Stories of Little Women and Grown-up Girls - Hardcover

Sonia Rivera-Vald�©s

3.43

7 ratings by Goodreads

9780972561167: Stories of Little Women and Grown-up Girls

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0972561161 ISBN 13: 9780972561167

Publisher: Editorial Campana, 2007

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Stories of Little Women and Grown-up Girls is a wise book in which its protagonists, even in the most adverse of circumstances, whether gently or going against social conventions, actively participate in the creation of an alternative culture that is mestiza, feminist and cosmopolitan, as well as committed to a transformation of patriarchal society and the myths that it sustains about women. Through agile and precise language tender at times, scrawny when necessary erotism, and sometimes ironic and extremely bitter humor in some stories, take us through well elaborated plots with unpredictable endings that are impossible to put aside once we have started to read them. The book contains ten short stories in which the protagonists differ in age, nationality, the problems they face, and personality, but share several fundamental characteristics: they are the subjects of their destinies, not the objects, even when sometimes this decision comes from their unconscious and is expressed in the honesty and bravery with which they face life. The second characteristic that unites them is the way in which they reflect about themselves and their circumstances,which are sometimes heartwrenching. They are not sorry for themselves and do not feel guilty for their mistakes and misadventures that could hold them back from acting and making the decisions they need to make in order to change the situation that burdens them. They do what they have to do without sentimentalism and without lurking in their pain. They act with a sincerity that drives the reader to feel a profound empathy for these characters. In the Deepest Seed of the Lemon, during a discussion which concludes with a sentence which leaves the reader perplexed by its sagacity and bitter irony, Martirio, the woman from New York, and Roc�o, from Habana, expose their reasons, which are legitimate in both cases, why they defend their decisions, one for living in Cuba, the other for living in the United States.

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From the Inside Flap:

Martirio Fuentes writes a revealing letter to Marta Veneranda, and what follows is a weaving together of details and clues...a plate of pasta, the hidden seed of a lemon, a piece of bluing slowly dissolving in water, New York City and Havana beating in the background... Following the success of her bestselling first book, The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda, Sonia Rivera-Vald�s continues the saga with Stories of Little Women and Grown-up Girls . In these masterful tales, characters and narrations intertwine and whirl. The tragic death of Ana, a writer’s sexual adventures in Cuba, the secret amorous encounters of political prisoners pulled apart by confession and betrayal and the erotic incidents involving a music professor and her student’s fiancee.Love, death, betrayal and sex...these stories rise and fall on waves of humor and surprise, and drop us deep into lives that maintain their centers and strength, regardless of crumbling worlds around them.Sonia Rivera Vald�s was born in Cuba. Her book The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda was awarded the prestigious Casa de las Am�ricas Award in Havana in 1997. She has published short stories and essays in the United States, Latin America and Europe. She currently resides in New York, where she is a professor at York College."From the best selling, award -winning Cuban writer, comes a new collection of powerful, sensual, and mesmerizing tales. Following the successful strategy of her famous The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda (Casa de Las Americas Prize, 1997), Sonia Rivera-Vald�s continues the saga with Stories of Little Women and Grown-up Girls, where love, death, sex, and betrayal intersect in a series of masterful tales impossible to put down.Sonia Rivera Vald�s is a transgressor in different spheres, and has found a strange internal peace in her writing which incessantly, and sheltered by the parasol of tolerance, is at the service of an infinite number of noble causes. Her minimalist style speaks about extremely crude realities in a clear and inimitable language. This is a captivating, unforgettable book." --Nancy Morej�n, Cuba's National Prize for Literature, 2001 "Sonia Rivera-Vald�s has an uncannily intense way of inhabiting the souls of her characters. Their predicaments are usually irresolvable, but then so is life, and it is her allegiance to the texture of life that makes her work so remarkably vivid. These bitterly exuberant, sweetly regretful, very sad and fierce and beautiful stories will haunt you for a long time." --Paul Russell, author of War Against the Animals

About the Author:

SONIA RIVERA-VALD�S (Cuba), is a writer, literary and film critic, and a professor of Spanish Language and Literature at York College. She was born in Cuba, and now lives in New York. In January of 1997, she won the Casa de Las Am�ricas literary prize, one of the most prestigious awards in Latin America, with Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda (The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda), a book of short stories about the intimate lives of Latino immigrants in New York. Her second book, Historias de mujeres grandes y chiquitas, was published by Editorial Campana, New York, in 2003. The translation of this book to English, Stories of Little Women and Grown Up Girls, will be published by Editorial Campana in 2007. Sonia's articles and stories have been extensively published in anthologies and literary magazines in the United States and other countries. For the past twenty-six years, Sonia has worked to promote Cuban and Latin American culture in the United States, as well as establishing cultural links between Latin America and the United States. She currently is the president of Latino Artists Round Table (LART). Sonia also collaborates with the Tertulia de Escritoras Dominicanas in New York, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Dominican Studies Association.

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