Chantel Acevedo
Auteur van The Distant Marvels
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Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geboortedatum
- 20th Century
- Geslacht
- female
- Nationaliteit
- USA
- Geboorteplaats
- Miami, Florida, USA
- Woonplaatsen
- Auburn, Alabama, USA
- Beroepen
- assistant professor of creative writing at Auburn University
Professor of English, University of Miami - Agent
- Stephanie Abou
- Korte biografie
- Called "a master storyteller" by Kirkus Reviews, Chantel Acevedo is the author of the novels Love and Ghost Letters, A Falling Star, The Distant Marvels, which was a finalist for the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and , The Living Infinite, hailed by Booklist as a "vivid and enthralling tale of love and redemption." Muse Squad: The Cassandra Curse and Muse Squad: The Mystery of the Tenth, Acevedo's new middle grade duology (called "Riveting and suspenseful" by School Library Journal) was published by Balzer + Bray. Her latest middle grade novel, THE CURSE ON SPECTACLE KEY, is a lightly spooky story set in the Florida Keys, coming September 6th, 2022. She is Professor of English at the University of Miami, where she directs the MFA program.
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The Distant Marvels: A Novel door Chantel Acevedo
Acevedo is a talented storyteller. She expertly weaves the threads of many tales into a singular patchwork. The most Marvel-ous part of the book is the knowledge and texture with which Acevedo paints Cuban history. This reader certainly felt as if she was there, experiencing the heartaches of the narrator firsthand.
The story opens in in Cuba in 1963, as Hurricane Flora is about to hit the island. A group of women have been evacuated to a more substantial building. Protagonist Maria Serena, now in her eighties, tells her life story to the women to keep them occupied while the storm rages.
“I have more in common with these women, I realize, than I do with anyone else in the world. We are bound together by fear and memory, fastened by the common mysteries of motherhood, made familiar to one another in the shadow of a monstrous storm.”
I thought this book was going to be about a woman reading to cigar workers, but it turns out to be quite different. Yes, Maria Serena used to work as a storyteller in a cigar factory, but this part of her life is never told in any detail. The storyline alternates between long sections about Maria Serena’s past and short sections about the women sheltering from the storm. The majority of the book is set in the early 1900s, when Cuba was fighting Spain for independence. I particularly enjoyed the parts set during the Cuban Liberation movement, where we find passages such as:
“La Cuchilla was barricaded all around with a tall fence of spiked posts. Guards stood at the single entrance to the town. I’d heard of these camps, where Cubans were forcibly concentrated in order to keep villagers from assisting the Liberation Army. People in the camps were called the reconcentrados. It was Agustín who had first described these places, cut off from food and fresh water, where Cubans were dying by the thousands of disease and starvation.”
This book comes across as realistic historical fiction. There is a romance, but it is not the primary driver of the plot. It is the type that can give the reader a sense of what it was like to live in Cuba during the era. It is a good pick for Hispanic Heritage month.… (meer)
“I have more in common with these women, I realize, than I do with anyone else in the world. We are bound together by fear and memory, fastened by the common mysteries of motherhood, made familiar to one another in the shadow of a monstrous storm.”
I thought this book was going to be about a woman reading to cigar workers, but it turns out to be quite different. Yes, Maria Serena used to work as a storyteller in a cigar factory, but this part of her life is never told in any detail. The storyline alternates between long sections about Maria Serena’s past and short sections about the women sheltering from the storm. The majority of the book is set in the early 1900s, when Cuba was fighting Spain for independence. I particularly enjoyed the parts set during the Cuban Liberation movement, where we find passages such as:
“La Cuchilla was barricaded all around with a tall fence of spiked posts. Guards stood at the single entrance to the town. I’d heard of these camps, where Cubans were forcibly concentrated in order to keep villagers from assisting the Liberation Army. People in the camps were called the reconcentrados. It was Agustín who had first described these places, cut off from food and fresh water, where Cubans were dying by the thousands of disease and starvation.”
This book comes across as realistic historical fiction. There is a romance, but it is not the primary driver of the plot. It is the type that can give the reader a sense of what it was like to live in Cuba during the era. It is a good pick for Hispanic Heritage month.… (meer)
I usually have a tough time with historical fiction using people who were once actually alive. It's something about putting words into their mouth. Any fictional story will have to do that - even with the best of intentions, if you went back in time and press the book into their hands, would that person be okay with it? Especially if a reader doesn't know much about someone like the princess Eulalia of Spain. I didn't. But I think Eulalia would like this book. This book also follows the story of Eulalia's nodriza and the wet nurse's son. A famous person, the infanta and one not so famous, the milk brother. The format is interesting - spending time with the two of them as children, but then separating when Eulalia doesn't need a wet nurse anymore. But then their paths cross when they are young adults. Overall, this is a very fluid, vivid novel. The characters of Eulalia and Tomas, the milk brother are both equally present and full of heart, as it moves from Spain to Cuba to the US during the Chicago Worlds Fair. Usually I can compare a book to other books, but this one is tough to do so, maybe because I'm usually not reading historical fiction. But this book surprised me in how much I liked it. Tomas has a deep love for Jules Verne's books and somehow this does share a quality of Verne's books that I can't really describe. I'd say if you liked this book, try 'Galapagos Regained' by James Morrow - kind of a weird mix of Jules Verne and this one.Overall, an interesting piece of literature featuring people or a place I don't know much about.… (meer)
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