Kissing the Virgin's Mouth - Softcover

Gershten, Donna M

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060933585 ISBN 13: 9780060933586

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2002

Synopsis

Guadalupe Magdalena Molina Vasquez -- wife, scoundrel, courtesan, mother -- is full of contradictions: she believes in love but is suspicious of men; she rejects religion but admires the Virgin Mary; she respects tradition while breaking all the rules. Here, in the Golden Zone of Teatan, Mexico, Magda tells her extraordinary life story -- from a poor Mexican barrio to American affluence, from wide-eyed childhood to worldly courtesan life, from full-blooded youth to oncoming blindness -- and bewitchingly imparts the hard-earned wisdom she has gained through the years.

About this title

Review:

?Lively and pungent?[Gershten] makes Magdalena a rich and contradictory character?and, moreover, a canny storyteller in her own right.?Los Angeles Times ?Captivating?full of passion and courage?a work of insight and imagination, as well as narrative strength and seductive language.?Washington Post Book World

"Lively and pungent.[Gershten] makes Magdalena a rich and contradictory character-and, moreover, a canny storyteller in her own right." -- Los Angeles Times

"Captivating.full of passion and courage.a work of insight and imagination, as well as narrative strength and seductive language." -- Washington Post Book World

"Captivating...full of passion and courage...a work of insight and imagination, as well as narrative strength and seductive language."--Washington Post Book World

"Lively and pungent...[Gershten] makes Magdalena a rich and contradictory character--and, moreover, a canny storyteller in her own right."--Los Angeles Times

Lively and pungent [Gershten] makes Magdalena a rich and contradictory character and, moreover, a canny storyteller in her own right. --Los Angeles Times"

Captivating full of passion and courage a work of insight and imagination, as well as narrative strength and seductive language. --Washington Post Book World"

From the Back Cover:

WINNER OF THE BELLWETHER PRIZE FOR FICTION

Kissing the Virgin's Mouth is the fictional memoir of Guadalupe Magdalena Molina V squez - wife, scoundrel, courtesan and mother. In a world where gender and class roles are rigid and religion predominant, Magda refuses to be a victim. She creates a philosophy of life that she can thrive in, a religion of cynical optimism, pragmatism, and determined gratitude. Seemingly invincible yet always fallible, Magda climbs from wide-eyed childhood to worldly courtesan life, from youth to the early onset of blindness in middle age.

In the Golden Zone of Teatl n, Sinaloa, Mexico, where tourists and wealthy Mexicans thrive and where poor Mexicans come only to work or visit the shrine of the miracle baby Jesus, Guadalupe performs her daily ritual. In the chair of her beloved T¡a Chucha mortared to the roof of her Golden Zone home, Magda shaves her long legs, tells her life stories and thrusts her fierce prayers of gratitude toward the Sea of Cort‚s. She recounts her life strategies - seasoned with an earthy, hard-earned wisdom - so that she might pass them along to her half-American daughter, Martina, and to her young Mexican cousin, Isabel.

This is a novel about love, the power of sex and the struggles of women. It is about the secrets of survival. It is about what a woman can do.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060933585
• ISBN 13: 9780060933586
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240