Lovesick - Softcover

Mastretta, Angeles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022405032X ISBN 13: 9780224050326

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1998

Synopsis

A bestseller throughout Latin America when it was published last year, Lovesick is the story of a passion interwoven with the history of a nation, a war, a family and a vocation. Emilia Sauri is torn between her love for her childhooh playmate, Daniel Cuenca, who runs off to join the Mexican Revolution, and her desire to become a doctor. Her professional calling leads her to Antonio Zavalza, a physician whose only audacity is to desire peace in the midst of a cival war. With an assured hand and a crystalline touch, reminiscent of the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende, Angeles Mastretta presents the vivid portrait of a woman both fragile and bold, who enters the new century shedding the bonds and predjudices of previous generations. As Emilia must sort through ther affairs of her heart, so too must she confront the fate history presents - a nation wracked by years of war and society awakening to the tumult of the twentieth century, and the place for a woman of many passions.

About this title

Review:

When young Emilia Sauri is born in turn-of-the-century Puebla, Mexico, her father expects great things for this child who will "live her entire life in a new century." Emilia grows up to be an independent woman, a doctor in a time and place when female physicians were few and far between, but history has a habit of sidetracking even the most regulated lives; the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1911 throws the nation into chaos and Emilia's future into uncertainty. Angeles Mastretta's second novel, Lovesick follows the fortunes of Emilia and of Mexico as both are torn by the ravages of war. For Mexico, a dictator's triumphant overthrow slips rapidly into endless bloody revolution; for Emilia, her peaceful life as a healer is disrupted by her conflicting feelings for her lover, a fellow doctor, and Daniel Cuenca, a childhood friend-turned-revolutionary.

In real life, love and war seldom end neatly. So it is with Lovesick, a novel that refuses to give either its characters or readers easy solutions to complex problems. Emilia's choice between the meaningful existence she shares with her lover and the exhilaration she experiences with Daniel is at the heart of this book, yet Angeles Mastretta's novel doesn't wear that heart on its sleeve; like life, Lovesick leaves some questions unanswered.

Synopsis:

Emilia Sauri is torn between her love for her childhood playmate, Daniel Cuenca, who runs off to join the Mexican revolution, and her desire to become a doctor. Her professional calling leads her to Antonio Zavalza, a physician whose only audacity is to desire peace in the midst of civil war.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 022405032X
• ISBN 13: 9780224050326
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304