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If I Bring You Roses
A passionate story of love and hope that has "everything you want in a novel—flawed, complicated characters, lush descriptions, breathtaking plot, and a fierce beating heart" (Tayari Jones, New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage ).
In a small town in Puerto Rico, Felicidad Hidalgo spends her days serving busybodies in her aunt's bakery, and her nights dreaming of home. Closing her eyes she can almost hear the sweet songs of tree frogs, reminding her of the mountain village of her childhood, and the family she hasn't seen in nearly a decade. Her new life in town has delivered her from poverty, but not from loneliness—until the afternoon Aníbal walks through the door.
Aníbal Acevedo is not in need of a wife, but when he meets Felicidad while visiting family, he is stunned by the power of his attraction. Almost before he realizes what's happening, he has taken the girl into his bed and into his home—in Chicago. Yet soon the young lovers discover that married life is anything but idyllic. Can they find the courage to overcome the obstacles and temptations of their new world and rediscover the passion they once shared? Or will each find love and redemption in the arms of another?
In a small town in Puerto Rico, Felicidad Hidalgo spends her days serving busybodies in her aunt's bakery, and her nights dreaming of home. Closing her eyes she can almost hear the sweet songs of tree frogs, reminding her of the mountain village of her childhood, and the family she hasn't seen in nearly a decade. Her new life in town has delivered her from poverty, but not from loneliness—until the afternoon Aníbal walks through the door.
Aníbal Acevedo is not in need of a wife, but when he meets Felicidad while visiting family, he is stunned by the power of his attraction. Almost before he realizes what's happening, he has taken the girl into his bed and into his home—in Chicago. Yet soon the young lovers discover that married life is anything but idyllic. Can they find the courage to overcome the obstacles and temptations of their new world and rediscover the passion they once shared? Or will each find love and redemption in the arms of another?
351 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
17 people are currently reading
312 people want to read
About the author
Marisel Vera
3 books107 followersMarisel Vera’s new novel
The Taste of Sugar
– a tale of love and endurance set in Puerto Rico on the eve of the Spanish-American War – will be published by Liveright Publishing (a division of W.W. Norton & Company) in 2020.
Marisel’s first novel If I Bring You Roses was published by Hachette Book Group in 2011. If I Bring You Roses is about a Puerto Rican couple who migrates to Chicago during Operation Bootstrap.
Vera grew up in the barrio in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. Vera studied writing with Paulette Roeske, Margaret Gibson, Jonis Agee, Rosellen Brown, and Cristina Garcia. Vera won the Willow Review literary magazine’s fiction prize for two of her short stories in 2000 ("The Liberation of Carmela Lopez") and 2003 ("Shoes for Cuba").
Marisel’s first novel If I Bring You Roses was published by Hachette Book Group in 2011. If I Bring You Roses is about a Puerto Rican couple who migrates to Chicago during Operation Bootstrap.
Vera grew up in the barrio in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. Vera studied writing with Paulette Roeske, Margaret Gibson, Jonis Agee, Rosellen Brown, and Cristina Garcia. Vera won the Willow Review literary magazine’s fiction prize for two of her short stories in 2000 ("The Liberation of Carmela Lopez") and 2003 ("Shoes for Cuba").
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
March 14, 2021
Marisel Vera’s ability to write characters and a plot that keeps you invested always amazes me. After I read The Taste Of Sugar last year and it was one of my favourite reads for the 2020. I wanted to read a lot more of her work, fast forward and I got to read If I Bring You Roses .
The book opens in a small mountainous town in Puerto Rico where Felicidad Hidalgo mother is going through a mental break down after having a miscarriage for the second time. She is taken away from her home to be observed and to work on her health. While she is gone, Felicidad must now drop out of school to care for her entire family. The work is endlessly and unrewarding, added to this is the sense of lack that is ever present.
Her father decided to give one of his children a change and choose her. She was sent to live with his brother in a town nearby where she would have access to an education and a chance to study and make something of herself. She taught living with her richer uncle would change her situation, but it is a lot of work and she is always alone and feeling lonely. That is until one day a stranger walk into the cage she was working and asked her to go to the beach with him… a trip to the beach turns out to be a lot more than they both bargained for.
Anibal Acevedo has been living in Chicago for a while and life in America is not what he thought he it would be. With his mother constant plea for him to visit Puerto Rico, he flies home to help his father with the harvest and meet the girl his month thinks would be perfect for him. While is perfectly comfortable with his bachelor life, all of that changes when he sees Felicidad. They have a quick wedding, he leaves for Chicago, she joins him later but nothing could prepare them for life as young newlyweds.
First, I want to say the graphic team did this book so bad by giving it this gaudy cover. I’ve had this book on my list a long while and I did not pick it up because the cover was just so dreary and uninspiring. After cracking open the book, I was immediately immersed in the story and I wanted to inhale it. Marisel Vera is so great as writing a plot that makes you invested, that keeps you cheering for the character to the very last pages.
I have such an affinity for stories written and told by Puerto Ricans, and I felt this one was a gem. It covers themes of love, family, colorism, poverty, immigration, race and identity. I really enjoyed Anibal Acevedo’s journey from Puerto Rico and how he experienced life in these two opposing countries. We see how differently he is treated, base on his race or the colour of his skin. How hard he works without rest, and him questioning whether the opportunity cost is worth it.
Yes, I was not here for the extended look into Anibal’s sex life and how he is such a great lover… also the gender roles in this book really had me annoyed in some cases, but I am chalking it up to culture. I also wish we got more information on what became of Felicidad’s family back home.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
The book opens in a small mountainous town in Puerto Rico where Felicidad Hidalgo mother is going through a mental break down after having a miscarriage for the second time. She is taken away from her home to be observed and to work on her health. While she is gone, Felicidad must now drop out of school to care for her entire family. The work is endlessly and unrewarding, added to this is the sense of lack that is ever present.
Her father decided to give one of his children a change and choose her. She was sent to live with his brother in a town nearby where she would have access to an education and a chance to study and make something of herself. She taught living with her richer uncle would change her situation, but it is a lot of work and she is always alone and feeling lonely. That is until one day a stranger walk into the cage she was working and asked her to go to the beach with him… a trip to the beach turns out to be a lot more than they both bargained for.
Anibal Acevedo has been living in Chicago for a while and life in America is not what he thought he it would be. With his mother constant plea for him to visit Puerto Rico, he flies home to help his father with the harvest and meet the girl his month thinks would be perfect for him. While is perfectly comfortable with his bachelor life, all of that changes when he sees Felicidad. They have a quick wedding, he leaves for Chicago, she joins him later but nothing could prepare them for life as young newlyweds.
First, I want to say the graphic team did this book so bad by giving it this gaudy cover. I’ve had this book on my list a long while and I did not pick it up because the cover was just so dreary and uninspiring. After cracking open the book, I was immediately immersed in the story and I wanted to inhale it. Marisel Vera is so great as writing a plot that makes you invested, that keeps you cheering for the character to the very last pages.
I have such an affinity for stories written and told by Puerto Ricans, and I felt this one was a gem. It covers themes of love, family, colorism, poverty, immigration, race and identity. I really enjoyed Anibal Acevedo’s journey from Puerto Rico and how he experienced life in these two opposing countries. We see how differently he is treated, base on his race or the colour of his skin. How hard he works without rest, and him questioning whether the opportunity cost is worth it.
Yes, I was not here for the extended look into Anibal’s sex life and how he is such a great lover… also the gender roles in this book really had me annoyed in some cases, but I am chalking it up to culture. I also wish we got more information on what became of Felicidad’s family back home.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
August 1, 2011
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading If I Bring You Roses. Having known Marisel Vera since I befriended her daughter about six or seven years ago, I knew that she loved Nabokov and Jane Austen. I also knew that family, her Puerto Rican heritage, and life in Chicago were (and are) very important to her. These qualities were evident in If I Bring You Roses. I never knew much about Puerto Rico but the book was so rich and resplendent with imagery and sensations from the land that I felt like I had been there myself. I could understand how much of a struggle it was for people like Felicidad, who were transplanted from P.R. to an unfamiliar place they knew only as "America," where everyone had steady jobs and plenty to eat. I often forgot who had written the book because I was so absorbed in Felicidad and Anibal's story. It has the draw and enjoyability of a romance novel and the curiosity and intelligence of historical fiction. I'll be recommending to everyone I know!
July 17, 2012
Bad cover, good book. It definitely uses the full range of the English language, from the narrator's gorgeous descriptions of the Puerto Rican landscape to the raw descriptions of sex by one of the protagonists. I didn't always connect with the characters, but the author made me feel that I understood them.
July 21, 2013
I really liked this book. It is the story of Felicidad, a young girl in Puerto Rico in the early 50's, whose parents have sent her to work for a relative - a fairly cruel aunt - because they have so many other children to feed and care for in their mountain home. She thinks that she may have found the man of her dreams, but things don't turn out quite the way she expects. This is a really excellent portrait of the difference between the way males and females think, especially in some of the Latin American cultures of the 50's (and the U.S. culture in the 50's, as well!) It is a mesmerizing story as the reader follows Felicidad down some paths that she never thought she would have to tread, or in fact, could never even have imagined as she was growing up.
October 3, 2011
You will love the story of Felicidad and Anibal, because it is seductive without being overwrought, beautifully told without its author, Marisel Vera trying too hard to write beautifully and a page-turning love story about aspiration, the cruel realities of an immigrant’s life but mostly about the betrayal of love and, if possible, any redemption from the failings of the human heart. I needed a love story to help me soften the hard edges of my spirit and in this book, I found compassion, fury, the language of Puerto Ricans in my ears that sounded so much like the Bronx that I felt transported into the world of those streets screaming, “Maricon!” or “Cono!” Like every woman, I have felt unwanted at some point. I have also felt overworked like Felicidad, and I have yearned innocently for a love that would help me recover from the breathless sea of that wanting, so reading this book reminded me again that it is possible, even after so much disappointment in love, to forgive and to move on and to deepen or expand that love. But it helped me, too, feel tenderness for the Felicidad I know still lives in me – a beautiful, wide-eyed but determined girlish soul who will not let life break her.
March 13, 2013
I dug this novel. It was a brisk, engaging read that was well-paced especially after the male protagonist, Anibal, travels back to Puerto Rico and meets the novel's main protagonist, Felicidad. Without giving away too much of the plot, I'll say that Anibal becomes an epic choad. His actions in the second half of the book made me want to beat the shit out of him while I read it; one of the few fiction books I've ever read that managed to spike my pulse with anger. (A mark of good writing, right?) The one thing I disliked was the ending. Perhaps because I thought of the novel as a Puerto Rican tale loosely akin to Cinderella, I thought the ending was way too fairy tale, a bit too idealistic, much too easy on Anibal when I wanted Felicidad—even within the story's 1950's, a-woman's-place-is-in-the-kitchen context—to be more stout for herself; more of a heroine. I consider that a missed opportunity. But other than that, and the creepy strangeness of the "Spirit Lover," I thought this was a solid book chronicling two kinds of American migrations that are not sufficiently found in our body of literature.
June 14, 2014
Started off strong and was a good story overall but midway I started to become distant from the characters and by the end I stopped caring what happened to them. I expected something better from the ending, though the ending that was written is probably more realistic than I wanted it to be.
Excellent portrayal of another culture and the hard times people face and the division even within your own culture.
Excellent portrayal of another culture and the hard times people face and the division even within your own culture.
December 16, 2020
Felicidad. She's my favourite
I found the book hard to put down. I was anxious to know what would happen with Felicidad, if ahe would come into her own, how would she fare. She was quite a likeable character
I found the book hard to put down. I was anxious to know what would happen with Felicidad, if ahe would come into her own, how would she fare. She was quite a likeable character
December 31, 2024
I love how this story takes places in the 50s in Chicago. 6 corners plaza - Sears was mentioned 🤧
I love Felicidad character, good for her for standing up to her wack as husband & leaving him ( Puerto Rican woman not knowing anyone, other than her husband’s friend, no job, no money, doesn’t know English, middle of winter in Chicago, in the 50s! was very bold of her) she got herself a job while living with another Puerto Rican family & took English classes.
Anibal only knew how to be “man” by the definition his father envision for him & that’s all he knew until he changed. (Which I’m rooting he never falls for another MARTHA!
I love Felicidad character, good for her for standing up to her wack as husband & leaving him ( Puerto Rican woman not knowing anyone, other than her husband’s friend, no job, no money, doesn’t know English, middle of winter in Chicago, in the 50s! was very bold of her) she got herself a job while living with another Puerto Rican family & took English classes.
Anibal only knew how to be “man” by the definition his father envision for him & that’s all he knew until he changed. (Which I’m rooting he never falls for another MARTHA!
June 22, 2011
Award-winning, first-time novelist Marisel Vera pens an honest, heart-felt, often sad tale of an idealistic, naïve Puerto Rican girl named Felicidad who goes to America to be with the man she loves.
The story, told from an author omniscient point of view, begins in the early 1940’s in the Puerto Rican countryside and ends about ten years later in Chicago. It follows Felicidad’s life from the time she’s a young jíbara living in appalling poverty in the mountains to the time she gets married and moves to America.
Young Felicidad lives in a tiny shack with her parents and siblings. Her father works in the fields and can barely support them. At times, Felicidad must be happy with only one meal a day. Their living conditions are so deplorable, she must tie her locks in a bun so that flying roaches in the latrine will not make a nest in her hair. Her sister dies because they can’t afford medical care. But worst of all, her mother is losing her mind. Unable to face the situation they’re in, one day her mother climbs naked onto the roof. The priest, of course, says she’s possessed by the devil.
Then Felicidad is sent to another town to live with her uncle and his wife, who own a panaderia. Though her uncle is kind and quiet most of the times, her aunt finds every opportunity to criticize Felicidad and treat her like a servant. Felicidad, naïve and good-natured, does her best to put up with her. She slaves in the panaderia and remains submissive, but she dreams of a prince who will love her and ‘rescue’ her one day. Years pass and Felicidad doesn’t hear a word from her family. She misses them terribly and would like nothing more than to visit them, but she wonders if the feeling is reciprocated and, afraid of rejection by her own flesh and blood, she stays away from them.
One day, a handsome man walks into the panaderia and Felicidad is swept off her feet. Aníbal Acevedo, a man of the world as far as women go, is taken by Felicidad’s innocent beauty. To everyone’s shock, a few days later, he asks her to marry him. Felicidad is ecstatic, filled with idealistic illusions of happiness, but is Aníbal capable of fulfilling his dreams, when he has another woman waiting for him in Chicago?
Marisel Vera’s prose flows beautifully. In a skillful, often blunt manner, she paints a painfully realistic picture of the jíbaro. In a way, Felicidad’s story is a Cinderella story but with an unusual twist. The two protagonists, Felicidad and Aníbal, come to live through the pages, each one so very distinctive from the other. It is especially fascinating to be inside Aníbal’s mind and see the world from his perspective, a brutal contrast to Felicidad. Their love story is bitter sweet. But most of all, the author gives us a powerfully sad glimpse of the jíbaro in the 1950’s in Chicago, their difficult lives and tribulations, the prejudice they had to confront. Vera is definitely a new Latina voice to be reckoned with, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
The story, told from an author omniscient point of view, begins in the early 1940’s in the Puerto Rican countryside and ends about ten years later in Chicago. It follows Felicidad’s life from the time she’s a young jíbara living in appalling poverty in the mountains to the time she gets married and moves to America.
Young Felicidad lives in a tiny shack with her parents and siblings. Her father works in the fields and can barely support them. At times, Felicidad must be happy with only one meal a day. Their living conditions are so deplorable, she must tie her locks in a bun so that flying roaches in the latrine will not make a nest in her hair. Her sister dies because they can’t afford medical care. But worst of all, her mother is losing her mind. Unable to face the situation they’re in, one day her mother climbs naked onto the roof. The priest, of course, says she’s possessed by the devil.
Then Felicidad is sent to another town to live with her uncle and his wife, who own a panaderia. Though her uncle is kind and quiet most of the times, her aunt finds every opportunity to criticize Felicidad and treat her like a servant. Felicidad, naïve and good-natured, does her best to put up with her. She slaves in the panaderia and remains submissive, but she dreams of a prince who will love her and ‘rescue’ her one day. Years pass and Felicidad doesn’t hear a word from her family. She misses them terribly and would like nothing more than to visit them, but she wonders if the feeling is reciprocated and, afraid of rejection by her own flesh and blood, she stays away from them.
One day, a handsome man walks into the panaderia and Felicidad is swept off her feet. Aníbal Acevedo, a man of the world as far as women go, is taken by Felicidad’s innocent beauty. To everyone’s shock, a few days later, he asks her to marry him. Felicidad is ecstatic, filled with idealistic illusions of happiness, but is Aníbal capable of fulfilling his dreams, when he has another woman waiting for him in Chicago?
Marisel Vera’s prose flows beautifully. In a skillful, often blunt manner, she paints a painfully realistic picture of the jíbaro. In a way, Felicidad’s story is a Cinderella story but with an unusual twist. The two protagonists, Felicidad and Aníbal, come to live through the pages, each one so very distinctive from the other. It is especially fascinating to be inside Aníbal’s mind and see the world from his perspective, a brutal contrast to Felicidad. Their love story is bitter sweet. But most of all, the author gives us a powerfully sad glimpse of the jíbaro in the 1950’s in Chicago, their difficult lives and tribulations, the prejudice they had to confront. Vera is definitely a new Latina voice to be reckoned with, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
December 13, 2011
stayed up late to finish this, I'm not sure it was worth it.
January 4, 2022
"I believe in spirits," Felicidad says. "I believe in making love," he said.
If I Bring Your Roses by Marisel Vera was another beautiful ode to Puerto Rico, its people, and the ways they survive U.S. oppression. This is a story about two young people, Anibal and Felicidad trying to make sense of love and find belonging in a country that offers them nothing but broken promises, racism, colonialism, generational poverty and disrespect.
Vera's strength is in writing multifaceted characters that blur the lines and venture into morally grey areas. Anibal is a "ladies man" who can't commit and is representative of the machismo of the 1950's. Underneathe it all he's trying to be a good man who will make his parents back home proud while being dehumanized and emasculated on a daily basis for being Puerto Rican. Felicidad, whose name means happiness, comes from an impoverished background and was sent away by her family to give her opportunities, feels alone and void of love until Anibal.
Both are trying to make sense of the expectations placed upon them by society: masculinity vs. feminity. Both come from poverty and inadequate education. Both have different ideas about love and family. Anibal fills the void with women and Felicidad with daydreaming and spirits. Both want to belong but everywhere they turn in Chicago are reminders of that they are "foreign". How do you create your own identity and build a life with someone you barely know at the same time? How do you dispel the stereotypes and break generational curses without a proper foundation?
Vera is a magical storyteller because she makes you hang on every word. She paints the background one piece at a time and she gives you deep characters that steal your heart and live in your brain forever rent free. She transports you to Puerto Rico via the tastes and smells of the food and the rhythm of the music. She reminds you that despite the legacy of displacement, home for Puerto Ricans is where you make. It's where you find community and where you find the people worth fighting for. Home is where you find the Ana's of the world who push boundaries, fight for women & take their country with them everywhere they go.
If I Bring Your Roses by Marisel Vera was another beautiful ode to Puerto Rico, its people, and the ways they survive U.S. oppression. This is a story about two young people, Anibal and Felicidad trying to make sense of love and find belonging in a country that offers them nothing but broken promises, racism, colonialism, generational poverty and disrespect.
Vera's strength is in writing multifaceted characters that blur the lines and venture into morally grey areas. Anibal is a "ladies man" who can't commit and is representative of the machismo of the 1950's. Underneathe it all he's trying to be a good man who will make his parents back home proud while being dehumanized and emasculated on a daily basis for being Puerto Rican. Felicidad, whose name means happiness, comes from an impoverished background and was sent away by her family to give her opportunities, feels alone and void of love until Anibal.
Both are trying to make sense of the expectations placed upon them by society: masculinity vs. feminity. Both come from poverty and inadequate education. Both have different ideas about love and family. Anibal fills the void with women and Felicidad with daydreaming and spirits. Both want to belong but everywhere they turn in Chicago are reminders of that they are "foreign". How do you create your own identity and build a life with someone you barely know at the same time? How do you dispel the stereotypes and break generational curses without a proper foundation?
Vera is a magical storyteller because she makes you hang on every word. She paints the background one piece at a time and she gives you deep characters that steal your heart and live in your brain forever rent free. She transports you to Puerto Rico via the tastes and smells of the food and the rhythm of the music. She reminds you that despite the legacy of displacement, home for Puerto Ricans is where you make. It's where you find community and where you find the people worth fighting for. Home is where you find the Ana's of the world who push boundaries, fight for women & take their country with them everywhere they go.
May 25, 2021
I have always loved books that transport me to a different time and place. The author did an excellent job of creating the world of rural Puerto Rico. The isolation, grinding poverty and family love were all well-drawn. The main character was compelling in her journey from Puerto Rican country innocent to a lonely and neglected Chicago housewife. The conflicts were well drawn and believable. Considering the nuanced and well-drawn conflicts, the book would have benefitted from slower and more detailed resolutions. However, I highly recommend this novel for any reader who is interested in the history and culture of Puerto Rico or for any reader who simply seeks a good read.
May 18, 2021
Vera brings us to the mountains of Puerto Rico where coffee is grown and harvested by people living on the edge of subsistence. After her mother's illness Felicidad is sent to live with her aunt and uncle as a servant in their house and bakery. Felicidad feels rejected by everyone and then Anibal Acevedo walks into her bakery and sweeps her away. Will he be her fabulous shadow prince? Or does he hide dark deeds?
August 18, 2023
I’m not one for love stories. This book is about a love story and the struggles of being in a relationship and a marriage. Felicidad lived in the mountains of Puetro Rico. What you learn quickly is the poverty and the impact it has on families. The compromises people make. The sacrifices families make to make a better life for their children. This is why Felicidad is sent away to live with her aunt. Her life must go on. Anibal enters. Nothing is the after that.
August 23, 2020
Revealing our culture
This beautifully written novel took me back to my roots in Puerto Rico. It was a for me a very emotional journey into my past childhood memories. The cultural traits of our cultural behaviors were simply beautifully revealed by someone not born in the campos. Thank you. Loved the book
This beautifully written novel took me back to my roots in Puerto Rico. It was a for me a very emotional journey into my past childhood memories. The cultural traits of our cultural behaviors were simply beautifully revealed by someone not born in the campos. Thank you. Loved the book
April 1, 2023
This book was very realistic to the stories of my grandparents and the Campos of Puerto Rico and their move to Chicago later on. For some people I can see how the ending left more to be desired but it's just very realistic...i feel like the audience that this is written for already knows where these characters end up.
October 16, 2020
I’m interested in reading others’ reviews of this. As a Nuyorican, I know this story is historical fiction. Some feminists might blast this book, but it is real. I’ve known women just like Felicidad at different points in her life in the book. I loved this.
Read
October 6, 2019The ending for me was a complete disaster.
February 7, 2020
Sweet book which gave me some insight into the life of Puerto Rican’s both on the island and on the mainland.
June 24, 2022
I would have been happier if Anibal got ran over with a bus at the end.
November 18, 2011
Marisel Vera read at CLC two weeks ago and I brought two of my comp students. My students and I were hooked after hearing the chapter (from the middle of the book) that she read and so I had to buy it. I promised to loan this to my students after I"m done.
Having read the whole book now, I can see that Vera chose the perfect chapter to read because it focused on a turning point in the story. The chapter involved Felicidad Hidalgo's arrival to Chicago from Puerto Rico in 1952 to be with her husband, Anibal Acevedo. Felicidad is still a newly wed (after the wedding, she stayed behind to visit with her family for 2 weeks while Anibal returned to the U.S.) and their relationship is barely older than their marriage. In Puerto Rico, Anibal had been captivated by Felicidad's beauty and by her troubling situation--living and working almost as a domestic servant in the home of her aunt. Anibal's mother had pushed for the relationship when Anibal came back to Puerto Rico for a visit but even as the mother has second thoughts, it's too late because Anibal is smitten.
However, the dynamic changes when Anibal returns to the U.S. He is quite the womanizer and has been carrying on a relationship with a woman named Marta--a relationship that continues after he returns to Chicago as a married man. Two weeks later, when Felicidad steps off the plane, Anibal feels that he has made a mistake. Though Felicidad's beauty and vulnerability make him want to take her in his arms, Anibal also thinks this marriage is not right and so he holds her at a distance. The whole chapter is a dance back and forth between the two characters emotional states--Anibal's desire to get out of the marriage warring with his attraction to Felicidad and Felicidad's growing confusion at her husband's distancing coldness. Not suprisingly, this coldness is echoed in the snow and ice of Chicago in January. Can you see why we all were hooked?
The first half of the book leads to this moment--telling the story of how Felicidad escapes the grinding poverty of her family's farm up in the mountains to live with her aunt and uncle-only to find this as soul-crushing as well as the story of Anibal's youth and move to the United States. I won't give away what happens after that New Year's eve in Chicago but the story is complex, heart-breaking, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding. Though sometimes I got frustrated with the way characters got trapped in certain mindsets, I realized that in many ways, that is the point. These characters are trapped by so many things--internal and external. As a result, you root for their relationship and hope that they will get a chance to change together.
Having read the whole book now, I can see that Vera chose the perfect chapter to read because it focused on a turning point in the story. The chapter involved Felicidad Hidalgo's arrival to Chicago from Puerto Rico in 1952 to be with her husband, Anibal Acevedo. Felicidad is still a newly wed (after the wedding, she stayed behind to visit with her family for 2 weeks while Anibal returned to the U.S.) and their relationship is barely older than their marriage. In Puerto Rico, Anibal had been captivated by Felicidad's beauty and by her troubling situation--living and working almost as a domestic servant in the home of her aunt. Anibal's mother had pushed for the relationship when Anibal came back to Puerto Rico for a visit but even as the mother has second thoughts, it's too late because Anibal is smitten.
However, the dynamic changes when Anibal returns to the U.S. He is quite the womanizer and has been carrying on a relationship with a woman named Marta--a relationship that continues after he returns to Chicago as a married man. Two weeks later, when Felicidad steps off the plane, Anibal feels that he has made a mistake. Though Felicidad's beauty and vulnerability make him want to take her in his arms, Anibal also thinks this marriage is not right and so he holds her at a distance. The whole chapter is a dance back and forth between the two characters emotional states--Anibal's desire to get out of the marriage warring with his attraction to Felicidad and Felicidad's growing confusion at her husband's distancing coldness. Not suprisingly, this coldness is echoed in the snow and ice of Chicago in January. Can you see why we all were hooked?
The first half of the book leads to this moment--telling the story of how Felicidad escapes the grinding poverty of her family's farm up in the mountains to live with her aunt and uncle-only to find this as soul-crushing as well as the story of Anibal's youth and move to the United States. I won't give away what happens after that New Year's eve in Chicago but the story is complex, heart-breaking, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding. Though sometimes I got frustrated with the way characters got trapped in certain mindsets, I realized that in many ways, that is the point. These characters are trapped by so many things--internal and external. As a result, you root for their relationship and hope that they will get a chance to change together.
November 13, 2011
I recommended this title for a book club discussion after Las Comadres book club chose it as their October read. At a point during the story I became concerned maybe it wasn't and appropriate recommendation for our group, due to some language and salacious passages. As I read on I became convinced it was actually a relevant choice that deals with gender identity influenced by culture and transformation. Our book discussion should be interesting considering we are a group of women that celebrate growth and transformation-how could we not be..we are all educators and recognize the only absolute is change! Hope you ladies like it.
June 27, 2011
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" meets "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," this book provides a fresh and insightful perspective on Puerto Rican customs and culture, while telling a personable tale of life and love. This is the first book in a long while that has made me cry at the ending, both because of its sublime beauty and because there was no more story left to read. A must read!
November 11, 2012
Such a sad tale of a poor PR women with not options in life. I feel so blessed to not have born in this time period. This book was brutaly honest. The only thing I craved from this book was the food. Must have some criolla food soon and also reminds me that I need to practice my recipes so that they can be perfected.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2012
Wonderful story-telling in this novel about the immigrant experience in chicago in the mid-20th century
April 5, 2012
Enjoyable, quick read.
December 10, 2013
A story of love. Love of one's home, family, respect, and appreciation for the smallest of things and muddled with the hope of the love of a man. A person can learn to love - right?
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