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Bitter Grounds

Sandra Benítez

Start date: October 1, 2021

Finish date: October 30, 2021

Discussion: Country and Territories

Why we're reading this: Countries/Territories for October is El Salvador.

Bitter Grounds by Sandra Benítez Bitter Grounds by Sandr…more
[close] Countries/Territories for October is El Salvador.

Bitter Grounds by Sandra Benítez Bitter Grounds by Sandra Benitez

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Country and Territories

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Aug 31, 2012 Booknblues rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, latin-america, social-commentary, el-salvador

Bitter grounds, coffee, a harvest many of us crave and one who many in the land of the Savior or El Salvador depend upon as Sandra Benitez tells us in her three generation saga, Bitter Grounds. This richly textured American Book Award Winner, is a sort of rich man, poor man, upstairs, downstairs, set in El Salvador from 1932 through 1977.

It is a compelling read and Sandra Benitez grabs the reader and transports her to El Salvador with the first sentence:

“The parakeets ascened in a rustling roar Bitter grounds, coffee, a harvest many of us crave and one who many in the land of the Savior or El Salvador depend upon as Sandra Benitez tells us in her three generation saga, Bitter Grounds. This richly textured American Book Award Winner, is a sort of rich man, poor man, upstairs, downstairs, set in El Salvador from 1932 through 1977.

It is a compelling read and Sandra Benitez grabs the reader and transports her to El Salvador with the first sentence:

“The parakeets ascened in a rustling roar of wings from the amate and primavera trees. Chattering rowdily, they hailed the rising sun. They flew toward the southern sea cresting in a line of shimmering foam tha broke and then evanesced along the black volcanic shore. The birds wheeled, banking in a long graceful turn before heading back over the forest they had roosted in; they soared toward breakfast in maicillo fields twenty kilometers away. Jabbering, the birds glided and dipped over the alluvial plain furrowed by rivers and streams coming down from the highlands. Across the plain, they trailed a hasty shadow over squares of cattle ranches and rectangles of scattered farms; they sailed past the spot where four hundred years before, don Pedro de Alvarado and his conquistadores defeated the mighty arm of the Pipil. But such a victory exacted its toll for in the fierce skirmish, Alvarado took an arrow in the leg, a wound from which he would never recover.”

And that wound to the leg portends the history of the characters which inhabit Bitter Grounds. Sandra Benitez fleshes out her heroines of each generation, Elena and Mercedes, Magda and Jacinta and Florencia and Maria Mercedes. All are strong and vulnerable, wise and foolish and all are haunted by decisions that will shape their paths and those who follow them.

The familiar structure of the family saga worked well to bring an understanding of the mid-twentieth century history of El Salvador. Sandra Benitez, skillfully fleshed out the intricacies of the culture, the economy and social structure of the country for a reader unfamiliar with it can gain understanding and insight, while at the same time entertaining with a wonderful story. She infused her story gracefully with small elements of magic realism which inhabit many books by Latin American authors.

I would not hesitate to pick up another book by this author. ...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Lisa rated it really liked it

"Bitter Grounds" is a 50 year saga of a few families in El Salvador both poor people and oligarchs in the years leading up to their civil war. Sandra Benitez has obviously researched this period in history thoroughly. Seen through several well drawn characters, the issues become very clear - and very heart breaking. ...more

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