Amor Eterno
Following the author's two previous collections, El Milagro and Days of Plenty, Days of Want, and written in the bilingual idiom of the Southwest, this is a volume of 11 charmingly simple, imagistic stories about several varieties of love: the desperate love of a mother for her son away at war; the love that refuses to fight when a relationship is abused but that takes a delicate revenge; the aching of young loves separated by time and distance; the love of a woman who writes letters to her long-dead husband; the loving prayers of old women for the characters of a telenovela whose lives seem so turbulent. There is a sweet (not saccharine) depth of feeling here, matched by the author's depth of cultural wisdom. Bits of regional lore are sprinkled throughout--like the very precise instructions for making a petition to a local saint (actually a young lover killed by a jealous husband a century before) or the recipe for a lovers' breath freshener. Poems, letters, promesas left on altars and verses of songs are interwoven with the stories to create an earthy yet innocent celebration of romantic longing. (Mar.)Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.