Swift As Desire
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Don Jubilo entered the world smiling rather than crying like other babies, and his life mission is to bring happiness to everyone's lives. Even as a young boy, acting as interpreter between his warring Mayan grandmother and his Spanish-speaking mother, he mistranslates words of spite into words of respect, so that their mutual hatred turns to love. When he grows up, he puts his gift for hearing what is in people's hearts and interpreting it to others, to good use in his job as the village telegraph operator. But the telegraph now lies abandoned, obsolete as a means of communication in the electronic age, and don Jubilo is on his deathbed, mute and estranged from his beloved wife, Lucha, who refuses to speak to him. What tragic event has come between such two sensuous, giving people to cause this seemingly irreparable rift? What mystery lies behind the death of their son, Ramiro, whom no one ever mentions? Can daughter Lluvia bring reconciliation to their parents by acting as an interpreter between them, just as Jubilo did for his grandmother and mother when he was a boy?
This bittersweet story of the humble telegraph operator with a talent for curing misunderstanding, for hearing sand dunes sing and insects whisper, is based on the story of Laura Esquivel's own father, just as the much-loved LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE was inspired by her mother's family. Romantic, poignant, touched with graphic earthiness and wit, Esquivel shows us how, in our computerised world of excess, keeping secrets will always lead to unhappiness, and how old-fashioned speaking to each other can redress and heal all our wrongs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The princess of modern Latin literature (second only to Isabel Allende) has written yet another quirky and sensual story with a moralistic twist, its cute-as-can-be characters arguing and loving with equal passion. But Esquivel's fourth novel lacks that certain something that enthralled readers of Like Water for Chocolate. Her writing is choppy, clich -laden and has the feel of a translation (no translator is credited). Yet it invokes chuckles and sighs, and if a reader craves more of the sweet wackiness that made the author's first book so appealing, Swift As Desire certainly delivers. Since birth, J bilo has had a zest for life and an uncanny ability to hear the words in people's hearts before they are able to (or just didn't want to) say them. He puts his talents to good use as a telegraph operator in 1920s Mexico and falls in love with beautiful, wealthy Luz. The couple marries, has children and enjoys a heavenly existence. But something happens during their idyllic life together that drives them apart. Now, their daughter Lluvia is nursing her father as he is bedridden with Parkinson's disease. Before J bilo dies, Lluvia desperately wants to know the cause of her parents' separation. Through Morse code, she communicates with her father and uncovers the secret nothing juicy, just a sad story that could have been avoided if the lines of communication between husband and wife had been more open. Esquivel's storytelling abilities are in top form here, and, despite its unoriginality, the novel succeeds in conveying a touching message of the power of familial and romantic love.
