The Realm of Hungry Spirits
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The award-winning author of The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters returns with a new novel about a woman who craves solitude, only to find family more fulfilling.
In Buddhism, there is a place where hungry souls gather between lives awaiting rebirth so they can finally satisfy the desires that haunt them.
In the San Fernando Valley, that place is Marina Lucero's house.
The Realm of Hungry Spirits
For Marina Lucero, whose father transformed his life through meditation and whose mother gave hers to a Carmelite convent, spirituality should come easily. It doesn't. After a devastating relationship leaves her feeling lost and alone, she opens her home to a collection of wayward souls-- the abused woman next door and her alcoholic sister, her aimless nephew and his broken-hearted best friend. Her house now full but her heart still empty, Marina then turns to the wisdom of Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, even a Santeria priest who wants to cleanse her home.
As Marina struggles to balance the disappointments and delights of daily life, she'll learn that, when it comes to inner peace and those we love, a little chaos can lead to a lot of happiness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In L pez's second novel, 33-year-old schoolteacher Marina Lucero struggles to free herself from a demanding gaggle of friends and family. Skeptical of religion because of her zealot parents, Marina tries to draw spiritual guidance from the Dalai Lama and Gandhi, but selfless generosity is a constant struggle when an endless parade of down-on-their-luck sycophants turn to her for support. An abused next-door neighbor, a shiftless nephew, a bereaved stepdaughter, and a self-absorbed younger sister are among the needy who find their way to Marina's open door. Rudy, Marina's ex-boyfriend, who dumped her on Valentine's Day, reappears with a laundry list of desires while Rudy's best friend, a self-styled Santeria priest, threatens her with the "evil eye" unless she gives him a character reference. Tragedies major and minor pile up, and Marina starts to feel as though she might, indeed, have been cursed. But she resolves to perform her own self-styled spiritual cleansing and reclaim her life. Through snappy dialogue and rich detail, L pez ( The Gifted Gabald n Sisters) creates characters who are lovable even at their most irritating, and the perpetually ridiculous demands of Marina's "hungry spirits" provide moments of hilarious dark comedy but the overall buildup of grievances becomes repetitive, and Marina doesn't evolve much over the course of the story.
