- Hardcover: 1376 pages
- Publisher: Random House Canada (Sep 14 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679310886
- ISBN-13: 978-0679310884
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 18.3 x 6.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 2 Kg
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #427,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
A nearly 1,500-page novel that was 12 years in the making deserves consideration, even though in this instance, its complex central story could have been told in 500 pages. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz died of the plague in Mexico in 1695, and for the next two centuries her work was rarely referenced or read. Her poems, confessions and life story were rediscovered in the 20th century, most notably by Mexican poet Octavio Paz. In Anderson's elephantine debut novel, Sor Juana's story is told through the testimony of her "secretary," Antonia Mora (her intellectual equal), Carlos Sigüenza y Gongora (a rival and a suitor), her confessor, Father Núñez (an enemy), and Sor Juana herself. We follow her fortunes from her illegitimate birth, through her inability to find success as a poet and scholar (due both to her gender and the authoritarian nature of colonial Mexican society), her taking of the veil and-finally-her downfall. As if distrusting his material, however, Anderson encloses Sor Juana's story within a contemporary tale focused on Beulah Limosneros, a brilliant but unstable student of Sor Juana's writing who begins an affair with Donald Gregory, her married English professor. With Gregory, Beulah re-enacts the scorned woman role à la Fatal Attraction with a passive-aggressive twist. Beulah keeps a journal that is a mixture of sophomoric beat poetry and mystical descriptions of sex. She is the embodiment of present day angst: there are food issues, childhood abuse, low self-esteem. There are hundreds too many pages of her interior life. The conjunction of Limosneros's story and Sor Juana's is mutually weakening. Still, the central narration is definitely worth following, particularly for its version of the inevitable conflict between beauty, intellect and government power. Unfortunately, the framing story is ludicrous; this is no Pale Fire. Sor Juana's translated verse doesn't jump out (despite some translations by Paz), but her confession does, as does the way Anderson conveys the gradual closing in of forces beyond her control, reminiscent of Akhmatova's confrontations with Stalin.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Talk about irony: a sojourn in Mexico writing short stories prompted Canadian writer Anderson to render one of the longest books in recent memory. Twelve years in the making, this dizzying debut is more than a magnum opus; it's a mega-magnum opus. Lyrical, provocative, and painstakingly detailed, the novel follows the lives of two child prodigies separated by three centuries: real-life seventeenth-century poet Juana Ines de la Cruz, who entered a convent at age 19 and later took a vow of silence, and fictional Canadian Beulah Limosneros, a moody, modern-day scholar singularly obsessed with the nun's tragic life. Ranging from excerpts from Sor Juana's luminous verse to Beulah's complex relationship with her shadowy, seductive professor, Anderson's narrative revolves around the question, "Why would a genius withdraw from the world?" Blending history, mystery, and theology, Anderson simultaneously ponders and honors the life of a little-known poet who inspired the likes of Robert Graves, Diane Ackerman, and Octavio Paz. It takes a special breed of reader to brave this book: one with steely determination and strong arms, too (Anderson's Canadian publisher joked about selling a lectern or reading table along with the tome). Alas, even the most devoted bibliophiles will wonder if the subject matter of this never-ending story warrants its mind-numbing length. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book For A Long Winter's Read (at 1,376 pages), Aug 24 2005
By C. Hutton "book maven" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Hunger's Brides: A Novel of the Baroque (Hardcover)
Paul Anderson has created an encyclopedia of an epic read about a Mexican nun/poetess of the late 1600's and her obsessive contemporary researcher. Weighing in at nearly 5 pounds, this novel is more reminiscent of the old social conscience potboilers of the 1800's by Victor Hugo (like "Les Miserables") and Leo Tolstoy (like "War and Peace") who would add informative lengthy observations on topics which did not advance the plot."Hunger's Bride" is a debut novel for Mr. Anderson who shows off his considerable writing skills with various points of view and literary devices. The cultural times and history of the female characters are drawn extensively. Though the book could have been edited downward to 1,000 pages easily, his publishers evidently are making a virtue of its length for marketing purposes.
Still, the revolving stories between the cultural oppression facing Sor Juana de la Cruz in her frontier society and that facing Beulah Limosneros in our society keeps the story moving. The reader should be aware that this is not a beach book but a tale that demands the full attention of the reader. Having said that, this novel is one to be savored over several weeks -- think of it as a literary mini-series.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful writing, brilliant heroine, Sep 9 2005
By A. Prentice - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Hunger's Brides: A Novel of the Baroque (Hardcover)
Perhaps Anderson should have followed Proust's example and published this many-layered novel filled with history and poetry in several volumes. Paul Scott's Ray Quartet is another example. Actually, it's somewhat reminiscent of A.S. Byatt's Possession; I think if you loved that book you will like Hunger's Brides. Anyway, the writing in this book will take your breath away, and the heroine is wonderful and her voices true. A book to curl up with - maybe throught the winter!
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too much, Oct 16 2005
By Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Hunger's Brides: A Novel of the Baroque (Hardcover)
This book is beautifully written, recounts the life of one of the most fascinating people in the history of the western hemisphere, and contains fine translations of her gloriously sensual poetry-so why is it so hard to get through? Comparisons are being made to Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy" which runs a similar length, but heft is all the novels have in common. Where everything in Seth's book moved the story ahead or planted seeds that would later be reaped, "Hunger's Brides" spends a lot of time on everything. There's a parallel modern story line that could have been deleted altogether, and in fact, Sor Juana's story could have been told with half the length and twice the power if Paul Anderson had had a tough editor who made him cut, cut, cut.But I suspect that both Anderson and the editor fell under Sor Juana's spell and could not bear to pare much from her extraordinary life. The illegitimate daughter of a 17th century Mexican rancher, she was a genius with a mind that today still defies explanation. Her wit, intelligence, and writings lead the Viceroy to demand the teenage Juana's presence at court in Mexico City. After only a few years at court, she left to enter one of the most restrictive convents in the city where she felt she would not be distracted from writing. Her beauty and brilliance made her convent cell a popular meeting place for the intelligencia (these things were allowed in those days), but between visits she wrote quite unchaste poetry that took the world by storm. Then, suddenly, she stopped, never to write again.
I like another reviewer's suggestion that the novel be broken up into volumes. Volume one could have been her childhood in the country, her discovery of the life of the mind, the invitation to court. The next, court life, her burgeoning celebrity, and her decision to enter the convent. The last, the full flowering of her genius and the Inquisition. Anderson has enough rich material for three satisfying novels in this one book. But putting them all together and adding that subplot make what could have been a remarkable achievement just too much to plow through.
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