.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The Washington Post

I've never found chicken soup especially satisfying, whether it's the actual broth or the brief anecdotes that are supposed to nourish the souls of (choose one) moms, dads, grandparents, nurses, teachers, horse lovers or (I am not inventing this) ocean lovers. Consequently, I may be exactly the wrong person to offer an opinion on Mexican writer Angeles Mastretta's collection of short stories, Women with Big Eyes (which comes in both English translation and the original Spanish). There are 37 stories and 39 women in the 189 pages that fill the English-language half of the book, and the result is a lot of five-page tales with all the heft of the literary baubles that have made the chicken soup series a small industry.

Each of the yarns is named for the woman -- or aunt -- who serves as the story's star: There is Aunt Leonor, who "had the world's most perfect belly button," and Aunt Charo with "a restless back and a porcelain nape." Aunt Cristina "wasn't pretty, but something about her slim legs and breathy voice made her interesting," while Aunt Natalia, "she of the short legs and round breasts, fell in love with the sea." The women are not exactly wild, but most are exuberant and erotic and a whole lot smarter than their husbands and lovers and doctors and (yes) kidnappers. If they don't learn a valuable lesson themselves in the course of 500 to 1,000 words, they impart a critical bit of wisdom to their families:

"Love, like eternity, is a yearning." "You can't use up your affection." "Don't ruin the present mourning the past or worrying about the future." Or, this little pearl of self-improvement: "When I am old I want my face not to be sad. I want to have laugh lines and take them with me to the other world. Because who knows what we'll have to face there?" Nevertheless, Mastretta can also be subtle, and she is an immensely gifted stylist. When she gives her stories enough space, her sly and irreverent sense of humor shines as brightly as her characters, and these longer tales are considerably more interesting and complex.

There is Aunt Mariana, for example, who considers ending her affair with her gentle, silent lover from Chipilo one afternoon, after she fears that she has spied two heads in her husband's automobile when he was supposed to be alone. She knows this can't be, however, and so, driven by her own troubled conscience, she races after her hardworking spouse's Mercedes to confess everything and beg his forgiveness. When she catches up to him, she discovers that she had indeed seen another woman with her man. How does she respond?

"For years the city talked about the sweetness with which Aunt Mariana had endured the romance between her husband and Amelia Berumen. What no one could ever understand was how not even during those months of grief did she interrupt her absurd habit of going all the way to Chipilo to buy the weekly cheeses."

The problem with the collection, however, is that not enough of these tales are long enough for the aunts to become more than a blur. Certainly there are plenty of folks in this world who seem to subsist quite nicely on a little chicken soup, but my sense is that Mastretta is capable of offering her readers a considerably more substantial -- and satisfying -- literary meal.

Reviewed by Chris Bohjalian

Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; 1st ptg edition (November 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573223468
• ISBN-13: 978-1573223461
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,129,978 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Character sketches painted with words. , September 4, 2006

By	D. McCue "Bigskeeter" (Norman, OK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love this book. It's a powerful sketchbook of characters. The author introduces each of these characters and makes them so interesting that you just can't stop reading about them. The stories are short and tasty.

There are three things about this book that I find amazing:

1. The writing is as beautiful as it is sensual. Extremely well done.
2. It is the first book I've read that contained both an English translation and the original Spanish text since my high school Spanish teacher handed me "Don Quixote". "Women with Big Eyes" isn't the classic that "Don Quixote" is, but it is a lot more fun to read.
3. I fished this brand new book out of the bargain bin in a WalMart store for three dollars. That makes it one of the best reads for the money I've found all year.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars magic, February 5, 2004

By A Customer

Clicheed? Maybe, but only in the sense that all stories are merely reworkings of previously existing stories. It is the author's pulchritudinous style that makes each of these vignettes riveting, insightful, unforgettable, and one of my personal favorites. Read this book if you want to remember that magic exists in the guise of a woman.

5.0 out of 5 stars An author of breathtaking power and beauty, October 29, 2004

By	John Dewey Stewart (Park City, KS USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Angeles Mastretta has captivated me! Her voice is completely her own, but you will be reminded of elements of Anais Nin, D.H. Lawrence, Yukio Mishima, Gabriel Garcia Marquez - even poets like Pablo Neruda and Rainer Maria Rilke. If you like any two of these writers, I predict you will fall for her as I have. Short stories, beautifully told - stories of real women, living real lives. A book you will devour, over and over.