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Summary
Ivonne Lamazares is one of the most original and exciting new voices on the literary scene. Born and raised in Cuba, she writes of her homeland with unmatched authenticity, immediacy, and poetry. The story of a mother and daughter who flee to American shores, THE SUGAR ISLAND depicts a culture in conflict with itself, where the old world chafes against the new and where a parent's desperate grab for freedom has dire consquences for her child. Remarkably, the events and potent emotions the novel evokes take place not today or yesterday, but at the height of Castro's revolution four decades ago.
The story is told in the brave, tough voice of Tanya, a girl on the verge of womanhood, who is at odds with her mother and with the rapidly changing world around her. In the wake of the revolution, Tanya's mother -- passionate and unreliable -- is determined to leave Cuba at all costs. She is also determined to take her reluctant daughter with her. Tanya is unsure of her mother's motives, and equally unsure of her love. When at last they embark on the perilous sea voyage to freedom, they leave behind the ruins of old Havana and a ravaged landscape. What they face in America, though, is far from certain.
In this embattled mother-daughter relationship lie echoes of the conflicts wrenching apart their tiny country. With economical prose and a clear-eyed vision, Lamazares evokes lives full of hope but fraught with obstacles in the face of dramatic change. Her novel is both prescient and remarkably insightful.
The story is told in the brave, tough voice of Tanya, a girl on the verge of womanhood, who is at odds with her mother and with the rapidly changing world around her. In the wake of the revolution, Tanya's mother -- passionate and unreliable -- is determined to leave Cuba at all costs. She is also determined to take her reluctant daughter with her. Tanya is unsure of her mother's motives, and equally unsure of her love. When at last they embark on the perilous sea voyage to freedom, they leave behind the ruins of old Havana and a ravaged landscape. What they face in America, though, is far from certain.
In this embattled mother-daughter relationship lie echoes of the conflicts wrenching apart their tiny country. With economical prose and a clear-eyed vision, Lamazares evokes lives full of hope but fraught with obstacles in the face of dramatic change. Her novel is both prescient and remarkably insightful.
Details
- Title The Sugar Island
- Author Lamazares, Ivonne
- Binding Trade Cloth
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 224
- Language EN
- Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston
- Date 2000-09-12
- ISBN 9780395860403
Excerpt
"Listen to me," Mama commanded..."This country is just a backwater plaintain grove. Now and forever." She wiped her hands on her apron until she left a dark circle. "Tanya, mija, our life is about to start." Mama always wanted to start life just as I wanted to start a new notebook at school, with neat and crisp lines, waiting to be filled in with important dates and bright colors.
She touched my arm and whispered, "Cousin Romy is coming for us. Tomorrow or the next day we could wake up in Cayo Hueso, or Me-a- me." Mama whispered "Me-a-me" the same way Emanuel and I ate ripe bananas--with greedy, sticky pleasure.
Copyright © 2000 by Ivonne Lamazares
She touched my arm and whispered, "Cousin Romy is coming for us. Tomorrow or the next day we could wake up in Cayo Hueso, or Me-a- me." Mama whispered "Me-a-me" the same way Emanuel and I ate ripe bananas--with greedy, sticky pleasure.
Copyright © 2000 by Ivonne Lamazares
Media reviews
Ivonne Lamazares’s fresh, clear voice and lyrical vision of Cuba past and present are a welcome addition to the New American Literature that’s developing fast along our borders from Miami to Los Angeles.” -- Russell Banks
Ivonne Lamazares writes of the tug of history, the wrenching of families. In an intimate voice that is distinctly her own, this novel is a kind of cross between Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban and Mona Simpson’s Anywhere but Here. Writing of mothers and daughters in a world torn apart by politics, Ivonne Lamazares offers a dazzling new addition to Cuban-American literature.” -- Mary Morris
Reading this magnificent first novel, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that Holden Caulfield had somehow ended up in revolutionary Cuba, transformed into a most irreverent teenage girl, brazen and stubborn and breathtakingly conTdent and keen-eyed, growing up in a society intent on breaking its own lovesick heart. THE SUGAR ISLAND is contemporary Tction at its best, prizewinning Tction, and Ivonne Lamazares is an unforgettable writer.” -- Bob Shacochis
". . . spare, lyrical, and brilliantly observant . . . life in Castro's Cuba . . . comes across clearly in the hands of this talented new writer." Publishers Weekly, Starred
"One of the most original renditions to date by a Cuban-American writer of the contemporary Cuba story." The Miami Herald
"worth reading for its . . . courageous main character, its striking relevance to recent . . . events, and its . . . sketches of Cuban . . . life." The Seattle Times
Ivonne Lamazares writes of the tug of history, the wrenching of families. In an intimate voice that is distinctly her own, this novel is a kind of cross between Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban and Mona Simpson’s Anywhere but Here. Writing of mothers and daughters in a world torn apart by politics, Ivonne Lamazares offers a dazzling new addition to Cuban-American literature.” -- Mary Morris
Reading this magnificent first novel, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that Holden Caulfield had somehow ended up in revolutionary Cuba, transformed into a most irreverent teenage girl, brazen and stubborn and breathtakingly conTdent and keen-eyed, growing up in a society intent on breaking its own lovesick heart. THE SUGAR ISLAND is contemporary Tction at its best, prizewinning Tction, and Ivonne Lamazares is an unforgettable writer.” -- Bob Shacochis
". . . spare, lyrical, and brilliantly observant . . . life in Castro's Cuba . . . comes across clearly in the hands of this talented new writer." Publishers Weekly, Starred
"One of the most original renditions to date by a Cuban-American writer of the contemporary Cuba story." The Miami Herald
"worth reading for its . . . courageous main character, its striking relevance to recent . . . events, and its . . . sketches of Cuban . . . life." The Seattle Times
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The Sugar Island
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