Swift As Desire - Softcover

Esquivel, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552999547 ISBN 13: 9780552999540

Publisher: Black Swan, 2002

Synopsis

Instead of entering the world crying, like other babies, Jubilo was born with a smile on his face. He had a gift for hearing what was in people's hearts, for listening to sand dunes sing and insects whisper. Even as a young boy, acting as an interpreter between his warring Mayan grandmother and Spanish-speaking mother, he would translate words of spite into words of respect, so that their mutual hatred turned to love. When he grew up, he put his gift to good use in his job as a humble telegraph operator.

But now the telegraph lies abandoned, obsolete as a form 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 such sensuous, loving people to cause their seemingly irreparable rift? What mystery lies behind the death of the son no-one ever mentions? Can their daughter bring reconciliation to her parents before it is too late, by acting as an interpreter between them in Morse code, just as Jubilo used to do for other people?

In this magical, bittersweet story, touched with graphic earthiness and wit, Laura Esquivel shows us how keeping secrets will always lead to unhappiness, and how communication is the key to love.

About this title

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Review

Laura Esquivel's Swift As Desire is a novel-cum-tribute to her father Jubilo, "born happy and on holiday" in early 20th-century Mexico. Now on his deathbed and unable to speak, his daughter Lluvia, the story's narrator, tries to puzzle out what had driven her parents' marriage asunder, for "even though the lines were down, their love kept travelling as swift as their desire".

Jubilo seems to have had every virtue: as son, father and friend, his gifts of communication, generosity and warmth were legion. And if his characterisation as husband leans rather too heavily on adoringly possessive Latin who makes love like a divine demon--well, let's overlook the stereotyping. His passion for his wife Lucha and their two children, his dedication to his work as a telegraph operator and his general bon vivance made him a man for all worlds. And yet, and yet... a photograph found by chance leads Lluvia to the heart of the matter.

Esquivel's frequent, interspersed reflections and observations, intruding on the narrative flow, tilt towards the trite and obvious, and are often surprisingly clumsily expressed. But the award-winning author of the bestselling Like Water for Chocolate presents her characters with such affection and zest, and such bountiful sensuality, that the book's shortcomings can be overlooked. --Ruth Petrie

About this edition

• Publisher: Black Swan
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0552999547
• ISBN 13: 9780552999540
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230